Amid the ongoing situation in Ukraine, Florida Urgent Rescue (FUR), which is based out of Jacksonville, is partnering with other animal rescue organizations in Europe.
They’re all working to rescue animals that have been left abandoned in parts of Ukraine where Russian forces have invaded.
News4JAX spoke with Mike Merrill, the founder of FUR, as he and others were in a van traveling toward the Poland-Ukraine border. As of publication of this article, FUR had helped transport 50 abandoned animals out of Ukraine.
Merrill has spent the last 10 days going back and forth across the border. He’s been recording the operations with his cellphone.
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“Some people are unable to evacuate with their animals. Some people were turned away at bus stations and train stations. And some of those have been collected and sent through to temporary shelters, where we are helping some of them across the border,” Merrill said. “But we’re actually taking dogs and cats from Ukraine shelters as well. So there’s a combination. We’ve got a bunch of homeless animals that don’t have anywhere to go.”
Merrill said that days ago, four Ukrainians risked their lives to get 20 dogs left in a shelter in Kiev to safety. But they could not get out of Keiv. So, a Swedish animal rescue group called Hundar Utan Hem (Dogs Without a Home) organized a rescue mission to help get the dogs out.
Two Irish animal rescue groups also helped. When all the rescuers were able to get out of Keiv, Florida Urgent Rescue stepped in to help transport the animals out of war-torn Ukraine.
“It was an all-night operation getting across the border, but we got 20 dogs from that Kiev shelter. They are now safe in Warsaw, Poland with the Swedish group,” Merrill said.
In the middle of my interview with Merrill, the reality of the Russian invasion of Ukraine set in when an air raid siren went off.
“Mike, I’m going to let you go so you can focus on that,” I told him.
“We’re in a vehicle marked with the Red Cross and humanitarian relief, but if it’s a missile strike, the missile is not going to care that the vehicle is marked,” he responded.
Merrill and the others safely made it back to Poland. He says after 10 days there, he got used to hearing air raid sirens.