Photograph: Courtesy of Solo East 
 
 While the dogs get some food and play from the visitors, their health needs are met by Clean Futures Fund, a US non-profit organisation that helps communities affected by industrial accidents, which has set up three veterinary clinics in the area, including one inside the Chernobyl plant. (A meeting between Clean Futures Fund representatives and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Administration in April 2017 to agree on the details of the Chernobyl Dogs program.) CFF has partnered with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Management Agency in Ukraine to provide medical care for the stray dogs that live in the area.We need your support to hire Ukrainian vets, purchase vaccines, anesthesia, cages, dog food and medical supplies, to set up a temporary hospital to conduct our spay/neuter operations, and to help manage and take care of this abandoned population of animals. After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, Pripyat and the surrounding villages were abandoned, and residents were not allowed to take their pets to safety. )(An early photo of the Unit 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine after explosions ripped the reactor apart and released radioactive contamination into the environment. Radioactive materials quickly spread into the environment, forcing officials in the former Soviet republic to evacuate over 120,000 people from nearly 200 cities and communities around the power plant. After the evacuation of Pripyat and the Exclusion Zone in the spring of 1986, soldiers of the Soviet Army were dispatched to shoot and kill the animals in Pripyat which had been left behind, but it was impossible to round up and cull all of the animals in the various small villages throughout the exclusion zone. Not only must they endure harsh Ukrainian winters with no proper shelter, but they often carry increased levels of radiation in their fur and have a shortened life expectancy. (A worker at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant feeds some of the stray dogs near the canteen where workers eat lunch. (Some of the Chernobyl workers feed the stray dogs near the Semikhody train station at the nuclear power plant. These canine gangs act as unofficial Chernobyl mascots, there to greet visitors who stop at Cafe Desyatka for some borscht. )While human interaction is good for the animals and for the workers, it also carries considerable risk. The dogs are driven out of the woods to the power plant by packs of wolves and a lack of food to support themselves in the Exclusion Zone. (Pictured above are two young puppies found at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April, 2017)In 2016, CFF developed a 3-year program to spay, neuter and vaccinate the stray dogs of Chernobyl. Our estimates are that over 225 stray dogs live at the nuclear power plant and over 750 stray dogs live in the exclusion zone.You can find stray dogs nearly anywhere on the power plant site, even in the controlled areas.Life is hard for the dogs of Chernobyl. The clinics treat emergencies and issue vaccinations against rabies, parvovirus, distemper and hepatitis. For the last 4 years, CFF co-founders Erik Kambarian and Lucas Hixson have been travelling to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as part of an international vocational delegation. During their first visit to the zone, they were shocked to discover the large population of stray dogs and puppies that live at the power plant and in the surrounding exclusion zone.The veterinary program is led by Dr. Jennifer Betz.
– Tarzan loves to fetch sticks, run after snowballs, and is, per Julie McDowall, "a playful example of global kindness and cooperation." Writing for the Guardian, McDowall explains that Tarzan is one of hundreds of stray dogs living in the 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant, a native population to the devastated Ukrainian area for heartbreaking reasons: They're the descendants of pets abandoned by their owners in Pripyat and other neighboring villages in 1986 when the plant melted down, an exodus that left "dogs howling, trying to get on the buses. … They ran after the buses for ages." Squads were sent in to shoot the animals left behind, but some of the dogs survived, and now their progeny wander the area as "Chernobyl mascots," hanging out near the local cafe and eagerly greeting visitors. McDowall concedes it's not the easiest life for the canines, who endure brutal winters and a life expectancy cut short by radiation—she says not many live past the age of 6. The Clean Futures Fund, a US nonprofit that's set up three veterinary clinics nearby, also notes the dogs are malnourished and exposed to rabies and vicious wolves, and that the plant "out of desperation, not desire" even hired a worker to come kill the dogs (he's now refusing to do so). But the fund, which so far has raised more than $46,000 to care for the pups, offers the dogs emergency medical care, as well as helps vaccinate and neuter them. "We want to get the population down to a manageable size so we can feed and provide long-term care for them," says one of the fund's co-founders. In the meantime, "some [tour] guides … try to avoid the dogs to stay on the safe side," one guide tells McDowall. "But I love them."