CNN
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When CNN hero Aaron Jackson welcomed the first group of dogs from Ukraine to a re-opened abandoned animal shelter in Poland, he also took in two refugees who shared an amazing story of survival.
Jackson, founder of the nonprofit planting peace, traveled to Poland from his Florida home shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. He estimates that he has helped find housing for about 300 refugees, including many dog owners who struggled to make ends meet with their pets.
“If you were walking through the camps, there were a lot of refugees who brought their dogs. And that only makes sense. It’s an extension of their family,” Jackson told CNN
Jackson learned that dogs coming from Ukraine were not allowed to mingle with local dogs in Polish shelters due to concerns about disease. So, he recently found an animal shelter vacant in the city of Pozna and obtained permission to take it.
An overwhelmed rescue organization in Ukraine first sent the dogs to Jackson’s shelter. A van carrying 17 dogs arrived with two refugees, Valery Liskratenko and her mother, Liliana.
“When they came to us, all I knew was they had no money and nowhere to go,” Jackson said. “And I could see immediately that they were good with dogs. … I couldn’t help but notice that all the dogs really loved[them].
They later learned that the two women spent 40 days in a bomb shelter in Ukraine to take care of these dogs.
“The dogs helped (them) through the worst 40 days of their lives, and (they) helped those dogs through the worst 40 days of their lives,” Jackson said.
Via a translator, Liskratenko told CNN that he and his mother have a love for dogs in their blood. Since she was young, they had puppies in the house and her mother would sometimes bring home stray dogs to provide food and medical care.
The day before the start of the war, they went to the bomb shelter with the puppies in their care and secured some old dogs at a nearby factory where Liskratenko worked as a guard.
They used to run back and forth from shelter to factory to feed them. But when the gunfire intensified so much that in order to continue the journey, they decided to bring the rest of the dogs to the bomb shelter.
Liskratenko said he and his mother waited for the right time one morning – after the overnight curfew ended and usually before the shelling began – for their final factory run. He found that some of the dogs were too sick or injured to accompany him, but he surrounded all his dogs and took them back to the bomb shelter. He said that after they reached safely, a bomb was detonated right where they were fleeing.
They did not want to leave the bomb shelter, but on May 4, Liszratenko decided to leave when the drinking water became contaminated, and the people and dogs there began to get sick.
He found an animal shelter in Ukraine, and people working there had seen Jackson’s social media posts about dogs coming across the border. So, they reached out to him and arranged a trip for Liskratenkos to accompany the dogs to Poland.
When Liskratenko and his mother arrived at the Planting Peace animal shelter in Poland, Jackson said he could tell they were terrified and scared.
“They didn’t know Planting Piece… They’re in a new country. They don’t speak the language. We don’t speak their language,” he said.
As for refugees, Jackson said Planting Peace would have helped the Liskratenkos anyway, but because they were so great with dogs and had a strong connection with them, he hired them to work at the shelter.
“They know these dogs incredibly well. So, they were able to pass this knowledge on to the vet… ‘This dog isn’t eating, this dog isn’t drinking.’ So, obviously, it was incredibly valuable,” he said.
Liskratenko calls the dogs his children and says that together they went through hell and reached heaven. She says that all the people living in the shelter do not speak the same language but understand each other because it is love that unites us.