A retiree from West Vancouver is assisting war-torn Ukraine with their dogs.
West Vancouver resident Dan Fine has SPent the last serval weeks helping animals resued from war-torn Ukraine
Dan Fine, a retired West Vancouver IT professional, has been working for the past three weeks at a small animal sanctuary in Poland that rescues and cares for dogs and cats who were abandoned when their owners left the Ukraine war.
They were instructed to leave their belongings. You can't bring your pet on the train or the bus, Fine explained.
Russian strikes severely damaged some of the animals left to fend for themselves on the streets.
These dogs are losing limbs as you walk them from the hospital, Fine explained. We're dealing with creatures whose spines are paralyzed. Paulo, what about this one dog? There are eight bullets.
Teams of volunteers are travelling into bombed-out areas in search of injured animals.
It's difficult because we can only bring back so many people. We don't have these massive organizations that go in and build up these processes like people do, Fine said, adding that dogs without physical wounds are often mentally scarred.
When I work with these dogs, I can see their PTSD. They're gnawing on their tails, rotating in their cage, standing and shaking, Fine explained. What happened to them is really awful.
The Ukrainian War Animals Relief Fund was established by the 63-year-old retiree. He's using a GoFundMe page to gather funds from Shannon Paterson while a lawyer in Vancouver works on registering the organization as a non-profit.
Pet food, transportation, and medical supplies are the most pressing need.
We have to keep those creatures alive until the war is over and people may claim them. We also need to create a multi-language internet database so that they can find those dogs and either reconnect with them or adopt them out, Fine said.
The battle is drawing nearer as volunteers tend to the injured and abandoned pets.
You can hear the bombs now, Fine added, "something I hadn't heard before.They aren't just going after underground silos or airplane hangers; they are also coming after average folks. Which is very appalling.
While the labor can be dangerous, he and other volunteers in Poland and Ukraine are unfazed.
You feel excited when you make progress with these dogs and they have fun and trust you, he said. They come over and embrace you.However, it's very sad.
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