Nothing is easy in Ukraine. As the country approaches its fourth year of war, the PETA-backed team Animal Rescue Kharkiv is battling both the freezing temperatures and the threat of violence every day. It’s likely even scarier for the animals left in the skeletons of their once bustling communities. They have no way of drinking from frozen puddles and have no idea why the booms of rockets and gunfire fill their days and nights.

Despite the mounting difficulties, ARK evacuated 357 animals from the warzone, including 152 puppies, in just one month. One of those rescued puppies, Nick, had a particularly hard start.

This Puppy Born in Ukraine Didn’t Know Life Without War Until the PETA-Backed Team Helped Him

A woman found Nick in the Donbas region and immediately noticed something was terribly wrong. A collar had been left on the growing puppy for so long—and tightened so severely—that his skin had begun to grow around it. Desperate to relieve his pain, the woman made a risky decision and approached a stranger for help.

Unbeknownst to her, the stranger worked with Animal Rescue Kharkiv. Together, they removed the collar and saw the extent of Nick’s suffering. A festering wound circled his neck, and he was clearly in urgent need of medical care.

Once safely evacuated from the warzone, the veterinarian team at ARK cleaned and stitched up the puppy’s neck.

With some time to rest and decompress, Nick’s playful puppy personality was finally able to shine. Thanks to the courage of the Animal Rescue Kharkiv team, he gets to spend his days chomping, roughhousing, and causing mischief, just like a 5-month-old puppy should.

How You Can Help Animals Like Nick in Ukraine

Facing rocket attacks, drones, and constant life-threatening danger, Animal Rescue Kharkiv’s team works tirelessly to reunite animals with their guardians or help them find new loving homes. Thanks to supporters like you, animals like Nick, who’ve survived unthinkable trauma, can experience love and peace. When you give to PETA’s Global Compassion Fund, you’re sending help to animals in war zones and other disaster areas where animals need help.

As relentless drone strikes turn villages into wastelands, PETA-backed rescuers:

• Rush terrified dogs to safety as explosions boom.
• Pull trapped kittens from the rubble—while deadly shelling razes nearby buildings.
• Search bombed properties and nurse gravely injured animals back to health.
• Provide long-term care to dogs and other animals who are so traumatized they cower at the slightest sound.

Your gift helps PETA entities and partners create positive, sustainable changes in corners of the Earth where animals desperately need assistance and may have no other hope.

Your generous support has already helped save more than 30,000 animals from hunger, terror, and certain death in Ukraine since the war began.