Chernobyl Dog Finds a New Life in California

Sacramento’s CBS Local shared an unbelievable story of hope for dogs left abandoned more more than three decades.

 

A seven-month-old mix named Persyk (which means “peach” in Russian) made her way to California from the Ukraine recently and her new life is a major upgrade.

 

Persyk was living in the abandoned remains of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster. While residents were forced to evacuate the 1,000-square-mile area in 1986, they could only take what they could carry and many pets were left behind.

 

 

According to Clean Futures Fund, one of the organizations that aids the abandoned dogs and their decades of offspring, the dogs became feral and somehow survived and even reproduced. Clean up crews have been on the exclusion site for decades and have spotted the dogs, often sharing food and scraps with them.

 

The organization says there are more than 500 animals (and 250 dogs) in the area and has set up a three-year program to spay/neuter and vaccinate them. Various rescue groups removed 22 dogs this year alone–which were all cleared medically before being adopted.

 

Clean Futures Fund is also working with SPCAI to set up healthy puppies for international  adoption, which is how Persyk made her way to a loving, happy home.

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Maureen Dempsey

Maureen Dempsey is a freelance writer living in New York with an ancient, 14-year-old chihuahua and a feisty, young dachshund.

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