From the Field: Ukraine Update

What does it take to care for animals in the middle of war?

In this raw and emotional episode, we sit down with Jon Geller, Development Coordinator for Worldwide Vets, to share first-hand stories from the charity’s work inside Ukraine.
From injured animals rescued from conflict zones to shelter staff risking everything to stay behind– this is frontline veterinary care like you’ve never heard before.

It’s powerful, unfiltered, and shows the heart of Worldwide Vets’ global mission.

You can also watch the full interview on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@worldwide_vets

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

think that's going to stay with the rest of us too what a brave dog yeah very brave that makes you think it's not just the people it affects it's it is the animals it affects as well it affects everybody it affects everyone Welcome back to World Wide Tales where real stories, real animals and real hope come together. Hi everyone, my name is Jess and I'm Kristen. This season we're pulling back the curtain on animal welfare work around the globe and today we're heading straight to the place where resilience beats compassion every single day. Ukraine. If you're just joining us, we're both fundraising interns with Worldwide Vets, and this project means the world to us. We're here because we believe that every animal, everywhere, deserves a chance, even in the hardest places. Today's story proves just how powerful that belief really is. To bring you inside the reality of providing veterinary care in a conflict zone, we sit down with John Geller, our development coordinator. Dr. John Geller began his professional life as a carpenter. before earning his veterinary medicine degree from Colorado State University in 1995. He spent 20 years as an emergency clinician in Colorado, co-founding four emergency clinics, before he later founded the Street Dog Coalition, which is a non-profit providing free veterinary care to pets of people experiencing homelessness in over 50 US cities. In 2022, he brought vet care to the Ukraine-Romanian border and launched a mobile hospital in Ukraine. He now splits his time teaching homeless in America, at the Colorado School of Public Health. He works on Peticade, a proposed Medicaid supplement for low-income pet owners, and also leads the Gaza Veterinary Relief Project as the project director with Worldwide Vets. We are now going to interview John to get his experience of what it was like to work in Ukraine. Hi John, thanks so much for coming onto our podcast and agreeing to be interviewed. Can you please take us back to the first moment when World Wide Vets realized we needed to respond to the crisis in Ukraine?

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Sure. Thanks for having me on your podcast. I actually was in Ukraine for a year before I connected with World Wide Vets and Gemma. And my initial contact in Ukraine was setting up a tent at the border with Romania to provide care for pets of the 6 million Ukrainian refugees that left the country and were heading into Western Europe. We had a team that spent about three or four months during that time of migration providing care to pets. If they were healthy, we did all the preventive care they needed. If they were injured, we provided veterinary care for any potential diseases or injuries. Through that work, I heard about Worldwide Vets and Gemma, and I saw this amazing picture of her doing surgery, wearing a combat protective gear and her helmet and her flak jacket, using a headlamp in what looked like a garage. And then you hear the sound of some bombs going off. And actually, you know, she went down into a bunker with this cat she was doing surgery on, and she continued doing surgery on the cat, despite being in the middle of an attack from Russian missiles or drones. And when I saw that video, I said, I need to connect with this lady. And so Jim and I connected, and I was with the Street Dog Coalition at that time, and we were doing our work in Ukraine. And we came up with the idea of, we realized what some of the challenges were in Ukraine. And one was, it's such a big country, you have to be able to be mobile and move around to provide care wherever it was needed. And so we came up with the idea of bringing the first mobile veterinary hospital into Ukraine and using it as a base for worldwide vets to continue on with this mission. And in 2023, that's exactly what happened. And it was quite an adventure getting the mobile hospital from Arizona, USA to first Southampton, UK, and then driving it all the way over to Kyiv in Ukraine.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

That's amazing. Yeah, that is quite the story. That is crazy. That's so surreal. I can't believe, you know, how brave of you to be like, yes, I need to be involved in that and to go over there.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Well, what's funny is I wasn't really the brave one because Gemma had to haul this, she was the one hauling this trailer across Europe. And during that time, one of the rear wheels fell off of the truck that she had to purchase to pull the trailer. And she and her partner, who's helping her drive across Europe, had to spend the night in this truck in the middle of nowhere, you know, with this trailer behind them. And it was a pretty hair situation and fortunately they were actually able to find a really big tow truck to get them fixed up and on the way. So I finally did, Gemma worked hard to get the trailer all ready and I finally did connect with her in the fall of 2023 in Kyiv and that's where our adventures began with the mobile hospital.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Wow, success against all odds. On

