Author: SPCAI Staff

The 2017 hurricane season ravaged the islands of Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Martin, among many other communities. Animal welfare organizations in these areas were left without power, food for their animals, stable shelter and proper refrigeration for medication and supplies.

Rebuilding after the hurricanes passed was difficult and expensive. SPCA International reached out to organizations located in these devastated communities to help them rebuild. In Puerto Rico and St. Martin, I Love My Island Dog, El Faro de los Animales, Island Dog Inc. and Amigos de Los Animales received over $50,000 in grants through our Disaster Relief Fund. These grants will help them reconstruct their shelters, provide urgent medical care, and acquire food and clean water for the animals in their care. 

SPCA International was also able to deliver many pallets of veterinary supply aid to St. Thomas Humane Society. These medical supplies will help them care for the animals in their shelter as they continue their life-saving work.

These grants and supply shipments would not have been possible without the support of our loyal donors. Because of them, we are able to help shelters affected by natural disasters continue their essential work for the animals in their communities.

In late 2017 SPCA International also provided Disaster Relief Fund grants to animal welfare organizations located in Florida and Texas in response to the devastation caused by the hurricane season.

There are over 900 stray dogs that roam the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and surrounding 30km area, known as the Exclusion Zone. These dogs are the descendants of pets left behind during the emergency evacuation that took place in April of 1986 after a reactor exploded spreading radioactive materials into the environment.

Decades later, the dogs living in the Exclusion Zone are in almost constant danger – starving, at risk of injury or attack by coexisting animals like wolves. Because the Chernobyl dogs are still radioactive, they are prohibited from being removed from the area.  But SPCA International and Clean Futures Fund (CFF) are trying to change that. Thanks to our joint efforts and the leadership of CFF’s founders, Lucas Hixson and Erik Kambarian, there is hope for these abandoned, beautiful creatures.  SPCAI has partnered up with CFF in a 3-year sterilization program in order to reduce the suffering of dogs in Chernobyl by providing veterinary care, vaccinations, feeding stations, radiation monitoring and hopefully an adoption program.  

In fact, co-founder Erik Kambarian and his family were excitedly preparing their home in the U.S. to welcome in one of the first ever adopted dogs of Chernobyl after the August 2017 Chernobyl spay and neuter clinic. Erik’s exact words were:  “I found a dog; rather she found me. I was at the tourist hotel in the town of Chernobyl getting water for the clinic and came upon an adolescent female dog.  She was docile, with a beautiful coat.  Since we were heading to the clinic I picked her up and got in the Soviet-era car for the short ride.  She calmly sat in my lap, as if she had been on many car rides, and rested her head on my arm like we had known each other for years.  I proudly brought her into the clinic, surprising our staff since I was not one of the dogcatchers.” She was tagged as dog #20, later renamed Elena, spayed and vaccinated, washed for surface contamination and was ready to come ‘home’. 

One month after Erik left in August, he asked one of their volunteers to find out how she was doing and make further plans for her arrival, but the volunteer was hesitant to tell him. Sadly, Elena had been hit by a car and killed, an all too common unfortunate reality for the strays of Chernobyl.  Even though Erik only got to hold her once, he still thinks about her and is even more driven to continue saving lives and working toward an adoption program in her honor. For now, both Erik and Lucas are hopeful that they will be given permission to bring home another dog on their next visit in April of 2018, a first step in demonstrating the safety of animal adoption from Chernobyl.

But make no mistake; the region is an especially challenging one to work in. The abandoned landscape, forest overgrowth combined with the environmental contamination provides a very unique and dangerous experience for the animals and our team.

Stay tuned for more updates in the next few months as preparations get underway for the Chernobyl spay and neuter next clinic scheduled for June of 2018.

by Stephanie Scott, SPCAI staff

For years I wondered why the season of giving is kicked off by a day called Black Friday. There is nothing merry or bright about spending hours in line just to elbow your way past your neighbors hoping you score the best deal. But six years ago, my dismay was eased by the launch of Giving Tuesday. Finally, there is a way to start your holiday season off right: by joining a crusade of philanthropists all giving to charity on the same day.

Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration. Its purpose is to celebrate and encourage giving. It is a new holiday tradition and a movement in its own right.

Join us to celebrate #GivingTuesday on November 28^th, 2017 by planning to include SPCA International in the gifts you make on that day. I hope you will plan to make donations to many of your favorite charities. If you start your holiday season with acts of generosity, you might just find this is the best holiday season yet. 

By Emma Koeniger, Content and Digitial Media Coordinator

In 1986 the first Goodwill Games were held in Moscow, The Phantom of the Opera debuted in London’s West End and the No. 4 nuclear reactor exploded at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The nuclear accident’s devastation caused thousands of families to urgently evacuate their homes, leaving their belongings and pets behind. They soon learned they would not be allowed to return for decades.

Now, over 30 years later, workers have returned to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant but the homes surrounding it still remain deserted, except for the hundreds of stray dogs and cats that roam, trapped in this desolate land by a perimeter fence. These are the descendants of the pets left behind in 1986. They continued to live and breed in the exclusion zone with no food or care – until now.

In August SPCA International executive director, Meredith Ayan, and program manager, Lori Kalef, traveled to the exclusion zone to meet with our partners the Clean Futures Fund to help spay, neuter, and vaccinate these almost forgotten animals.    

Dogs and cats were brought into a makeshift medical center located in the 10km zone.

They were sedated, given long lasting antibiotics and prepped for surgery.

Animals were “frisked” with a Geiger counter to measure their radiation contamination level. If the counter read an unsafe level the contaminated spot was cleaned with soap and water until the reading was normal, most contamination was caused by dirt and debris on the paws and fur.

The spay and neuter surgeries were performed by skilled veterinarians from all over the world!

During recovery, animals were given appropriate vaccinations, de-wormer, and a secondary scan for radiation contamination.

Animals were monitored until they were recovered enough to be returned to their pickup location.

Ear-tags containing dosimeters are being used to monitor the amount of radiation the dogs are exposed to on a daily basis.

Over 350 animals were spayed and neutered!

These animals will continue to receive food, water, shelter, and medical care.

Our work is not done; future plans are being made to control the stray animal populations in the outlying zones. Stay tuned for updates!