09/09/2019
Dogspotting in Chernobyl & Pripyat ☢️🐕🏚🛤🏭🍁..
Within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, there remains a small population of native stray dogs. The smartest ones, as my tour guide told me, stay close to the canteen! 🍖 These dogs are descendants of those who were abandoned after their families were forbade from brining potentially contaminated pets with them during the evacuation which followed the nuclear disaster. One of the things which struck me when reading Chernobyl Prayer, a harrowing psychobiography of this historic event, was the stories chronicling the experiences and sufferings of non-human animals, particularly household pets. The book tells us of “dogs howling, trying to get on the buses. Mongrels, alsatians. The soldiers were pushing them out again, kicking them. They ran after the buses for ages.” Devastated families resorted to vain attempts at smuggling cats and dogs along with them; pinning notes to their front doors: “Don’t kill our Zhulka. She’s a good dog.” There was no mercy shown to these poor, innocent creatures. Squads of liquidators were sent in to shoot the animals in order to prevent the further spread of radiation: “They were excited to see us, came running to a human voice...they couldn’t understand why we were killing them”. But some inevitably survived this culling and were able to reproduce unchecked. Unfortunately though, many of the strays carry increased levels of radiation in their fur and are forced to endure hostile Ukrainian winters, as well as food scarcity. These factors combined means that most of these dogs, some of whom I met today, will sadly die before the age of six. For the past few years, a non-profit organisation has been helping solve this problem. Clean Futures Fund visits Chernobyl to spay, neuter, and vaccinate stray dogs, protecting them from rabies and ensuring that fewer puppies are born and subjected to this harsh existence. There is a silver lining, however, some of the dogs are used for scientific research; fitted with Geiger counter collars, they can help nuclear physicists chart radiation levels. Indeed, Chernobyl puppies tend not be radioactive and so can be adopted through specialised charities🤗 @ Pripyat, Ukraine