K9 Rescue work with Local Communities across Eastern Europe and Ukraine

We run projects with local communities in Eastern Europe and Ukraine that support sustainable development for lasting change. Our projects range from spay/neuter programs, as well as advocating for improved animal welfare promoting biosecurity in animal shelters to eradicate disease and supporting rescuers and grass roots animal shelters assisting with food, medical aid, spay/neuter, and emergency care.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more than 200 million stray dogs worldwide with 50 million of those street dogs estimated in Central and Eastern Europe, with an estimated 1 million in Ukraine.   Studies have proved that the only humane method to effectively reduce stray populations is sterilization programs.

The spay/neuter calculation model, we recognize the social impact, where one unspayed cat or dog and their offspring could potentially produce over 11 million offspring over their lifetime. A small project sterilizing 125 animals per month, has the potential to save an astounding extrapolated 1 billion lives from being born into a life of misery, starvation, and suffering per month. We firmly believe that this approach is essential to alleviate the suffering of street animal populations and can save many more lives in comparison to traditional physical rescue methods.     

Through our partnerships and collaborations with local communities, we support initiatives that promote environmental sustainability – this includes projects such as reducing stray populations in urban and rural areas, through trap-neuter-return of the feral population and sterilization of domestic animals to both control the stray animal population and reduce the number of unwanted litters being born to unsterilised chain-dogs, which are then subsequently put to the streets, widely believed to be the true source of today’s strays, creating an unhealthy environment.

In 2022 we provided Emergency Aid and Disaster Relief assistance to the grass roots rescues in Ukraine, supplying food, medical supplies, and veterinary aid to the affected communities, both people and animals, as well as emergency evacuations of animals caught up in the war.  Since then, we have registered a Foundation in Ukraine to both continue this work and focus on sterilization projects.  Our planned project in Poltava region aims to sterilize 125 animals per month, with the extrapolated 1 billion lives saved per month being a realistic target.

Our long-term project to build a Biodiverse Eco-Shelter in Ukraine which is planned to be an environmentally sustainable, EU compliant, state-of-the-art, animal shelter, called a Freedom Shelter, is set to revolutionize, and radically reshape the way rescue animals are sheltered and rehomed. 

With heartfelt thanks to all of our Crowdfunders for becoming a part of our mission to alleviate animal suffering and create lasting change.