A British mum who spends her free time packing busloads of animal supplies bound for Ukraine says the donations are saving abandoned pets from a “scared and hungry death”.
Since the war in Ukraine began in March, Rebecca Renmant-Oliver, a mum and Finance Assistant from Rusper, has packed "four or five" minibuses to the brim with donated animal supplies.
The 56-year-old mum-of-one, who has a family and a job, collects everything from dog food to veterinary examination tables, to be distributed mainly in the Donbas region to help the thousands of animals displaced by the war.
Rebecca, who herself has three dogs, two pygmy goats and a cat, said she got the urge to help after seeing pictures of animals in Ukraine and thinking ‘they aren’t being noticed’.
Speaking to The Mirror, she said: “From that point I decided I would try to help with the animal side of the crisis.
“I know it’s awful for everybody, but humans understand what’s going on. The animals are just being left - some were left tied to the train station because people weren’t allowed to take them on the train with them.
Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24th this year, some 12 million people have fled their homes.
Many Ukrainians have been forced to leave their pets or livestock behind, while scores of animals have been killed by shelling and Russian brutality on the ground.
Millions more animals have been left behind, with much of the infrastructure housing them gone and the pets and stock left to suffer.
Some were left to starve or beaten to death by Russian soldiers and others became sick, infected with rabies or other diseases.
After posting a shoutout on Facebook, Rebecca found people were “very happy” to donate, whether it was food or toys they had left in their cupboard that their animal hadn't liked, or collars and leads they no longer needed.
Local vets clinics also donated medicine to aid injured or sick animals and veterinary equipment to supply a shelter in Chernivtsi, where a vet has been brought in to help injured pets or livestock.
Rebecca said the donations provided a lifeline for the animals left behind, who without the help of charity workers would be “forgotten and die a scared and hungry death”.
Rebecca initially drove her collections to a charity drop-off where other people would transport the supplies to Ukraine, but the growing volume of donations she was receiving meant it soon made sense for her to find her own means of transport.
Her barn became a place to hide things away until she could find a driver, she said, with her husband’s new motorbike trailer also becoming an extension of her storage space.
“My husband is a motorbike man and he has a trailer that he bought around Christmas time in the hopes that he could transport his motorbike around in it. But as yet, he’s never been able to as it’s always been full of animal food,” Rebecca said.
Rebecca’s first ever full minibus of animal supplies was driven to the Ukraine/Poland border by charity Cornwall and Devon sending love to Ukraine before being distributed to animal shelters and individuals by Nick Tadd.
When Rebecca spoke to The Mirror, Nick was on the ground in Ukraine carrying out a delivery mission. Just days before, he had been struck by pieces of a building he was standing near that were hit in a missile strike.
“Unfortunately because they’ve been so busy and it’s been so hot, they forgot to do what they should be doing, which is to hide under the trees and not be seen," Rebecca said.
"If you’re seen by the Russian drones then that’s when you get hit. And unfortunately they did get attacked, but everyone was ok. "
Nick, a 55-year-old photographer, businessman and a co-founder of K9 Rescue International, has been back and forth from Ukraine since the war began, working with people on the ground to establish a network and get aid to where it was needed.
He would supply food to owners of animals struggling to feed them while abandoned animals would be retrieved and rehomed in animal shelters in Poland or beyond.
Nick had also raised more than £130,000, which had helped to buy an animal ambulance and two shelters as well as funding the refurbishment of two more shelters.
Nick recalled getting a Facebook message from Rebecca, who had heard about his work in Ukraine and wanted to help.
From the early days of the war, he said she “worked tirelessly” to find the supplies he needed.
“Basically, she was running the logistical side of things from the UK. She was getting food delivered for us to take into Ukraine. That’s where our relationship started," he said.
Six months on, Nick said he and other aid workers in Ukraine were still finding abandoned family pets, some still in cages, others running around with the other street animals and others left as corpses by Russian soldiers.
There were some “very scared” animals, many showing signs of PTSD, he said, while other animals in areas overrun with foxes had become rabid.
“The biggest problem we have right now is the winter,” Nick said. “The winter down there is brutal - as brutal as the summer is. Last week it was 40C and with body armour and helmet… I can tell you. One day we were out for nine hours and we delivered 122 drops of food, it was draining. But by November it will be -22C.”
Nick said food needed to be stockpiled in Kharkiv for easy distribution through the Donbas region when conditions worsened.
Fundraising was in full swing; Rebecca had held a charity quiz night at a pub in Rusper last week along with a raffle to raise money.
There were also talks of putting together calendar featuring Nick’s photographs, for sale to raise money for the cause.
Rebecca was currently working to fill another bus-load of donations for collection, with help from her daughter Chloe and friends Karen and Sue.
