Damascus veterinarian and nonprofit Dogs of Chernobyl get presidential praise

In the wake of the worst nuclear disaster in history, many four-legged friends were left behind and forgotten.

In the spring of 1989, the Unit 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Ukraine, exploded and spread radioactive materials into the environment. In response, the former Soviet Union established a 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the facility and evacuated more than 130,000 people from 189 cities and communities.

During the rush to flee many pets were left behind. Most were told they would return in three days, but that never happened. Thus the pets became abandoned, spreading across the exclusion zone.

Three decades later, a team of volunteers have made it their mission to undo the damage done to the descendants of those pets. And those much-appreciated volunteer efforts led to presidential praise.

Dogs of Chernobyl is a nonprofit program under The Clean Futures Fund umbrella, which raises awareness and provides international support for communities affected by industrial accidents and long-term remedial activities.

The Veterinary Medical Director for the group is Jennifer Betz, a Damascus resident who ran Sandy Animal Clinic for two decades before selling the practice and diving headfirst into global volunteer efforts. Since being formed in 2017, they enter the exclusion zone multiple times a year to spay, neuter, vaccinate and care for the dogs, working with a large team of volunteer veterinarians, veterinary technicians, scientists and dog catchers.

“We are a small organization, 100% volunteer and donation-based,” Betz said. “Everything we get goes directly toward the cause of supporting the animals.”

The ultimate goal is to humanely cull the popular by preventing any new puppies from being born, a stark change from the military’s practice in the 90s and early 2000s of going in guns blazing. That means there is about another decade of feeding and researching the population of dogs in Chernobyl and the irradiated forests.

“We are just a small organization trying to make a good impact,” Betz said.

And the efforts from Dogs of Chernobyl has been celebrated by more than just the locals who work at the power plant and do their own part to support the animals. On April 26, during the 38th anniversary of the disaster, Betz got to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“He is my idol, a great guy,” Betz said. “So I was excited, and a little nervous, to meet him.”

President Zelenskyy was in Slavutych to meet with the families displaced by the meltdown, and to award medals. It was during a small window in between events that he connected with Betz, who was in the crowd holding a flag split between America and Ukraine.

“He came over to take photos and sign the flag,” she said.

While Betz was a little star struck meeting President Zelenskyy, it was more than just a quick shaking of hands. She was able to share the work the nonprofit has been doing, garnering interest and praise from the leader of the country. She also gave him a Dogs of Chernobyl patch.

“He knew about the dogs and said thank you for the support we have given them,” Betz said.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is crazy,’” she added with a laugh.

Dogs let loose

Officials have long been aware of the dog problem in Chernobyl.

The initial Soviet Union solution was to dispatch a regiment of soldiers to shoot and kill the animals in Pripyat, afraid they would spread irradiation to other parts of the country. But they quickly realized it was impossible to fully wipe out the animals distributed in the various small villages, so the effort was largely abandoned.

That allowed the descendants of those pets to run rampant. While stray dogs aren’t unique to Chernobyl — overpopulation of dogs in Europe is a well-documented problem, with an estimated 30,000 stray cats and dogs in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv alone — the situation is different.

The dogs have been harried by packs of rabid wolves, suffer from widespread rabies, and are severely malnourished. In the following decades from the disaster, the population got mean and feral.

But they were loved by the nearly 3,000 workers who had returned to the power plant, commuting in from the town of Slavutych, which was built to house the displaced population after the meltdown. Those workers did what they could for the dogs, which included preventing further military shootings, but needed support.

“The workers revolted when they tried to cull the dogs,” Betz said. “They would bring the dogs indoors, or offer them scraps of food. They would even lay down their jackets with straw to allow the dogs a safe and warm place to be.”

Thus Dogs of Chernobyl got involved in 2017. The organization travels multiple times a year into the exclusion zone. Visiting can be haunting.

“It is a desolated area, and you can’t get in without a guide,” Betz said.

Everyone has to wear long sleeves and long pants. You can’t sit on the ground, and have to be careful around accidently ingesting anything that has been permeated with Cesium 137.

“We feel lucky and fortunate to have access so we can support the dogs and workers at the power plant,” she said.

For Betz, Dogs of Chernobyl was the perfect fit.

“I wanted to do volunteer work fulltime, and I was fortunate with the sale of my practice that I didn’t need to have an everyday job,” Betz said.

In addition to her work with Dogs of Chernobyl, she is also involved with many other animal-focused groups, including Visiting Veterinarians International.

Russian invasion

Dogs of Chernobyl has twice had to go on hiatus — during the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian soldiers crossed the border and occupied the Chernobyl power plant. The military was using it as a foothold of the invasion, with eyes set on continuing into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

The thousands of workers at the power plant were rounded up and held in a bunker. A few were allowed to keep the power plant operational, while others served the soldiers. Elsewhere the Russians began to dig in, setting up trenches and bunkers in the Red Forest, the most irradiated place in the world, and hid landmines across the countryside.

That occupation lasted 30 days, until the Ukrainian army were able to turn back the invaders on April 1. The whole time the dogs were ignored.

“We saw the first photos after the Russians had left and the dogs were all skin and bones,” Betz said.

Dogs of Chernobyl sent in a Ukrainian-based volunteer on April 14. The organization has a laboratory inside a home in the abandoned Chernobyl City, and they needed to see the damage after hearing it had been broken into and robbed. They also used the visit to get dog food in.

“We couldn’t get to the power plant, but we left the dog food for those workers,” Betz said. “They all picked up a bag and carried it onto the bus with them.”

New normal

Following the Russian occupation, Betz first returned to care for the dogs on June 1, 2022.

“All of Ukraine is still riddled with destruction,” she said.

Things are different. They can no longer directly fly into Ukraine, so instead the team goes in through Warsaw, Poland. An 18-hour train ride later to Slavutych and the team gets picked up and driven another half-day to the exclusion zone.

That is another change, that not only affects the team but also the power plant workers. There used to be a train that would run 45-minutes from Slavutych to Chernobyl, passing through Belarus. But that route was blown up by Ukraine to hamper Russian soldiers.

So those workers now operate on two-week shifts, and the nonprofit volunteers have the commute.

“It makes for a lot of long, difficult travel,” Betz said.

And the war is still very much going on. Betz said the air raid siren goes off nonstop, and you never know when it is going to happen, leading to plenty of anxious moments worried about what dangers are on the horizon.

“It is hardest on little kids and the dogs, people get scared,” she said. “It is something you never get used to.”

The work has made an impact. When the nonprofit first showed up, surveys found about 1,000 dogs living in the area. They were fighting over food, being hit by cars, and biting people.

Now the population has calmed and shrunk. More than 700 dogs have been spayed and neutered, leading to a population of less than 300 in the exclusion zone.

“Eventually we will get down to zero dogs, but the plan is to provide the happiest and healthiest life while they are here,” Betz said.

At first the dogs would only live to 3-4, due to the brutality of their environment. But thanks to the Chernobyl workers and the nonprofit organization, many dogs are doubling their lifespan, and the team thinks many will reach 12-15 years old.

There has also been a research component to the work. Through genome testing, the National Institutes of Health have found the dogs to all be descendants of the disaster. So there is a closed population of animals that researchers can examine to see the long-term effects of radiation.

“We don’t have something like this anywhere else in the world,” Betz said.

Dogs of Chernobyl needs support to continue its mission. Learn more and donate at cleanfutures.org/dogs-of-chernobyl. You can also buy merchandise that supports the organization, including patches like the one now proudly worn by President Zelenskyy.