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| "Two young girls who left their pet rabbit behind, mothers carrying toddlers and luggage—these are some of the more than half million people who fled their homes in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion." —NPR, February 28, 2022. |
Editor's Notes: 1. When sirens rang out and Russian missiles began pummeling Ukraine’s cities, hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes, many bringing with them the cats, dogs and other pets they cannot leave behind.” —The Mercury News, February 28, 2022. 2. Humane Society International is providing necessary support, including emergency funds, to groups that are helping the Ukrainian people and the animals in their care who have been devastated by Russia’s military invasion. You can rush a gift to its emergency response for Ukraine and other rescue and relief efforts here. 3. “When we talk about pets in the same breath as the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, it can sometimes feel a little flippant. Surely our focus should be on the human victims, not someone’s cat? But to the very real people at the centre of this tragedy, their pets are not something to be flippantly forgotten about. —EuroNewsGreen. 4. The Telegraph (UK)) photo above from the Ukraine evacuation does not picture the girls mentioned in the NPR story.
Melissa Bentley lives in North Carolina, and works in the field of public mental health services.