Man cares for animals at Ukraine border so refugees don’t have to give them up

Aaron Jackson is the founder of the charity Plantig Peace . This young man has a knack for being in the right place at the right time, so when he saw that help was needed at the Polish-Ukrainian border, he immediately took a flight to join the volunteers helping the thousands of refugees. .

The arrival of Russian forces have made Ukraine a very dangerous place and thousands of citizens have been forced to flee their country of origin, abandoning all their lives. But despite the difficult situation, people still see their beloved animals as a priority and refuse to leave them behind.

Aaron told The Dodo :

“Basically, I was reading news and looking at news footage two weeks ago when it was all starting. I saw a story about these refugees living in a train station and how it was very cold, and about two hours after reading that story, I bought a plane ticket and flew out that day.”

Man cares for animals at the border with Ukraine

After reading about Ukrainian refugees sleeping in a train station on the Ukrainian-Polish border, Aaron bought a plane ticket.

The young man said:

“There I saw the true cost of war. Families fleeing their homes. Families separated from their loved ones. Families fleeing the lives they knew. All this in sub-zero temperatures.”

Aaron added:

“Two million people have left the Ukraine and most of those people are crossing into Poland, so housing has become incredibly complex to find. It is even more complex when you have a cat or a dog, because spaces are limited and not all places allow animals”.

Thousands of people must choose between staying safe or staying with their beloved pet, and are even told to leave their dogs and cats behind to cross the border.

But Aaron along with other volunteers at the border are helping refugees with animals, offering shelter until their owners can find a safe haven.

The volunteer ensures:

“It’s really heartwarming to see that families are not giving up on their pets. Escaping from a war, but not giving up with your dog is the most moving thing.”

In addition to placing families in safe housing, Planting Peace makes donations of pet food and carriers to the main refugee centers that have been established along the border.

Aaron wants people and their pets to have healthy food waiting for them after all they have to go through to get to the border.

The young man said:

“There are these families that have traveled 100 miles, 200 miles, to get to the border and have walked 50 of those miles with a dog on their back. So if a person is willing to do that for his dog, I’m definitely not going to be the one to tell them, ‘You have to get rid of your dog to find housing.’”

The crisis in Ukraine continues and every day there are more refugees trying to flee at the border, many of them with their pets on their shoulders. But Aaron is committed to doing whatever it takes.

With everything the Ukrainian people have been through in recent weeks, no one should go through this crisis without support.