Fort Collins nonprofit providing veterinary care for refugee pets at Ukrainian border – Coloradoan

After seeing the steady stream of Ukrainian refugees trek across their borders on the news, Fort Collins veterinarian Jon Geller witnessed their journeys firsthand earlier this month. 
Geller, founder and director of the Fort Collins-born Street Dog Coalition, recently spent 10 days working out of a makeshift veterinary clinic tent on the eastern tip of Romania — standing ready as weary Ukrainian refugees were ferried across the Danube River carrying suitcases and, in some instances, their family pets. 
The temporary border clinic, which was set up by the nonprofit with the help of a pair of Romanian veterinarians and local border authorities, is providing refugees’ pets with free veterinary exams, vaccines, microchipping and the documentation and pet passports needed to keep traveling with them through the European Union, Geller said. 
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In other cases, Geller said he saw transports come across the border with homeless pets that had been left behind in Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country. 
The Street Dog Coalition started in Fort Collins in 2015, offering free veterinary care and services for people experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness. These pop-ups still occur weekly at The Murphy Center for Hope as well as monthly at Loveland’s Salvation Army and other Northern Colorado locations.
The coalition has grown to include dozens of teams across the U.S., but this month’s trip to the Ukraine-Romania border — funded through a series of emergency grants and donations from the public — was the organization’s first international operation.
Like their clientele across the U.S., many of the Ukrainian refugees he met didn’t have a place to call home at the moment, Geller said.
“I’d ask for their addresses, like we do here in Fort Collins, but they don’t really know where they’re going,” Geller said. 
Many of the refugees Geller met were women and children, owing to most Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 being banned from leaving the country during the war. 
Braving the bitter cold, Geller said he watched as refugees streamed out of ferries onto Romanian soil. 
“They’re lugging suitcases, they have kids they’re carrying, they have their pets,” Geller recalled. “They’re distressed, but determined.” 
Geller was able to communicate with many of the refugees by speaking through an interpreter. One older Ukrainian man Geller met at the border had traveled there by van with his dog, a beautiful Belgian Malinois, he said. 
“Because he had Russian credit cards, they had been cut off,” Geller said, referring to sanctions placed on Russian banking institutions. “He had no gas in his van, no means of getting out of there.” 
The coalition was able to get the man some cash, which ultimately helped the man and his dog to journey to France, where he had relatives, Geller said. 
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After 10 days in Romania, Geller returned to Colorado on Saturday. The border clinic remains in operation, with U.S. veterinarians and technicians traveling in shifts to help through at least April, said Geller, who receives daily reports from the clinic.
“We made a commitment to stay there as long as necessary,” Geller said, noting that the clinic could see an even steadier stream of refugees if Odesa — the border crossing’s closest major Ukrainian city — experiences increased attacks by Russian forces. 
Calling The Street Dog Coalition’s Ukraine mission a “once-in-a-lifetime” operation for its volunteers, Geller said he’s still struck by two unifying forces he witnessed at the border: how Romanians rallied around fleeing Ukrainians and the bond he saw between refugees and their pets. 
“It took a lot of effort for these families, with everything on their backs, to also take their pets,” Geller said. “That human-animal bond is pretty universal.”
Donations are still being accepted at thestreetdogcoalition.org/operation-ukraine.
Erin Udell reports on news, culture, history and more for the Coloradoan. Contact her at [email protected]. The only way she can keep doing what she does is with your support. If you subscribe, thank you. If not, sign up for a digital subscription to the Coloradoan today. 

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