Two years ago, war broke out in Ukraine. As its citizens fled, many animals were left behind. But they were not abandoned completely.
Words and photos byMICHAL SIAREK
Inside a dimly lit room at Poznań Zoo, Poland, two men pry open a makeshift wooden crate. As the lid pops, a tiger cub springs out, all claws and fangs. It has endured a three-day transit by truck with no food or water, and is starving and stressed.
The cub has not arrived at the zoo alone; various other containers are still in a truck outside. While their occupants await release, staff use tweezers to pass small items of food through roughly drilled breathing holes and between bars.
It’s 3rd March 2022, day seven of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Being unboxed before me is an extraordinary menagerie of animals: six tigers, four lions, two caracals, an African wild dog, a capuchin and even a stray cat. All have been rescued from war-torn Kyiv and brought to the safety of Poznań Zoo.
The last individual to be released is Kaja, a 16-year-old circus tigress. She is gently carried into an enclosure and laid on some hay. Blind and declawed, she starts slowly licking and gnawing her paws, quietly vocalising. I feel a heaviness in the pit of my stomach, but that Kaja has even made it to Poznań alive is nothing short of remarkable.
Several days earlier, while working at the Poland-Ukraine border as a fixer, assisting other journalists in the field, I had heard a rumour that a number of big cats were heading our way, evacuees from Kyiv Zoo that were being transported to Poland. But these were not zoo animals. They were individuals from private collections, acquired via a black-market trade in exotic pets that is rife in Ukraine, and left behind as their owners fled the war.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a human tragedy, but also an animal tragedy. Thousands of animals – pets and livestock, but also those housed in zoos, private houses, circuses, shelters and vet clinics across the country, have been caught up in the conflict, forcefully separated from their owners or simply abandoned. Yet a great effort is being carried out by people across the country to save them.
Playing a major role in this operation are two incredibly determined women who have teamed up across the Poland-Ukraine border. On the Polish side is Ewa Zgrabczyńska, director of Poznań Zoo and renowned for combatting the illegal trafficking