SPEAKER_00 5:08

a side note, the first project we did was we went to a donkey farm near Kyiv where they were trying to create a sense of normalcy by opening this farm on weekends so families could come visit these donkeys and kids could get donkey rides and it certainly doesn't sound like that was related to the war but it was indirectly trying to keep children and things from becoming traumatized by the war by providing these normal and fun experiences so we vaccinated and dewormed about 25 donkeys but we also had the both of us had the first experience drinking donkey milk so i don't know if either of you have ever done that but

SPEAKER_01 5:43

no

SPEAKER_00 5:44

no it's quite tasty when when it's cold

SPEAKER_01 5:46

do you know what black pill we have I have donkeys on the front here in Blackpool. Maybe I'll just wander over one day and just see if I can buy some

SPEAKER_00 5:54

milk. If you find a female, just try to milk it. Yeah, so that was the first many, many unique experiences that we both had. You know, every day was really something new over there.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Pretty incredible, to be honest. Yeah. And before working with Worldwide Vets in Ukraine, had you been involved in any disaster-specific work before?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Not really, not really. My work with the street dog, Coley, which I started up about 10 years ago. I would call it a different type of disaster because we were working with homeless populations in the United States. And it's a very sad situation that a country as wealthy as the US would have close to a million people living out on the streets. And many of them have pets sometimes as their sole companion and friend and sometimes just provide them purpose in their lives. And so to me, that is actually kind of a humanitarian disaster, but we are providing a free veterinary care for pets of folks in about 60 U.S. cities. And that's what I'd been up to before Ukraine came up. So that was my first opportunity to get involved with disaster relief.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

That sounds like a great experience, though. Yeah, it does. I was going to ask for people that don't know, what is Street Dog Coalition?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yep. We started with the mission of providing free veterinary care to people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. And it really built out from one location where I am in Colorado to, I mentioned, now over 60. locations across the U.S. And we expanded our mission to include other projects like specifically helping homeless veterans who are living on the streets of the U.S. with their pets because for many of them, their dogs, especially dogs, were kind of a barrier to suicide. They told me this. They would say, you know, if it wasn't for my dog, I'd probably kill myself. And so we realized we were actually into some serious kind of, really it was moving more of the people end of the leash. And we discovered this was kind of a journey from one end of the leash to the other, taking care of pets medical needs is pretty straightforward comparing to taking care of people's needs when they're kind of in such dire straits and so that part of what we do and we had other programs where we now take out teams of other professionals all together so this would be medical team with doctors and nurses dentists dental hygienists social workers public health workers hairstylists bike repair people we go to small rural communities and provide a one day a free health fair where all those services are offered for free and at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Wild. So it sounds like you've got quite a lot on your plate.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

I do. I'm constantly trying to find a balance with that. But right now, our efforts in Ukraine are continuing and we're getting into year three of the work we've been doing. And Gemma and her team and the volunteer teams that have come over from all over the world in small bursts to help out with the massive sterilization challenges to get these animals off the streets so they're not being hit by cars. And the other risks that we're dealing with are what I would call zoonotic which means diseases that can spread from animals to people. And in dogs and cats, that's specifically in Ukraine. One of the challenges is rabies. Ukraine has a very high incidence of rabies in wildlife, so that has spread to dog and cat populations, mostly wild dog and cat populations. But so many animals now on the street not being vaccinated creates this risk where now rabies could get into the pet population, into the street dogs, street cats, and then potentially a bite to, say, a child or a person. And if it's undetected, of course, rabies is 100% fatal. And there's other diseases that can spread from animals to people when there's the kind of chaos that exists in Ukraine right now with so many animals on the streets.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Yeah, absolutely. So that's why not just our work collectively on the podcast with Worldwide Vets and Street Dog Coalition, everyone can help even just listening to this podcast. There's a common misconception with disasters that they stop when the disaster stops, but obviously it's a continuing thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Even if the war ended next week, we would keep working there. There's years worth of work. work left to be done and if it wasn't for the support of some foundations and donor and individual donors you know it's unfortunately that's we are dependent on that income to keep going but we've had great support from all over so we're positive about being able to continue those efforts.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Yeah perfect. Working in an active conflict zone I mean we can't even begin to imagine what that must have been like and you've already explained that Gemma had the challenge of trying to get the truck over there which must have been quite the challenge at the time but have you you experienced any other things that were maybe an obstacle or difficulties with the project itself

