KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 ― A Latvian woman is doing her part for the war in Ukraine by saving pets that are forced to be abandoned by their owners as they flee Russian invasion.
Rasma Krecia hopes to take dozens of pets across the border into Poland until the war is over.
“We're going to try to take as many animals as we can out, back to Latvia, back to Europe, back to safety,” Krecia told Reuters at the Home for Rescued Animals in Lviv, where she was loading up three vans with the first batch of dogs and cats.
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine, around 70 kilometers from the border with Poland.
Krecia told the news agency that she could not have remained in Latvia and done nothing.
“If I have an opportunity, if I have a large van, if I can bring food here and take some animals back to safety, I can't stay at home.”
According to the agency, the sanctuary previously dealt with wild animals and strays, but since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 it has taken in more animals from people fleeing the violence.
Now dogs, cats and even a pet rat jostle for attention alongside foxes and storks.
During Reuters visit to the centre, a Lviv resident brought in half a dozen puppies that her friend had found in a box at the train station three days before, where thousands of internally displaced people pass through on a daily basis.
