URGENT! “We need everything!” our partner in Ukraine just told us! Situation on the ground is WORSENING BY THE MINUTE!

Our partner, a small Polish animal shelter called Dolnośląski Inspektorat Ochrony Zwierząt (DIOZ) is conducting an extraordinary rescue operation for Ukraine’s war refugee animals. We need your help to support their life-saving (and extremely dangerous) work!

Twenty-four hours a day, the DIOZ team travels 370 miles (600 kilometers) to and from the Polish border with Ukraine to deliver critically-needed food and medical supplies and then bring back terrified, starving and homeless refugee animals who have lost everything in the war.

So far, 400 war animals have been evacuated to safety by DIOZ. But it DESPERATELY NEEDS FUNDS FOR FUEL so it can save even more - before its tanks run completely dry.

DIOZ uses five vehicles that constantly make the arduous journey to Ukraine and have so far rescued more than 400 dogs and cats and taken them to safety in Poland. Once on Polish soil, the animals are vet-checked and then either taken to DIOZ’s Jelenia Gora shelter near the German/Czech Republic border or taken to other shelters.

The work DIOZ does is selfless and essential for saving the lives of Ukraine’s abandoned animals. The problem is DIOZ only has one vehicle and rents the other five, plus each trip costs $260 (£200) in petrol. It is spending $2,600 (£2,000) a week on fuel - never mind the car rental costs. DIOZ have turned to us for help in paying its enormous gas (fuel) and car hire bills.  

You are probably wondering why the animals have to travel such a long way to safety. The answer is simple: all the Polish shelters are either full or almost full, so DIOZ has to travel further into Poland all the time to find space for the rescued Ukrainian animals.

Very few people are willing to spend hundreds of hours a week driving in and out of a war zone to rescue animals; we are proud to work with our partner DIOZ.

We promised we would turn to our supporters and ask for your help in keeping DIOZ on the road, and that is what we are doing right now. Please donate to this enormously worthwhile cause. As you read this, a DIOZ vehicle is in Ukraine evacuating traumatized and injured animals. Please help us make sure the team doesn’t run out of gas!

If the DIOZ convoy grinds to a halt, there might be NO WAY to get more animals out of Ukraine. Your donation is a way to give abandoned, frightened hungry cats and dogs a lifeline.

Now for some good news…

Your support has enabled us to buy another animal ambulance - this one is for hero vet, Dr. Pavlina Harasym, who lives in Ukraine and is saving animals on foot because she has no vehicle. She will have one soon. As you read this, our team is purchasing the vehicle and DIOZ has volunteered to drive it to her in the war zone. (We told you they are selfless.)

When we asked DIOZ what more we could to help, the reply was:
“We need everything!”

Our team is on the ground doing everything we can to provide “everything”, but it’s impossible to do so without your support. Please donate if you possibly can - you will help keep hope alive for animals in a war where, to them, all that happens is no food and a daily ration of death.

We MUST fill DIOZ’s fuel tanks, and we MUST GET THE ANIMALS OUT OF UKRAINE! Time is NOT on our side!

We receive constant updates from our partners in Poland and Ukraine who you are helping to support in this worsening crisis for animals. One thing is clear: there is not a second to waste, and time is slipping away.

• ADA Foundation is returning to Lviv today to deliver desperately-needed pet food and supplies to the struggling shelters in the area and pick up rescued animals and take them to safety.
• Svetlana and Irina, two guardian members of Anzhela Sheveleva’s Animal Guardian Program in Zaporizhzhia, are now sheltering 100 animals in their apartment. They are always in dire need of funds for food to feed these animals and those still on the streets.
• Ecoprotection of Starokostyantyniv (EPS) continues to be inundated with requests to rescue abandoned animals.
• Vetmarket Pluriton is helping the animals of Brovary in the besieged Kyiv Outblast region. This is a dangerous route and will prove most difficult to support; however, Vetmarket has already ordered food and is planning a way to get it to the animals as quickly as possible.

We simply cannot stop now. The need is so great and getting greater every day as the situation only worsens for animals. We work 24/7 to help because there is not a second to waste. Please stay by our side. Please support our efforts because it’s your help that allows us to help animals. Ukraine’s animals are grateful for every penny, every dollar, every pound.

For the animals,

Brian and Gloria Davies (and Max and Flora!)
Founders
Network for Animals

P.S. With DIOZ’s fuel tanks running dry, animals are waiting desperately at the Ukraine border to be rescued. We don’t know how much longer it has left before the team’s safety is once again in jeopardy as the Russians draw ever nearer. Please donate now so we can keep the DIOZ convoy back on the road.

Banner:Reuters_Peter Thomas, Image 1: AP Photo/ Vadim Ghirda, Image 2: Alex Lourie, Image 3: BBC_Getty images, Image 4: Aris Messinis_AFP_Getty Images, Image 5: Vogue Ukraine