Fears that starving Russian soldiers are eating abandoned cats and dogs

NEWS AND COMMENT-UKRAINE – RUSSIAN INVASION: Anybody following the Russian invasion of Ukraine will have picked up on the fact that Russian soldiers were told that the invasion would be a cakewalk (if they were told at all) and that they would be in Kyiv (Kiev), the capital of Ukraine, within three days because Russian intelligence informed Putin and his cronies that the citizens of Ukraine would by-and-large welcome the Russian invasion. A large percentage of Ukrainians are of Russian descent. But they want democracy and they don’t want Putin as their dictator.

Starving dogs are eating dead Russians and living Russians are killing and eating dogs. The work of Putin in his ivory tower. – MikeB

The intelligence information provided to Putin was entirely incorrect. He’s sacked some top officials as a consequence. The invasion as we all know has gone wrong for Putin and is now a month in and reports are emerging that Russia is losing the war. It is unsurprising, therefore, that Russian troops can no longer feed themselves. They were given 3 days rations according to earlier reports.

Russian troops have been starving and struggling to find food for several weeks according to news media. It is highly demotivating, hence low morale among Russian fighters. And it has led to Russian soldiers asking Ukrainian citizens for food or raiding supermarkets. There was a photo of a Ukrainian woman giving a warm drink and food to a Russian squaddie while telling him to go home (see photo above).

In fact, they need to find food any way possible. The headline today in the Daily Mirror is that there are fears that Russian soldiers are eating abandoned cats and dogs which has sparked a pet rescue effort. We don’t know for sure that this is happening but it sounds entirely plausible.

There is a huge rescue effort underway to take thousands of pets out of Ukraine into safe havens bordering the country e.g. in Poland, Moldova, Hungary. In addition to the vulnerable abandoned cats and dogs there are those that are in Ukrainian animal shelters. These are in danger as well. The animals need to be evacuated. Many animals have indeed been evacuated with their owners. We’ve seen this all over the news media. They are the lucky ones. Shelters are also at risk of being shelled. A horse stables was destroyed with horses near Kyiv.

Cats and dogs without owners at the time of the invasion are highly vulnerable because they are left to their own devices, abandoned or are at rescue centres waiting further rescue.

A disaster response expert from America, Kelly Donithan, is in Poland and she says that a lot of people can’t transport their animals so they’re doing what they can to help. She said: “We know a lot of animals are in a desperate situation, especially in eastern Ukraine”. Mariupol is destroyed for instance.

Two veterinarians in Odessa have refused to leave the city and are working round the clock to rescue animals trapped in homes. These are instances when the owner has abandoned their companion animal in their apartments and houses. And sometimes rescuers have to break down the door to get to the animal to rescue them.

Leonid Stoynov, 36, and wife Valentina, 28, have almost 100 animals including 30 dogs, cats, lizards and rabbits and other animals. They say that they bash down doors because animals’ owners contact them to rescue their pets. When they’ve been rescued, they photograph them and message them to tell them that they are safe.

It is against this dire and terrifying background that it is plausible to fear that starving Russian soldiers are indeed killing and eating people’s pets.

P.S. Ironically there are still many countries where cat meat is acceptable. At least 10. China is the main protagonist.

Below are some more Ukraine invasion stories.