Chernobyl’s stray dogs offered new life in US

CHERNOBYL: The restricted zone around Chernobyl is eerily quiet, but one building near the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster is full of barking and whining.

The long, one-storey structure once served as a makeshift medical centre for workers from the plant to receive aid after the 1986 disaster.

Today, it is a hospital for the stray dogs that remain in the 30km exclusion zone.

Lucas Hixson first came to the Ukrainian disaster site from the United States in 2013 to work as a radiation specialist, but set up the Dogs of Chernobyl adoption and vaccination scheme after seeing the number of canines still in the area.

About 1,000 stray dogs live in the zone where people are not allowed to reside, according to the Clean Futures Fund (CFF), the US group that oversees the adoption project.

These dogs have to endure severe winters, snow and rain, not to mention disease and lingering radiation.

CFF has partners in the United States who help find new homes for the dogs.

The Dogs of Chernobyl programme offers dogs under one year old up for adoption in the United States, while adult dogs are vaccinated, sterilised and sent back to the area where they were caught. The response has been good, with 300 offers for the first 200 puppies in a short period of time, Hixson said.

While people might imagine deformed creatures, the puppies born there are just like any other.

“People who have never been here expect to see something without ever coming and looking for themselves,” said Hixson.

“These are the healthiest and smartest dogs I’ve ever seen.”