KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Zoo will make a donation to the Ukraine Zoos Emergency Fund to support zoos in the war-torn country.
“Like many, the staff of the Kansas City Zoo have seen and heard heartbreaking stories of the challenges faced by the people of Ukraine,” KC Zoo Communications Manager Ellie McMullen said Wednesday in an email to KSHB 41. “As fellow animal care professionals, we are also particularly concerned for the animals at zoological facilities being impacted by the situation there.”
The zoo will donate $5,000 from its Conservation Emergency Response Fund to the emergency fund administered by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
The public is invited to join the KC Zoo in supporting zoos across Ukraine through an online campaign.
Russia — which annexed Crimea, a peninsula in south Ukraine that juts into the Black Sea, in 2014 — launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
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The money raised “will provide food and care to animals in conditions of relative welfare and safety, as well as provide support for care staff and management at the zoos,” according to the KC Zoo.
Zoos that will be helped are located in Myikolayiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv among others associated with the Ukrainian Zoo Association.
“Funds raised will be allocated based on need according to the requests the organization receives from zoos and will be distributed to recipients through channels subject to reasonable due diligence,” the KC Zoo in a statement announcing the gift.
