NEWS AND COMMENT: Putin is rapidly catching up with Hitler as the world’s worst mass murderer. The destruction and devastation in Ukraine is nothing short of horrendous and is being conducted callously and mercilessly at the behest of one madman: Putin. He’s got nukes and that scares the sh*t out of the West. The politicians are walking on eggshells.
And we getting reports, now, of animal shelters being bombed and shelled. For example, a Facebook posting by the Network for Animals about a week ago states that the position in Ukraine for animals is getting worse by the minute and “animal shelters are now being bombed”. The animals need to be evacuated. Countries are stepping up. Germany’s Animal Shelter Munich has offered help and you can see that in the posting below.
The Daily Express online has reported that a shelter in Pif in the Donetsk region was attacked by Russian soldiers result in the death of many dogs and cats. The IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) confirm that animal shelters have not escaped this conflict as had apparently happened in the past.
The Pif shelter were badly damaged after, as mentioned, an attack by Russian soldiers. There’s no rhyme or reason why they should have attacked an animal shelter. This looks like callous and merciless killing for the sake of it. I did read a report of Russian soldiers getting drunk because they were bored and then shooting up the place where they were killing a young girl inside her home.
Note: These are posts from FB which are ’embedded’ here. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
It is also reported that the Holivka dog shelter, located in eastern Ukraine, was hit by a shell on February 27, killing one dog (express.co.uk). That shelter cares for 300 dogs. It was hit on February 27, 2022. It is located in Gorlovka in eastern Ukraine.
James Sawyer the regional director of IFAW state that they are already supporting three animal shelters in Ukraine and are now desperately trying to support the 1,100 dogs living in the war zone. They are suffering from dwindling supplies and very poor access to medical care.
It seems that the shelters mentioned above are the two main shelters which are according to this charity “faced a barrage of missiles, which has killed many dogs and cats”.
A shelter worker said that they were too afraid to cook food for the dogs because the fire could draw attention to the shelter. They are looking for a supply of dry food as an alternative.
IFAW is working hard to provide support to three animal shelters to allow them to buy supplies of food and medicines. They are also working with a large number of groups to help huge numbers of displaced animals in Poland and Romania. They predict a big increase in stray dogs across Ukraine as people flee while abandoning their companion animals.
They also report that there are groups of people setting up pop-up animal shelters to help alleviate animal suffering in this callous crime. It is beyond belief. And we are only on day 12. It can only deteriorate. There will be incredible suffering by people and animals for months and perhaps years ahead. This will end badly because Putin cannot and will not back down because he is too arrogant with an inflated self-worth. He can’t lose face.
Why is this country and the world at the mercy of one deranged person? Why do we allow it? Ans: we are scared of him because we believe that he could push the button.
Below are some more stories from the Ukraine invasion.
