The U-Hearts Foundation is a non-profit charity organization that aims to help pet shelters and animal volunteers. Every day we hear so many stories about people who actively help homeless pets. Our hearts are filled with pride as we realize that there are so many enthusiastic humans who contribute to animal welfare, making their best efforts. Therefore, we also try to help pet shelters and other animal charity organizations.
Today we would firmly like to share 3 heartwarming stories with you. They are about brave and kind-hearted animal volunteers who daily sacrifice their time, force, and energy to help homeless pets.
1. A veterinarian who aims to help stray dogs and cats – Olha Boiko
Veterinarians are the ones giving the most crucial help to pets in Ukraine as they save their lives.
Olha Boiko works with a non-profit organization called @worldwidevets. The U-Hearts Foundation team previously had an opportunity to collaborate with Olha in 2023 on the subject of sterilizing pets.
For the past month and a half, she has been working in the city of Kherson, providing free aid systematically every day. During this time, Olha has performed 450 surgeries (sterilizations, tumor removals, and various treatments of wounds after bombings) and 17 consultations and treatments. The pets were vaccinated against rabies and treated for fleas. Each furry pet received a mark (which reminds of a tattoo), on their ear, indicating they’d been sterilized.
Olha also worked outside Kherson, in the villages of Darivka and Mykilske, at public veterinary hospitals. There, she performed 18 surgeries for pets and conducted 7 consultations; all furry friends were vaccinated against rabies and treated for fleas.
The U-Hearts Foundation provided vaccines, medicines, drops, tablets for helminths, and treatments to @worldwidevets.
“We actively used everything we received from U-Hearts or other volunteers in our work and gave to people. Recently, I gave drops and tablets for helminths to a grandmother who has 3 dogs in her apartment and feeds around 5 strays,” says Olha.
It’s not a secret that being a veterinarian requires a lot of patience and inner strength. We highly appreciate this work and try to do everything possible to provide veterinarians with all the resources that are needed.
2. Olha Zaitseva, the founder of ELEFOND, who does her best to help homeless pets
Here is one more truly heartwarming #petstory 👇🏻
Olha Zaitseva is the founder of the ELEFOND charitable foundation. She is from Dnipro. Olha’s work is intertwined with the evacuation of people and pets from the hottest war zones in Ukraine. The U-Hearts Foundation team was able to help pet shelters and provide Olha’s team with pet feed together with @greatergoodcharities!
Since February 26, 2022, Olha joined the central volunteer headquarters in Dnipro. In the early days of March, she and her team began evacuating people from front-line cities, villages, and so-called gray zones. They brought humanitarian aid to people and soldiers and, on the return journey, evacuated families and pets.
The most challenging evacuation site was Selydove.
“My first injury was in Selydove, now I can’t hear well in my left ear. On January 6, 2023, in Selydove, we tragically lost our foreign volunteers, Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry. It was the most difficult loss. Until the last hours in Selydove, I tried to find the boys, hoping they survived,” shares Olha.
Olha and Chris always took care of pets together and had plans to create a shelter, but unfortunately, they didn’t have enough time. In memory of a volunteer whose name is Christopher Parry, Olha has launched the “AnimalsParry” project.
“We currently make more and more efforts to also help stray cats and dogs by evacuating them from the entire front-line part of the Donetsk region. To continue evacuation, we need new enclosures, more space, and more territory. And that requires significant funds,” Olha says.
Summing up, you can support Olha and her team in the comments.
3. Iryna, a private entrepreneur from Kharkiv who makes her best efforts to help stray dogs and cats
Meet Iryna, a private entrepreneur from Kharkiv who works in the food industry. Iryna has a huge unconditional love for pets. In 2014, when the war started, her store became a shelter for many pets displaced by the war.
“We surely couldn’t turn them away, so we took them in and found new families for fluffies. I realized I couldn’t stay idly by,” says Iryna.
Despite facing several challenges with supplies, Iryna fed every pet she encountered, and also rescued furry ones from ruined buildings. In the first six months of the war, Iryna cared for 96 cats and over 30 dogs!
In 2014, Iryna found an abandoned Staffordshire Terrier (a girl) near a supermarket. Together with friends, they took her in. After three days, the friends decided to keep her. In 2022, at the beginning of the war, when Iryna was heading to her friends, a pet threw itself under her car’s wheels. Iryna quickly got out and discovered a badly injured Spitz. Due to curfew restrictions, Iryna couldn’t return home, so she asked her friends to take care of her furry friend. Eventually, they decided to welcome this little one into their family. They took care of the fluffy for a long time, and now it is doing well.
“What motivates me? I can’t witness someone else’s pain; I can’t stand idly by. It’s when you realize, if not you, then who?” says Iryna.
We’re incredibly proud of Iryna and her efforts to help homeless pets in Ukraine! 🇺🇦
Finally, the U-Hearts Foundation believes that it is necessary to use all possible chances to help pet shelters as they do their best to help stray cats and dogs day after day. Don’t be aloof, support our joint initiative!
