Before Russia invaded in 2022, Ukraine was already grappling with a high stray animal population. When 6.8 million people were forced to leave the country, over one million pets were left behind, and that population ballooned.
By the time veterinarian Colleen Lambo traveled to Ukraine in 2024, animal shelters across the country were overflowing, and Europe was on the brink of a rabies epidemic. But she took a note from the locals leading animal welfare efforts in the face of war.
“The Ukrainians we met were carrying on with their lives despite the war,” Lambo told Roo, the veterinary relief organization that funded her trip. “They were considerate, generous, and tolerant.”
Image via Adam Cohn (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In the city of Brody, Lambo grew particularly close to a family who ran an animal shelter out of their house. As a married couple, Oleg and Oksana, welcomed her in and fed her “endless pots of borscht and bread,” Lambo and her peers sterilized over 600 stray animals and tended to sick pets in the community.
Lambo estimates that she has helped over 1,000 animals amid the war in Ukraine — and she says that ongoing animal welfare efforts are a testament to local animal lovers like Oleg and Oksana.
“The most meaningful aspect of my work in Ukraine has been the gratitude we feel from the community,” Lambo told Nice News. “It feels like we’ve accomplished so little … but every person we’ve met has been so kind and so generous. Our work is a drop in a bucket, but no one has treated it as such.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the 2025 Dogs Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image via Adam Cohn (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
