Vienna/Zaporizhzhia, 9 May 2025 – On 22 April a Russian bomb hit a civilian apartment building in the city of Zaporizhzhia, resulting in the tragic death of a woman and injuring several others. It's a miracle that her two pets – dog Kosmos and cat Nyusha – survived the attack. A team of local veterinarians took care of the animals and brought them to a nearby Charitable Clinic – a project run by global animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS together with Ukrainian Veterinary Medicine Foundation (UVMF) to support veterinary clinics in three areas most affected by war. Launched in 2024 the project would help provide much-needed veterinary care for pets and strays like sterilisations, rabies vaccinations and X-rays and many other treatments for free. Kosmos and Nyusha were lucky to be rescued and treated in time and both are on recovery road by now.

Charitable Clinics free of charge

The Charitable Clinics are situated across Ukraine in the cities Zaporizhzhia, Irpin and Nikopol. They serve in twofold ways. They provide much-needed veterinary care to stray animals and pets of local residents, as well as internally displaced people (IDPs) because of the war. The medical treatments include sterilisations, rabies vaccinations, microchipping (for pets) and anti-parasite treatments. Additionally, the clinics provide X-rays, blood and urine tests, ultrasounds and certain surgical and plastic procedures. All medical treatments are free of charge. By creating work opportunities for veterinarians and veterinary students, this collaboration project strengthens Ukraine’s veterinary capacity.

“This collaboration aims to help dogs and cats and assists Ukrainian citizens with mitigating their daily burdens, financially and emotionally. Pets provide an emotional support, especially for people who are alone. With our support, we are not only providing vital help for pets and stray animals but also supporting Ukrainian veterinarians and veterinary students to continue working albeit the atrocities of war.  We are very grateful to have UVMF as a collaboration partner on our side, to make sure that both strays and pets receive urgently needed veterinary care they deserve,” says Manuela Rowlings, Head of Stray Animal Care in Europe at FOUR PAWS.

FOUR PAWS animal welfare activities in Ukraine

FOUR PAWS started its stray animal care projects in Ukraine in 2012 and has been helping stray animals ever since. Since the outbreak of the war in 2022, FOUR PAWS has expanded its efforts to support animals in need through key initiatives, including mobile clinic services, stray cat projects in five regions and several collaboration initiatives. FOUR PAWS implements sustainable stray animal care programs through its catch-neuter-vaccinate-return (CNVR) method. CNVR helps control, manage and reduce stray populations in a sustainable and humane way. In total, close to 58,000 stray dogs and cats were successfully sterilised, vaccinated and received medical treatment.