‘Crazy’ Kiwi travels to war-torn Ukraine to fundraise for animals

They known as him “crazy” – however when Tim Groenendaal noticed how the struggle was affecting animals in Ukraine, he jumped on a airplane to the besieged nation to assistance on the bottom.

Now the 50-year-old Aucklander has launched a marketing campaign, Animals for Animals, in a bid to increase NZ$39,271 for Ukrainian animals. By Thursday the venture had raised NZ$10,943.

His want to assist began with a now well-known photograph Groenendaal noticed in February. The picture confirmed a girl carrying a German Shepherd over her shoulders as she walked – reportedly 17km – to the Polish border.

“I think the dog was elderly, and couldn’t do it any more, so she put it over her shoulders,” he mentioned.

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“[Animals are] wholly reliant on us to help. I thought, like many people, what can I do to help?”

Groenendaal received involved with UAnimals, a Ukrainian animal welfare charity that helps animals in the course of the struggle, and supplied to journey to Ukraine to help.

“They were like, are you crazy?”

But he left New Zealand on March 27 and on May 6, from Ukraine, he launched Animals for Animals – a marketing campaign designed to increase funds and consciousness for UAnimals.

Through his personal Instagram web page, in addition to his lately launched Animals for Animals web page he hopes to carry consciousness by giving voices to the animals themselves.

“I’m Jessie. I don’t need any new toys for a while … I hope heaps of animals from around the world join me to be part of our massive Animals For Animals gang,” he wrote in a single publish in early May.

“It’s a bit of a gimmick, but it hasn’t been done before,” he says.

“I didn’t want it to be another platform or channel that [just showed bleak material].”

Groenendaal’s time in Ukraine comes after a vibrant and assorted profession which has seen him work as an artist supervisor and promoter within the leisure business – serving to Anika Moa safe her first main label cope with Atlantic Records, and later launching a spin-off stage present of Dancing With the Stars.

He has additionally been a board member with SAFE for Animals over the past three years, and today, collectively together with his companion, Xavier Black, owns and runs a few boutique mattress and breakfasts on Waiheke Island, and within the historic gold mining city of St Bathans, Central Otago.

During the Ukraine shelter visits, Groenendaal has come throughout foxes, lions, cats and different wild animals, however overwhelmingly, he says, they’re crammed with canine. One was housing about 3,500 when he visited.

He says within the early days of the invasion, individuals had to make tough choices relating to their pets.

“A lot of people don’t have cars here, particularly in the main cities,” he says.

Because of that, many individuals fleeing their properties had been both leaving a canine in a locked home with as a lot meals as attainable (the native police had been nice at breaking into homes to rescue animals, Groenendaal says), or simply letting their canine go. The outcome has been an amazing variety of deserted canine being taken in by native shelters.

Groenendaal is due to return to New Zealand on Monday, however continues to be hoping to attain the fundraising goal.

“Sometimes we need to be their voice, and take responsibility for them in certain times of need,” he says.