SPEAKER_00 10:24

there's definitely a number of challenges one is for example we have this 25 foot long trailer and it's all outfitted like cages and surgery tables anesthesia machines x-ray machines and we're pulling it with a large american truck many of the roads in ukraine have been worn out by russian tanks in any place where the russians have been and what they do is they put big kind of waves in the road so that makes for a very bumpy ride for the truck and trailer. And that was not anything we ever anticipated that we would have this road damage and this is on paved roads. So that would be one example. Certainly the language barrier has been significant, but we've had the opportunity and maybe one of the best things that's happening there is we are working side by side with Ukrainian veterinarians and Ukrainian veterinary nurses who have joined our team and work out of our mobile hospital. And even though none of us can speak the same language, we're able to use sign language and intuition to work together really well and we you know even enjoy each other's company after work when we might go into the village and enjoy a dinner together so language barrier and certainly the roads and the thing about ukraine is it's not like a place like gaza for example which i'm glad to tell you about the work we're trying to do there it's a big country and so these attacks are all over no one knows when they're going to happen and you can actually spend a fair amount of time over there and never even be involved in any or hear any sirens or bombs go off depending where you are in ukraine so you just never know what's going to happen but you hit you do have to be ready for it. But a good part of the time, things are reasonable enough so that you can continue the work.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Everyone in some way can relate to having times in their life when, you know, they've met someone and there's a little bit of a language barrier, how difficult it is in a situation that isn't so chaotic and dangerous. How did Worldwide Vets build that trust? Obviously, you mentioned through sign language.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

One of the first things we did was set up our clinic on the streets of, and this was before I was there, on the streets of Karesan, but then We did it again in a town called Bucha and Erpin, which are very well-known towns because they were the villages that defended Kyiv from being overtaken in the first two weeks of the war. They were north of Kyiv and those villages, and they look at everybody there as war heroes, really. They fought off the Russian tanks and the Russian forces, so they never reached the city of Kyiv. But Bucha and Erpin were utterly destroyed in this, and now they've been rebuilt. But we set up on the streets of those villages and offered free care to anybody that lived there. regardless of whether they could pay or not, because everything was free. And many of the veterinarians had closed down. They couldn't get supplies. Many of the shelters, people had to leave. They fled the country. They couldn't afford to keep them open. They were overwhelmed and flooded with dogs. So by doing that, what I call street medicine, which is kind of the common denominator to all these discussions, doing that free care for these pets is how we build trust with the community. And before we knew it, I They were taking care of us and seeing anything we needed. And they would take us out for a meal. We'd meet the mayor of the city and things like that. And we also had contact with Ukrainian soldiers who were working on the front lines. And many of them adopted a pet on the front lines. It was kind of their mascot, their companion. And if anything would happen, this might be a little kitten or it might be a large German shepherd dog. They would bring the dogs back from the front lines to get veterinary care. And so sometimes they came to our hospital and we'd patch up the animal, whatever it needed. would take it back out to the front lines. And so we were able to build trust that way as well. And then one of the other things that we did is at the very beginning, I was able to get a donation of an ultrasound machine. And those larger machines are pretty expensive, but we got a donation from one of our donors and we took it over there from the US and we went to a clinic that we had been in touch with and we gave them this ultrasound machine. And then we built trust with them as well. And then they started sending over veterinary teams to our mobile hospital hospital to help us with all these sterilization surgeries. So that's how we got started with our relationship with a local veterinarian. So we had all these relationships going. They are trust-based. Trust means you say you're going to do something and you do it. And that's what we did.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah. I think it's great to know that it goes past just one area or just one country. It's everybody's collaboration together and the trust that you build whilst doing that work, whilst having that passion and for our mission that makes It makes it feel so rewarding and unique as well at the same time. So it is really lovely to hear that we can all connect through saving animals, you know, and helping people on a massive scale. So in terms of that, there's so many different charities and organizations who offer animal welfare support and stuff that, you know, we kind of offer. So in your opinion, John, what would you think that makes us different from every other charity? I

