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Related: About this forumPuppies From Radioactive Chernobyl Are Starting New Lives In North America
These Chernobyl puppies have spent their lives in a region still grappling with the fallout of Europes worst-ever nuclear disaster. But theyre about to start new lives with families in the US and Canada.
Jane Lytvynenko
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Reporting From
Slavutych, Ukraine
Posted on January 24, 2019, at 11:41 a.m. ET
Natalia Melnichuk with one of the dogs being trained.
CHERNOBYL EXCLUSION ZONE A dozen puppies with satellite-dish ears and wagging tails scampered behind Natalia Melnichuk as she carried an oversized bowl of dog food. She stopped walking, turned around, and commanded the puppies to sit, showing off one of the four commands theyre required to know before leaving the small Ukrainian town of Slavutych to find new homes.
These puppies are about to become the first dogs ever to leave an area known as the Chernobyl exclusion zone and live abroad with foreigners whove adopted them. The dogs have spent their lives in one of the strangest places on Earth, a region still grappling with the fallout of Europes worst-ever nuclear disaster.
Yet these dogs are as normal as any others. If one of them picks up a stick," Melnichuk said, everyone else needs the stick.
These puppies and their older brethren are also internet famous. One video of the dogs last year racked up nearly 6 million views on Facebook, another two-minute one received over a million views in 2017. One of the videos was part of a crowdfunding campaign that raised $56,000 to help the dogs of Chernobyl. (The fundraiser enjoyed a boost when pictures of the puppies were posted by large Twitter accounts like We Rate Dogs and Darth.) The nonprofit behind that crowdfunding project is called the Clean Futures Fund. Along with helping the dogs that call the exclusion zone home, CFF provides medical care and other services to the people who continue to be affected by the massive nuclear accident that occurred at the Chernobyl power plant more than 32 years ago.
More:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/rescue-dogs-chernobyl?ref=bfnsplash
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Puppies From Radioactive Chernobyl Are Starting New Lives In North America (Original Post)
Judi Lynn
Jan 2019
OP
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)1. Wow.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)2. Thanks be to Ceiling Cat
calimary
(81,500 posts)3. So nice to see stories like this.
Thanks for posting it, Judi Lynn!
Duppers
(28,127 posts)4. ❤-melt!
Thank you!
SergeStorms
(19,204 posts)5. We need a wall to keep these...
radioactive puppies on the outside of our country! This just opens the door to allowing radioactive wolves, bears, and hedgehogs into our homeland! Oh, the humanity!
I really do love puppies. Radioactive or not, they're cute as all get-out.
sinkingfeeling
(51,474 posts)6. When we went to Chernobyl last April, a German couple on the tour
with us brought dog food and treats for the dogs. Somewhere I have several photos of these poor dogs that live in the deserted towns in the zone. They are smart. They have learned to visit the government buildings where people work and to greet the tour groups.
You must visit Chernobyl with a government authorized tour group and sign papers giving up your rights to damages for health issues.
It was awesome.