The dogs of Chernobyl

[Catherine]

People were forced to leave their pets behind and then the government tried to shoot them all. They must have been very confused and frightened. I am amazed they are so friendly now. Of course it has been 32 years and many generations of dogs have been born and died. The original dogs would have died almost 30 years ago. I am assuming that they didn't live long.

Why couldn't people have been allowed to take their pets. Of course they were not truthful about the evacuation and people did not know they were never coming back. It would have saved a lot of trouble later if they had brought their pets. It would have been a kind thing to do.

I am glad to hear that the dogs are being cared for now and helped. We can't change what was done, but at least the consequences can be fixed. Maybe someday dogs could be adopted. Although there may be too great a radiation risk and the dogs will never be able to live in homes. That would be sad.

One thought about the dogs being left behind. They would have been outdoors dogs so they would have been heavily contaminated by the time of the evacuation. Precautions would have to have been taken to safely evacuate the dogs. At the time the government was not telling the truth about what was going on. If they had removed the dogs and had taken all safety precautions to protect people from the radiation they were carrying,  people would have realized something was up.