In one of the more ironic
disasters of all time,
the unit 4 reactor of
the Chernobyl power plant
in Ukraine failed during an
emergency shutdown safety test
in 1986, belching nuclear
waste and radioactive isotopes
all over the nearby
city of Pripyat.
More than 30 years later,
hundreds of stray dogs
live in and around
the power plant,
along with the many wild animals
that call Chernobyl home.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Today on Weird
History, we're talking
about the dogs of Chernobyl.
But before we get started, make
sure to subscribe to the Weird
History Channel and let us know
what weird historical topic
you'd like to hear about.
So prep your tissues,
animal lovers.
We're going to Ukraine.
In April, 1986, the Soviet Union
evacuated the area surrounding
Chernobyl and its
120,000 citizens
and established the exclusion
zone, a kind of no man's land
covering 1,000 square miles.
That's a massive area, roughly
the size of Yosemite National
Park.
The fleeing civilians had
to leave behind everything,
including their pets, who, like
the heroic first responders
to the disaster, would suffer
the catastrophic effects
of the spreading radiation.
Unlike a nuclear bomb,
a reactor's radiation
just keeps on coming.
48 seconds of
exposure to the area
was lethal to the first
humans to reenter it, even
in lead-lined protective gear.
So the fact that they literally
shoved those animals who
followed their fleeing owners of
the bus and left them for dead
is only shocking if
you don't consider
how much the risk of
radiation contamination
rises with every warm body
you stuff in a steel boxcar.
It gets worse, though.
Plenty of pet owners left
notes on their doors pleading
with the government's
contamination squads
to spare the animals inside.
You can probably
guess how that went.
But life finds a way,
life breaks free,
and life expands
to new territories.
Painfully, perhaps even
dangerously, some of those pets
managed to outlast radiation
and the freezing weather.
Did we mention that
Ukraine is cold?
Like ice in the toilet
every morning cold.
The average winters
in most of the country
stay well below freezing.
Even if you have a nice furry
coat physically attached
to your skin, it's still a
hard environment to survive in.
No person, or dog
for that matter,
should want to live there.
About 3,500 generational
cleanup workers
continue to make the
exclusion zone inclusive.
SPCA International reports
that about 1,000 dogs
are living in and
around the disaster
site, many of them driven
out of the woods by wolves.
Yes, wolves, yet another
fun feature of living there.
Even now, the workers
aren't allowed
to take the dogs home with
them, but they do their best
to feed and care for
them while they're there.
That's where animal
organizations like Four Paws
and Clean Futures Fund come in.
They joined forces to help
the dogs of Chernobyl.
Together, these
philanthropists work
to spay, neuter, and
vaccinate the dogs,
curbing the spread of disease.
You can actually open your
home to these animals.
SPCA International
and Clean Futures Fund
have been working together
to make this happen.
In 2018, Ukrainian
authorities and the CFF
cleared over 200
dogs for adoption
in both Ukraine and
the United States.
Dogs under one-year-old are
sent to nearby Sloviotec
for a 45 day quarantine, after
which they can find forever
homes instead of
starving and freezing
in a man-made hellscape.
If you're hoping for any
radiated dog with superpowers,
you're going to be
pretty disappointed.
USC's resident Chernobyl
biologist Tim Musso
had this to say.
Most of them do not
seem to be radioactive.
That was a bit of a surprise.
We saw absolutely no
dogs with two heads
or any major genetic
abnormalities.
More than 450 animals were
tested for radiation exposure,
received medical
care, vaccinations,
and were spayed or neutered.
In a surprising twist,
the radiation testing
revealed that the dogs
living in the zone
were not harmfully contaminated.
Even those unfortunate
animals that
do have mutations, like
those dog eating wolves
we talked about earlier,
are unlikely to start
solving or committing crimes.
No tentacles, no acid breath,
just albinism and cataracts.
One area where the dogs
do seem adversely affected
are their lifespans.
Dogs from the area only
live for about four years.
The disaster crews do what they
can, but without a real home,
there is nothing
to keep these dogs
from dying of malnutrition,
predators, disease,
and the bitterly cold winters.
The underdogs of Chernobyl
have survived removal attempts
by authorities
for over 30 years.
As we mentioned
before, the Soviets
immediately moved in to
pull the dogs in 1986
when the disaster occurred.
But the exclusion
zone is a massive area
and Ukraine is one of the
poorest countries on earth.
And someone had to pay
for soldiers and bullets.
Eventually, the
Soviets pulled out
and the plan ran out of money.
So they tried to pay a
worker to do some more
culling of the animals.
According to the CFF,
the Clean Futures Fund,
that worker turned down the job.
Culling 1,000 dogs
is an awful lot
to ask of anyone,
whatever the price.
One of the best things
the CFF have done,
besides giving dogs medical
care and hopefully homes,
has been to place
collars on certain dogs
to gauge the radiation levels
wherever they may roam.
We've spent a lot of
time talking up the dogs,
but you don't want to pet them
unless they're in your house
or in a shelter.
If you're visiting Chernobyl--
yes, you can visit
for whatever reason,
and yes, people do it--
you should never, ever
touch a dog that hasn't
been decontaminated.
This should go without saying,
but any good human being
knows how hard it is to
resist petting a dog.
Since these dogs grew up
in the exclusion zone,
they don't come
without their quirks.
Here's what you need to know.
The dogs don't understand
the concept of a toy.
The only things they
enjoy playing with
are sticks and
anything they can eat.
The CFF developed a training
program for Chernobyl puppies
while they are in
the adoption shelter,
but they will likely still
need a little extra care
and attention to reach
their full potential.
All these pups ask is a
little of our patience, time,
and love, and they will give
that love back in spades
because, well, they're dogs.
It's what they do.
Man's best friend has to be
able to deal with man's worst
accidents, and the
dogs of Chernobyl
have had to suffer
it for generations.
It's not much to ask
any of us to do our part
to make it suck just
a little bit less
by giving what we can,
when we can, how we can.
What do you think about
the dogs of Chernobyl?
Would you ever adopt one?
Let us know in the comments.
And while you're
at it, check out
some of these other videos
of our Weird History.