SPEAKER_00 15:17

think I would say that we are people of action. Kind of goes back to the trust piece, meaning we don't, and I'm not trying to separate us because there's many other great organizations, but we are the boots on the ground. And I don't mean it in a military sense. We are on the streets. We are the front lines of animal rescue and animal welfare in countries like Ukraine. And we're bold too, because we are working in places like Karasone, which are extremely dangerous. And Gemma can share stories of how she's been right across the river from Russian forces literally on the front lines. And I think they fired off a few rounds at her when they saw her. And that's where we're doing a lot of work. And there have been regular bombings in that area where we're working. And one of the really good stories that came out of this is we met a Ukraine veterinarian named Olha, who I hope you'll be speaking to later, who happened to just wander down the street and find our mobile hospital and started volunteering with us. And then we ended up hiring her on And his salary as our Ukrainian veterinarian, of course, then she helped break the language barrier. And so she has been and still is working full-time at our clinic. And her home where she lived with her parents and their cat got blown up by Russian missiles. And there's pictures of that. And luckily, even though their home was destroyed, neither she or her parents or their cat were injured because they weren't in the house at that time. So I guess I would say some boldness and some action, pushing on through whatever adversity comes up. But I would also just say that in some ways, we're not necessarily different from other organizations. It's just that we are a very action-oriented group, so we don't talk about things so much as we do them.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Perfect. Your work in Ukraine has been so powerful, and I think it's lovely that everybody is connected by this one thing, this one care and passion for animals. Has there been one story, one animal, or one person that you've encountered in Ukraine that's really stayed with you?

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Well, there's definitely been been a number of encounters that I remember. But one was at a place called Serious Shelter, and that is a very large dog shelter and cat shelter north of Kiev. So it's near those towns I talked about earlier. And they are the largest dog shelter in the world with over 3,500 dogs living there. I consider it a very well-run shelter and with good conditions for the dogs. They are living in outside runs, and I think they're actually happier outside than being inside in a kennel. The cats are inside. And as you can imagine, it's quite loud there with 3,500 dogs. Anytime something happens, they all start barking. Like somebody just moves a dog. The one dog actually lives on the roof. It doesn't even live in a... The dog just likes to live on the roof. And so that was kind of crazy. But while I was there, I met a Ukrainian dog handler, military dog handler, who had been involved with some encounters with the Russians on the front lines. And he was handling a dog that's called an alibi dog. And that's basically a Ukrainian guard dog that they typically use to guard sheep. sheep. It's very large, light colored with long hair. And they also used as military working dogs. And when I saw this dog, he looked very depressed to me. And I do have a photo of him. He was just laying there and not very responsive. And the Ukrainian military dog handler was able to speak some English and explained to me that this dog had been on the front lines working with one soldier who was his master, basically. And he watched his master get killed by Russian bullets in the front line. He was shot and died. And the dog charged across the field and actually jumped on and killed the russian soldier that had had the rifle that had killed his master and then the dog actually killed another soldier that was next to him and then somehow was able to escape but this dog had been traumatized in serious ways and just like ptsd with that we see with our military and so that definitely stuck with me the story about this dog and then seeing how depressed he was

SPEAKER_01 19:07

yeah i think that's going to stay with the rest of us too what a brave dog yeah very brave it's not even that makes you think it's not just the people it affects it's it is the animals it affects as well. It affects everybody. It affects everyone. Yeah, it really does. So how important are the donors and volunteers? How important are they specifically for keeping our Ukraine project

SPEAKER_00 19:28

running? They're critically important because everybody except for Olha, a Ukraine veterinarian, is a volunteer. And we could never afford to pay a team of veterinary professionals to be over there working. I mean, we definitely have expenses of just keeping mobile hospital running and feeding and housing our crews. So those are... So those are out-of-pocket expenses. And then the cost of veterinary supplies, we saw as many as a thousand pets recently in the last couple of weeks over in Ukraine. So the cost of those medical supplies is significant. Luckily, many of our volunteers can bring supplies, purchase them or get them donated. And so luckily, our support system is direct funding from certain veterinary organizations, individual donations, and then direct donations of veterinary supplies and goods that we use in the field. And without all three of those, we would just have to park the hospital somewhere and we'd have to leave. So it's really critical to us to continue on. Again, it's not dependent on the end of the war because Ukraine is in such dire straits now from this three to four year war that's been going on with Russia. So hopefully there'll be a ceasefire soon and perhaps the war will end and then there can be a process of trying to get things back on track. But

SPEAKER_01 20:44

even then, our work doesn't end. We then help to rebuild and prepare for a new future going forward after the war. So everything needs to continue for us. Absolutely. And if someone was listening today and they wanted to help, and even if they're hundreds of thousands of miles away, what would you say is the most meaningful thing that they could do?

