Big heart and Snowy Nose. How animals are rescued in freezing Chukotka

MOSCOW, 15. /TASS/. Here is a story about how people with big hearts rescued dozens of pets from deserted, freezing Arctic streets. "Back in 2019, we began it all in field conditions," said Anastasiya Goreltseva. Three years earlier, she opened the first and as yet only center for abandoned animals. Snowy Nose works in Russia’s northernmost city - in Chukotka’s Pevek. "Back then, our trailer had only one dim bulb. The trailer was our post-surgery unit, a vaccination center, and a home for healthy animals." Big heart and new home Anastasiya asks me not to say their home is a shelter - not to prompt to the locals they may leave a box with puppies by the door in hope somebody will take care of them. However, the girls did have to "settle" the situations of the kind. Quite heroically, because Pevek is surrounded with the Arctic Ocean and the tundra. The only option to get to the mainland is to take a plane. Thus, abandoned animals were double happy to find people with big hearts, who could offer new homes to them. "I can’t say foundlings are often: anyway, in the city, where five thousand live, people know each other pretty well. But yes, such cases did happen: we used to upload dogs onto air crafts which took them to new owners in nearby villages," she said. Over three years, the center’s employees have many stories - both sorrowful and uplifting. "Once, we had a homeless Malamut dog, which bore nine puppies. What to do? We placed all the babies among the national villages, and the mom found a new family, too. Later on, I received a picture - she was sleeping in bed next to her new owners. It was a happy-end story. It breaks my heart to remember another story, when people left for the mainland, throwing away the dog. They kept promising - they will return, will take the pet home. And one day, communication with them stopped for good. The dog did get a new family, but I don’t think it will ever forget the betrayal," Anastasiya told us. In any weather The pictures of happy doggies on the center’s site and social networks’ pages tell nothing about everyday tense work. Pevek is well-known for its south-eastern Arctic winds (so-called ‘southerner’), during which missing a work or class is a good reason. The wind may be blowing for days, and the streets get idle. Amid the snow grains, only figures of the Snowy Nose employees could be seen outdoors: in any weather - be it a storm or a frost of minus 50 degrees - the tailed creatures cannot wait. They need food and warmth every day. "In the very beginning, it was warm inside our charity trailer only because we, working at the city administration, twice a day started a fire in the old metal stove there," Anastasiya said. Working with animals was her dream since childhood. "When a student in the country’s south, I volunteered at shelters. When back to Chukotka, I met the girls online, and we started a busy campaign to sterilize the homeless dogs. We received financial support from Pevek’s residents, and later on commercial organizations followed suit. No, surgery is done at the veterinary station. What we do is to catch and afterwards to nurse the dogs. Feeding them, looking for new families - that’s also our work," she continued. The locals are very helpful: men assist in catching big dogs, some offer to cut wood, to carry heavy sacks of doggie food, but that’s only from time to time. "We had an experience, when we employed a person to do this job, but it didn’t work," the girl added. Presidential grant Such non-profit organizations usually experience problems with financing. Grants may be helpful. In order to apply for a grant, the Pevek volunteers registered the center. For a few year running, Snowy Nose won municipal grants, and in 2021 they received a presidential grant. The money from the federal budget, more than one million rubles ($17,000), was used to expand, equip and insulate trailers, to buy feed and medications. Local businesses have been very helpful: a mining company and an oil base bought for the center, containers for dogs. The only thing that causes disappointment is that in Pevek there is practically no veterinary equipment. "The first year was most complicated - we could do practically nothing," the center’s COB Anna Korvetsky said. "In the first winter, right on the eve of February 23, we drove into a dog. Minus 40, the warm blood was freezing into the ice road… It was the first dog we put down. The veterinary station in Pevek works rather for prevention. At times, animals die in our arms. This is what people have to realize, when they plan to join volunteers." Extremely distressing are situations, where animals may need qualified medical assistance and long-term treatment, but that’s out of question at the edge of the world. "We are always in despair facing truly complicated cases," Anna Korvetsky said. "Once, a dog got caught in a hunter’s trap, it did get out, but was too frightened and shocked to approach people. We’ve caught her, treated. The dog faced an amputation. Later on, we gave it the name of Paw. I can’t complain about the vets working at the only existing station here, as we are doing the same thing together. Sometimes, situations require complex studies or simple blood tests, but there’s no equipment. Those are moments of despair." "Back in 2020, the southerner (south-eastern wind) was strong enough to ruin the roof of a house, to disrupt communication. We had a dog in the post-surgery unit. How can we leave it? One of our girls agreed to take it home. We take everything necessary, carry the dog, carry the bags, we can barely keep balance in the storm. Luckily, everything was fine, the dog recovered and now is running happily across Pevek." Despite anything As yet, nobody has been willing to join the girls for a permanent job. The center organizers explain it by the "Northern" thinking: many locals come to Pevek to work for a few years to make money, and their lives are just a "home-work" routine. Thus, the Snowy Nose center’s volunteers can rely on themselves only. Neither their main occupations, or pregnancy, or maternity leaves are excuses to miss the work in the center. The girls say - volunteers actively supporting others, often face negative reactions. Very few people in Pevek believe the girls have kind and open hearts, and on their own choice spend time to rescue animals, they said. The girls have learned how to cope with such attitudes. "You’ll be surprised to learn there are no homeless cats in our city," Anastasiya said. "They simply cannot survive in the Arctic conditions. Some we’ve rescued, had sterilized and found new homes for them. Thus, whenever a kitten is born in Pevek, people, who want to give warmth and care to those tailed creatures, practically fight for it. We dream there won’t be homeless dogs in our city, so that the appearance of a new puppy in a warm house of caring owners could be an exciting event.". Read more