RANCHO SANTA FE — The Helen Woodward Animal Center, along with supporters and friends, has helped raise over $356,000 to assist with orphan and displaced pets in need since the war in Ukraine began.
The center is now pledging another $35,000 and is seeking matching funds from the community to support flood relief efforts following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine earlier this month. Agricultural land and dozens of villages have flooded, forcing thousands of people and their pets to evacuate their homes.
“Unfortunately, last week, we received desperate news about the flooding,” said Renee Resko, the center’s vice president of development. “Homes and shelters are underwater and flooded roads are making rescue trips extremely difficult if not impossible. The photos of orphan animals clinging to the sides of buildings are devastating. We knew we had to do something.”
President and CEO Mike Arms hopes that the community will once again come forward to make a difference.
“I want to make sure that donors understand that 100% of everything received is sent directly to support the Ukrainian animal crisis,” Arms explained. “The center even covers the cost of bank fees charged in the wiring of funds so that animal-lovers donating can rest assured that their money is being utilized to ensure the rescue of pets in need.”
Funds raised will directly support Happy Paw, the Ukrainian organization leading the effort to create temporary shelters for animals evacuated from flooded shelters. Supplies such as food, medications and vaccines lost in the flood will also be replenished.
In February 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014. The largest conventional military attack on a sovereign state in Europe since World War II, millions of Ukrainian citizens fled their homes with only their most precious possessions, including their beloved pets.
For nearly two years, pets have been lost in the scramble to escape the war-torn country. Food, money and warmth have been in desperate short supply, and Ukrainian shelters have faced destruction, violence and the killing of shelter volunteers who have stayed behind to care for orphan pets.
Last year, the Helen Woodward Animal Center pledged $50,000 to the Ukrainian animal welfare efforts with a heartfelt plea to local animal-lovers to match the pledge. Famous center friends like academy award winning actress Diane Keaton and social media-famous kitten Smush shared the center’s campaign on social media with millions of followers. In a remarkedly short period of time, the animal-loving community had donated over $350,000, including the center’s original gift.
Working closely with UAnimals, a non-profit Ukrainian animal rights organization, the funding has provided food, medical supplies, blankets, kennels and other crucial needs in addition to a lifesaving transfer van that has transported orphan pets out of war-torn areas. Only a month ago, center donor and friend KayBella Cares assisted the center in supplying a second lifesaving transport van to these efforts.
To donate or for more information, visit www.animalcenter.org/UkraineFloodRelief, call 858-756-4117 or visit the center at 6461 El Apajo Road in Rancho Santa Fe.