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Well, I think there's two things they can do is support worldwide vets, especially in Ukraine, through sharing and liking social media posts, because that spreads the word exponential financially and then even though you know we'd love to get donations of pet and veterinary supplies that's not practical because we're looking for very specific things so donations that can be targeted toward veterinary supplies would be the most helpful thing

SPEAKER_01 21:31

okay thank you of

SPEAKER_00 21:32

course

SPEAKER_01 21:33

so how do you see worldwide vet global disaster response evolving because obviously we've discussed that Ukraine isn't the only place that animals are suffering it is worldwide so where do you where How do you see it going forwards to or evolve

SPEAKER_00 21:49

into? Worldwide Vets is involved in so many areas of the world. Really, some of these, what we're calling animal disasters, are unfolding very slowly. It's certainly not like a war like we see in Ukraine or even a more intense situation, humanitarian crisis like we see in Gaza. For example, a rhino dehorning project where rhinos are being poached for their horn and slowly potentially could become extinct without intervention. So we're intentionally dehorning rhinos with anesthesia and a veterinary team that will save their lives because then they won't be poached. They wouldn't have any value are examples of a slow moving disaster. And then on the other end of that is a new project we're looking at is providing some veterinary relief to Gaza, which is an incredibly disastrous scenario for humans and animals, obviously. But there's been some very sad things happening there. And I I believe, unfortunately, the world is under-informed about the plight of animals. Even these donkeys, where I've seen photos of them being overloaded, even carrying vehicles on wagons behind them. They've been pulling cars, pulling entire families loaded up with a small house on a trailer. And these poor donkeys are kind of breaking down, having major feet problems. They have major skin wounds. And they're starving to death. And many, many dogs and cats on the streets are also starving. So it's as simple as starting with pet food, but also we need to get some vaccinations over there. So that's one of the projects we're working on.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

That's great. I think it takes so much resilience, so much ambition to do what we do. Like we've said time and time again throughout this podcast, we do it for everyone. We do it for the animals, we do it for the humans, families, communities. We do it for so many people. It's hopeful for the future so that we can help as many people and as many animals as possible. Very true. Speaking of hope, John? What keeps you hopeful when you're facing and working with these communities that have such overwhelming challenges?

SPEAKER_00 23:54

I would almost use the word I'm somewhat plagued with an optimism that says, you know, never give up. And sometimes it's to a fault, maybe going too far. But there was an expression said by a British gentleman that rescued a number of children from a Nazi held countries like Poland and Austria during World War II. He rescued hundreds of children by taking them secretly on a train back to the UK. And he said, if it's not impossible, it can be done. And so some things are impossible. So I'm not going to say everything's possible. I don't think that's accurate. But if it's not impossible, then it can be done. And so that's what keeps me going.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

That's really lovely and so inspiring. We can't thank you enough for agreeing to an interview for our podcast, John. It's truly been a pleasure to hear about your experience of such an emotionally provoking journey. We look forward to catching up again soon about the efforts to change the lives of the animals in Ukraine. Right now, thanks to support, Worldwide Vets is funding essential vet care for abandoned pets, injured animals and shelter rebuilding effort. This isn't about politics. This is about life, about love and about compassion that crosses every border. Animals can't ask for help, but we can answer the call for them. And that is what Worldwide Vets is all about. If you feel moved by what you've heard today, visit our website www.worldwide-vets.org or click the link in our description. Whether it's a donation, just sharing this story or volunteering, you can make an impact. Before we wrap up today's episode, I want to tell you about something really special coming up. Raffle for Rescue. It's a fundraiser organised by Kristen and I and all proceeds go directly to providing free veterinary care for the animals in Ukraine. The need is urgent. This care is going to the pets caught in a crisis zone who otherwise wouldn't have access to even the most basic treatment. By entering the raffle, you're not just supporting this mission, you're giving hope, healing and compassion to where it's needed most. So if you care about animals and want to make a real difference, please check it out. It will be available on our Facebook and Instagram pages. If you'd like to enter, please do. Or even if you can just help spread the word, it really helps. That's Raffle for Rescue, because every animal deserves care, no matter where they are. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. Until next time, keep caring, keep sharing and keep making an impact. Before we sign off, I want to share something really important. Raffle for Rescue is launching on June 17th. We've created this special fundraiser to help raise money for free veterinary care for the animals in Ukraine. These pets have been affected by conflict and have no access or limited access to medical care. Your support through this raffle helps us fund our mobile hospital, critical supplies and on-the-ground care where it's needed most. And the best part? you can win some amazing prizes. Every ticket makes a difference. So mark your calendars for June 17th when Raffle for Rescue goes live. Head over to our Facebook or Instagram page to find the link and together we can make a real impact, one animal at a time.