NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a mind-blowing effort from a man who has become a hero. From a man who it seems to have found his true purpose in life; to save the abandoned vulnerable animals of Ukraine during this terrible war. He operates in Irpin. Alexei Surovtsev is a reality star and a three-time striptease champion, believe it or not; quite frivolous occupations but what he is doing now is at the opposite end of the spectrum to frivolous. It is deadly serious. It is life-and-death and it is about companion animals.
Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which stops it working here. I have no control over this.
Mail Online reports that he returns to the town where his home has been destroyed by Russian shelling looking to save abandon cats and he has achieved this numerous times. They say he saves up to 30 cats a day. He has recorded some of his rescues on social media.
And as a consequence, he has become a hero. In his social media videos, he is seen driving through a devastated landscape of burnt out and destroyed cars lining the road and of the ruins of homes.
He is seen entering some of these homes to search for abandoned companion animals. He tries to venture out every day. After he has rescued the animals, he usually gives them to their owners or their acquaintances, it is reported. He says that they then send them to other cities or even countries. I’m not sure how he manages to find the owners if they have evacuated but he’s probably very good at it.
He admits that it is dangerous, hard and scary but he is driven by the thought of the frightened animals. In the war zones of Ukraine at the moment, there are two types of domestic cat: those that have been evacuated with their refugee owners under great difficulties. And then there are those that have for a number of reasons been left behind to fend for themselves. We don’t the circumstances. It is Alexei Surovtsev who is picking up the pieces for these cats and their owners. He’s going back into a shelled-out place which entails great risk to himself. It is wonderful to see this sort of commitment to animal welfare. Well-done to him.
