About the Shelter

Dear friends!

The first animal shelter in Ukraine, "SOS" in Pyrohovo, is already over 28 years old. It has a unique history.

Until 1997, on the site of today's shelter in Pyrohovo, the "Animal Disposal Workshop" operated for 60 years, where hundreds of thousands of stray animals were exterminated. It was a profitable business for the workshop's employees, which Kyiv residents called the "death factory."

In December 1996, German journalist Christy Schechtel, together with Tamara Tarnavska, managed to film a documentary with a hidden camera about the cruel killing of stray animals caught from the streets of Kyiv in this workshop and broadcast it on Western European television. The film shocked Western society with its cruelty.

Under pressure from prominent Western politicians and the broad public of Western Europe, the then leadership of the Kyiv City State Administration was forced to close the "Animal Disposal Workshop" and transfer its territory to the "SOS" Animal Protection Society on a free lease for 49 years.

In a short time, the Society accomplished what the state had failed to do for many years. Without receiving a single penny from the city budget, relying solely on donations from international animal protection organizations from Austria, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and citizens of Western Europe, the Society built on the site of the former knackery in Pyrohovo the FIRST real animal shelter in Ukraine, including a veterinary hospital and a ward for sick and wounded animals, and began conducting a systematic sterilization campaign.

Today the shelter in Pyrohovo houses about 1,000 dogs and 200 cats.

Among these animals are puppies from Maidan and animals evacuated by volunteers from the combat zone in eastern Ukraine. There is also a dog named Cyborg, who helped Ukrainian volunteers defend the Donetsk Airport.

The Society shares the principles of international organizations — the purpose of animals is to sow good in society and be a friend to humans.

Leading Western experts have proven that human psychological health largely depends on how our neighbors on planet Earth — animals — are treated. We are guilty in many ways. We have legalized the breed "stray" animal. We don't always remember that an animal is a living being that feels pain and fear. Let us remember that a society that shows cruelty and indifference to animals will never be kind and merciful to people either.

Dear friends! We appeal to those who care about the fate of homeless and therefore defenseless animals, who want to see Kyiv as a civilized European city, to join the animal protection movement in Ukraine. Animals are inhabitants of planet Earth and have the right to a normal life alongside humans.

We invite you to visit the shelter in Pyrohovo.

Your friend is waiting for you!