Arya News - A Russian drone strike on an animal shelter in Ukraine has killed 13 dogs and injured at least seven more.
A Russian drone strike on an animal shelter in Ukraine has killed 13 dogs and injured at least seven more.
Volunteers at the Give Me Your Paw, Friend shelter in Zaporizhzhia said that whole enclosures had been torn apart in the aerial assault on Friday, which also left one worker injured.
“Where we are standing right now, there used to be kennels,” volunteer Natalya Klymenko told local news outlet Suspilne as she surveyed the rubble. “One dog was found without a paw, it had been torn off.”
Rescuers use a blanket as they come to the aid of an injured dog - Kateryna Klochko/AP
Emergency services transported the dogs to veterinary clinics for treatment, but volunteers said some had run off in fright and it was not clear how they would be recovered.
Images showed volunteers fleeing with shell-shocked dogs in tow, swaddled in blankets and coats. Parts of the rubble were visibly stained with blood.
Many of the dogs housed in the shelter had been evacuated from front line and occupied territories by Ukraine’s military for their safety and had previously been wounded by shrapnel and bullets.
Bodies of killed dogs are wheeled away - Reuters
Polina, another shelter employee, told Suspilne: “It was the first time I had ever seen dog corpses. You know, I had only just made peace with this one dog. He had been aggressive, he would lunge at people, but this Tuesday we finally bonded.
“To see him and the others dead is incredibly hard… The stress is overwhelming.”
Irina Didur, the head of the shelter, said that five enclosures had been torn apart, 25 had been partially destroyed and seven animals were still undergoing surgery.
The shelter is thought to have housed 280 dogs, as well as hundreds of other animals including cats.
A distressed dog is wrapped in a blanket and carried away - Kateryna Klochko/AP
“Animals do not deserve to be killed. Neither in wartime nor in peacetime. They deserve to live in warmth and love,” Regina Kharchenko, the acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia, wrote on Telegram. “Fluffy clouds to all our four-legged friends killed by Russia.”
The strike on Friday morning was the latest in a series of attacks which have targeted shelters, zoos and other organisations housing animals throughout the war.
On Jan 2, a number of rare birds were killed and lions and tigers were wounded after Russia bombed the Feldman Ecopark zoo in Kharkiv, located just 12 miles from the front line.
A volunteer, a 40-year-old woman, was also admitted to hospital with head injuries.
A number of goats were also killed at the Ecopark in March 2025 when a Shahed drone struck the petting zoo housing domestic animals.
A bewildered dog in an enclosure. ‘The stress is overwhelming,’ one witness said - Kateryna Klochko/AP
In March 2022, the Russian army killed and barbecued 100 cows and calves on a farm in the Chernihiv region, according to the Ukrainian farmer who owned them. In the same region later that year, 45 cows were killed in a missile strike.
Some marine biologists also estimate that as many as 50,000 Black Sea dolphins may have been killed throughout the full-scale invasion by a combination of underwater mines and powerful sonar from Russian submarines.
Russians have been forced to use donkeys, horses and even camels for transport recently. Last October, Ukrainian troops rescued a Bactrian camel after they found it wandering around near the front.
Last year, a beluga whale suspected of being trained by Russia to act as a spy was found dead in Norwegian waters.
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