At midnight on Saturday, March 27, three members of PETA Germany and four volunteers are sitting at the table in their accommodation, about forty kilometers from the Médyka border post in Poland. They are concerting around their plates to find a new way to bring injured Ukrainian animals further west to Europe.
“Passing through the Ukrainian side is not difficult, it is just long, it can take from one to six hours. On the other hand, Polish customs officials don’t like to see dozens of cages. They believe the animals are being brought back to Germany to be sold on the black market. And they’re afraid that they won’t be vaccinated against rabies,” explains Max, who has made about twenty round trips since the group settled in Poland.
Monic, center, prepares a plan so everyone on the team understands their role and where to go. | Jean-Baptiste Bornier / DR Collective
A few hours earlier they had tried to get to Lviv, sixty kilometers from the border. Monic, Timothée and Maxime had to turn around just a few dozen minutes from town. “Our local contacts warned us that Lviv was being bombed by the Russians,” sighs Timothée. In fact, Vladimir Putin aimed at a fuel depot east of the city, injuring five. A new attempt will take place the next day, the team will have to take care of almost thirty dogs and fifteen cats. In the meantime, everyone eats their plate, which Yann, one of the property management volunteers, prepared before going to bed. A big day awaits them the next day.
Across Eastern Europe
On Sunday, like every day, the alarm clock rings at 7:30 a.m., everyone has breakfast and prepares their food for the day: “We know when we’re going, but never when we’re going to come back,” emphasizes Monic. In his right hand, the plan drawn up the night before indicates each team’s mission. So the goal today is to go through the Médyka border post and evacuate the animals 15 kilometers away in a wasteland “to avoid any trouble with the army,” adds Monic. Two members of the Ukrainian association Animal Rescue Kharkiv bring the animals to PETA members.
The association benefits from a storage area for feed and cages in Przemysl. Timothée loads boxes for the dogs. | Jean-Baptiste Bornier / DR Collective
It takes about an hour to cross the border. Arriving at the meeting point, the members of the Ukrainian club, Yarina and Oskar, are already there. Impossible to miss, the dogs bark at death: “Some were in shelters, under the bombings in Kyiv and Kharkiv. Some of them are burned, others are simply traumatized by the violence of the fighting,” Yarina sighs.
The smell also picks up the throat. It took the duo several hours to get here with the dogs and cats, with the latter being in their feces most of the time. “We have no choice, we can’t help it. It’s hard to see, but you have to tell yourself that afterward they’re safe and taken care of,” she says. “You can drive up to 48 hours in a few days. It’s traumatic for them, but not as much as the bombings. It’s a small price I’m willing to pay for their comfort,” explains Yarina.
A burned dog after a bomb attack in Kyiv. | Jean-Baptiste Bornier
It takes just over an hour and a half to put each animal in a different clean box and then get them all into the cars. It is 2 p.m. when the three-vehicle convoy sets off along the Ukrainian border towards a border post in Romania. “We have an influential contact in Romania who called the station to let us through,” notes Yarina. Otherwise we would never have made it with so many animals.”
The roads are in bad condition. For ten kilometers you need almost forty-five minutes in places. “We can’t afford to drive fast with all those beasts behind us,” comments Yarina. The small group therefore traverses Romania, Hungary and finally Slovakia before returning to Poland. It took almost fifteen hours by road to return to Médyka, while it would have taken only two hours via the Ukraine/Poland border post. Everyone took turns driving, just for a few breaks, time to eat, and about ten minutes to rest. But once there, tiredness and tension give way to joy. Everyone is happy to be able to complete the mission.
Three vehicles are required to transport the animals. Each was placed in a clean cage for minimal comfort. | Jean-Baptiste Bornier / DR Collective
It’s 9am when three members of the Lithuanian association LionHeart arrive to take care of the animals and take them to their shelter. “When we get there, we treat them, take care of them and find them new families,” explains Ingrè, director of the association. Nine more hours on the road are still waiting for the animals that have arrived from the heart of Ukraine, but they are traveling in larger and, above all, clean crates. Everyone can do whatever they want for the rest of the day: mostly showers and a siesta before the evening meeting to plan the operations for the next few days. “We have to get as much done as possible by Saturday as we all return to Germany on Sunday. In one month we rescued almost 1,000 dogs and cats,” smiles Monic.
The sirens are wailing
On Tuesday, March 29th, the mission promises to be relatively easy. Travel back and forth between Medyka and Lviv to collect seven cats. The team arrives in one of the southern parts of the city around 3 p.m. The cats are in a basement. It was Yustina, a young Ukrainian woman, who decided to help them by welcoming them. Barely a few minutes after PETA members arrive, the bombing warning sirens sound. “Everything was missing,” Youstina sighs as she tries to find a hidden cat. Finally, in a few minutes, the seven cats will be put into the cars and the convoy will depart. “We will try a new border post further north from Prezmysl and Médyka,” explains Yan.
It takes an hour and a half to get there. Once there, the stress is present, but the first car drives by. The second, containing only three cats, is blocked. “The problem is that the passports are in the names of the Ukrainian owners and since we’re Germans, it doesn’t work.” At the border, decisions are made quite haphazardly. One car can pass, but not the second. So Max and Marie have to turn back to try to cross another border post. You have to drive all night, turn around in Lviv, find a hotel. The next day they gave the cats to Ukrainian refugees. The latter could cross the border and then return the cats to Poland.
“An oasis of calm”
If they are not taken in by another association, the cats and dogs in Poland are cared for in a clinic and then taken to animal shelters. Joanna decided to start one of her own a few kilometers from Przemysl: “A little haven of peace where we take care of these poor animals.” Almost 120 dogs and 60 cats are taken in before they find a new family. “I meet interested people and go to their homes to make sure the animals have a good life,” says Joanna.
Joanna, owner of the shelter, employed 12 staff to care for the animals and make arrangements. | Jean-Baptiste Bornier / DR Collective
“This is the largest operation PETA has ever organized in Europe,” said Dan, the man behind the small group’s overall logistical and operational organization. He was the one who put everything in place, found the housing, the cars, and the storage locations for the cages and food. “But since it is becoming increasingly difficult to cross the Polish border with animals, we have to go,” he regrets. The majority of the members of the group therefore returned to Germany, while another assignment took place in Hungary, where the rescue of the animals can be better organized.