Natalia Popova has found a new purpose in life: rescuing wild animals and pets from the devastation caused by the war in Ukraine.
“They are my life,” says the 50-year-old, stroking a light-haired lioness like a kitten. From inside an enclosure, the animal revels in the attention, lying on its back and stretching its legs up toward its caretaker.
Popova, in collaboration with the animal protection group UA Animals, has already saved more than 300 animals from war; 200 of them went abroad and 100 found new homes in western Ukraine, which is considered safer. Many of them were wild animals kept as pets in private homes before their owners fled Russian bombing and missiles.
The Popova shelter in the village of Chubynske, Kyiv region, now houses 133 animals. It is a large zoo that includes 13 lions, a leopard, a tiger, three deer, wolves, foxes, raccoons and roe deer, as well as domestic animals such as horses, donkeys, goats, rabbits, dogs, cats and birds.
The animals awaiting evacuation to Poland were rescued from hotspots such as the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine, which see daily shelling and active fighting. Ukrainian soldiers who let Popova know when animals near the front need help joke that she has many lives, like a cat. “No one wants to go there. Everyone is afraid. I’m scared too, but I’m going anyway,” she said.
Natalia Popova, 50, talks to a tiger at her animal shelter in Kyiv region, Ukraine. (AP)
He is often shivering in the car on his way to rescue another wild animal. “I feel very sorry for them. I imagine the animals are under stress because of the war, and no one can help them,” said Popova.
In most cases, he knows nothing about the animals he rescues, neither their names and ages nor their owners. “Animals don’t show up when they come to us,” he joked.
During the first months of the war, Popova drove alone to the hot spots of the war, but recently a couple from UA Animals offered to transport and help her.
“Our record is an evacuation in 16 minutes, when we saved a lion between Kramatorsk and Sloviansk,” Popova said. An economist by training with no formal veterinary experience, he administered anesthesia to the lion because the animal had to be sedated before it could be transported.
Popova says she has always been very attached to animals. In kindergarten, he built houses for the worms and talked to the birds. In 1999, he opened the first private horse club in Ukraine. But it wasn’t until four years ago that he saved his first lion.
An anti-slaughterhouse organization approached her with a request for help to save a lion with a broken spine. He didn’t know how he could help because his experience was in horses. But when she saw a photo of the big cat, Popova couldn’t resist.
Bears enjoy themselves at an animal shelter owned by 50-year-old Natalia Popova in the Kyiv region. (AP)
He built an enclosure and caught the lion the next morning, paying the owner. Later, Popova created a social media page titled “Help the lioness” and people started writing in asking for help to save other wild animals.
Yana, the first lioness she rescued, has become part of the family since she was unable to find a new home due to a disability. Popova took care of her until she died two weeks ago.
The shelter is only a temporary stop for the animals. Popova rehabilitates them and then finds them new homes. She feels a special connection with each big cat, but says she doesn’t mind letting them go. “I love them and understand that I don’t have the resources to give them the comfortable life they deserve,” says Popova.
At first, he financed the shelter with his own funds from the horse business. But since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the horse business has not been profitable. With more than $14,000 a month needed to keep the animals healthy and fed, she has turned to loans and watched her debt climb to $200,000.
She gets money from UA Animals and donations, but worries about how to keep it all together have kept her awake at night. “But I’ll still borrow money, go to hot places and save animals. I can’t say no to them,” he said.
Popova sends all her animals to the Poznań Zoo in Poland, which helps her evacuate them and find them new homes. Some animals have already been transported to Spain, France and South Africa. His next project is to send 12 lions to Poland this week.
With no end in sight to the fight, Popova knows it will still be needed. “My mission in this war is to save wild animals,” he says.