Lions and Tigers and War
Meet Natalia Popova, a 50-year old economist in Kyiv, Ukraine, who has risked close encounters with tanks and rockets to save and rehabilitate more than 300 animals from the frontline of the Russian invasion.
Natalia always loved animals; she was the kid who built houses for worms and talked to birds. Although an economist by education, in 1999 she followed her passion and opened the first private horse club in Ukraine, which was her primary business until four years ago, when she unexpectedly saved a lion!
In 2018 an organisation asked for Natalia’s help with a lioness suffering from a broken spine. Although her expertise was horses, Natalia took one look at the big cat and went to work building an enclosure and raising funds on social media to cover rehabilitation. Word spread and soon Natalia was receiving rescue requests from all over Ukraine. Her mission steadily grew from a single lion enclosure into an animal shelter, which she bankrolled herself.
When Russia invaded in February, animals began roaming Kyiv’s streets. Lions, tigers, and other wild animals appeared in the crossfire; many who had been kept as pets were deserted when their owners fled the country. Ukrainian soldiers would alert Natalia when they sighted an animal and she’d drive to the hot spots alone, trembling in the car on the way there. It wasn’t just the war that scared her. With no formal veterinary experience, she had to learn how to anaesthetise, transport, and care for animals.
Today Natalia’s shelter is home to a menagerie of animals, from lions and leopards to goats and dogs. Once an animal is rehabilitated Natalia finds them new homes outside the warzone. To date, 100 of her rescues have been relocated to Western Ukraine and 200 sent safely abroad to zoos and reserves in Poland, Spain, France, and South Africa.
Despite being $200,000 in debt for medical expenses and feed, and with no end to the war in sight, Natalia is determined to keep on going. “I will still borrow money and go to hot spots, because I can imagine the stress animals are under because of the war, especially if there’s no one there to help them.”
