In April 2022, shortly after Borodyanка was liberated from occupiers, volunteers entered the local municipal shelter and found 485 dogs locked in enclosures without food or water for a month. 222 of them did not survive. The shelter management did not evacuate the animals and refused offers from animal protection organizations that had proposed doing so in advance.
Three years later, Borodyanка remains a city where animal defenders literally started from scratch. The public organization "VARTI" is one of those that continues to maintain an animal care facility and search for owners for local stray dogs. Currently in their care is a red mixed-breed dog named Rudi.
"She is not fussy or intrusive — she will simply sit quietly beside you, wait for you to come home from work and rejoice at any attention. She needs her own home and her own person forever."
— VARTI volunteers
Rudi is medium-sized, calm, and gentle. In shelters, such dogs are called "invisible": without a striking breed, without impressive video content, without a viral story. These are the ones that wait the longest.
Why this matters right now
According to the municipal shelter KP "Kyiv City Veterinary Medicine Hospital" in Borodyanка, approximately a quarter of all residents are former household pets abandoned due to war, relocation, or financial difficulties. In other words, every fourth animal there already knew what a home was like — and lost it.
VARTI volunteers are seeking not temporary care for Rudi, but a permanent family. Contact information is available through the organization's page.
If the number of displaced people after the deoccupation of Kyiv region does not return to pre-war levels — will local volunteers have enough resources to maintain a care facility for animals like Rudi without systematic municipal support?
