Massachusetts charity helps save thousands of animals in need in war-torn Ukraine

As Russian forces began attacking, officials at a zoo in eastern Ukraine put out an international call for help.

The Harmony Fund, a Massachusetts-based international animal support charity, responded right away, donating funds to help feed and evacuate moose, orangutans, lions and other larger critters to safety.

More than a year after Russia invaded, the zoo — Feldman Ecopark in Kharkiv — is rebuilding, and some of the 3,500 animals that survived are starting to return, Harmony Fund founder Laura Simpson told the Herald.

Six zoo employees and volunteers died during the bombings, and roughly 100 animals didn’t make it out alive.

“It was a complex web of challenges that we had to overcome and learn as we went,” Simpson said in an interview Friday. “Because we were able to get that aid through, so many of the animals did survive. Otherwise, I don’t even want to really think about what might have happened.”

The Harmony Fund has donated more than $350,000 for animal care in Ukraine, with Massachusetts residents contributing roughly a quarter of that amount, said Simpson, who resides in Sterling, a small town in Worcester County.

Funds have helped the charity’s Ukrainian partners buy truck loads of food, repair shelters that had been bombed and badly damaged, and supply refugees with necessities for their pets — food, veterinary medicine and passports.

More than 40,000 animals in total have been saved through the Harmony Fund’s donations, Simpson said.

“Especially when the war first broke out, people in the Greater Boston area were looking for someone who was helping the animals,” she said. “So many of them told me they were so surprised that right here close to home this international organization was fulfilling their heart’s desires.”

Simpson has worked in animal welfare for 27 years, and she called her charity’s work in Ukraine the toughest mission of her career. Tens of thousands of pets that lost their owners, who either died or fled their war-ravaged homeland for safety in neighboring countries, now have at least some shelter and care, she said.

At least 8,000 civilians have been confirmed dead — with nearly 13,300 injured — since Russia invaded in late February 2022, according to a recent estimate from the United Nations’ human rights office.

“It’s just so deeply tragic and so wounding,” Simpson said. “When the (Russian) forces are pushed back there is this aftermath period where whatever animals were in that besieged community, their health and well-being is catastrophic.”

The Harmony Fund is continuing its efforts in Ukraine as there is no end in sight, Simpson said. On Thursday, she sent funds to rescue cows who are in poor health in an area that Russian forces recently moved out of. The funds also will provide veterinary care and relocate the cows to safe pasture land so they can live as they should, she said.

Some of the charity’s Ukrainian partners have stayed home to help protect animals, sending their children to safety in neighboring countries, Simpson said.

“Despite their fatigue, our partners have this bottomless determination to protect the animals in their care,” she said. “It’s just a different time in history and a story I wish didn’t have to be told, but there are some extraordinary individuals that we are so blessed to work with.”