When a Ukraine International Airlines plane landed in Toronto on June 13 and passengers disembarked after a 10-hour flight from Kyiv, they were unaware of the silent tragedy that had unfolded in the air.
Beneath them, in the plane’s cargo hold, 38 puppies lay dead in their crates.
The Kyiv-Toronto flight had carried more than 600 pets, their crates stacked on top of one another. Many of the surviving animals were in bad shape, too. It prompted some to conclude that the dogs had died of suffocation.
The story came to public attention by accident, when a witness wrote on social media that she had seen hundreds of animals at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Both the Canadian and Ukrainian authorities have launched investigations into the deaths of the puppies.
But the gruesome incident might be just the tip on the iceberg. According to experts, many more cases of mistreatment of animals sold abroad by Ukrainian breeders likely remain in the shadows.
Tragic loss
Professional show dog handler Abby Lorenzen was at Pearson airport to pick up an animal when she witnessed hundreds of pets being taken off the flight from Kyiv.
In a Facebook post published on June 15, Lorenzen said that “Toronto has never seen this amount entering.”
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA), which operated the flight, said that there were 559 dogs and 89 cats on the plane. They were transported in 337 crates.
“Placing more than one animal in cages is allowed if the animals can move freely,” the company said in a statement.
Because of the overwhelming load, it took the airport staff hours to finish the paperwork, Lorenzen wrote in the Facebook post. Meanwhile, the pets remained in their closed crates.
Lorenzen’s post drew public attention to the issue.
As it turned out later, 38 French Bulldog puppies that arrived on that flight died, while many of the surviving pets suffered from weakness and dehydration.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which oversees the country’s animal imports and exports, has launched an investigation into the accident.
The flight took off from Kyiv at a time when Ukrainian borders had been closed for months due to the COVID-19 lockdown, which is why the demand for animal transportation might have been higher than usual. Ukraine resumed regular air travel on June 15, two days after the Toronto flight.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s National Police have opened a case into animal cruelty.
Ukraine International Airlines initially denied knowing anything about the death of the puppies on its flight.
In a Facebook post published three days after the flight, the company said that, just like other airlines, it transports animals for commercial purposes. However, it denied violating any rules or norms.
The company pointed out that it is regularly being monitored by the IATA Operational Safety Audit and that this procedure includes checking the conditions for transporting animals.
Days later, UIA admitted that pets died on their flight and offered “its condolences for the tragic loss of animal life.”
“UIA is working with local authorities to determine what happened and to make any changes necessary to prevent such a situation from occurring again,” the company said in a Facebook post on June 19.
UIA later published another statement saying that the company had started an internal investigation to find the reason the pets died. For the time of the investigation, UIA suspended the manager responsible for freight transportation and logistics.
The company said that the cargo compartment of the aircraft where the animals were transported was ventilated and temperature-controlled.
“The condition of the animals during the flight is determined by a large number of factors, including the conditions of transportation and storage of animals by shippers before the airline transfer,” the statement reads.
However, UIA also said it would no longer use the Boeing 767 aircraft, which flew to Toronto, to transport animals.
Ukraine International Airlines has not responded to the Kyiv Post’s request for comment.
Thriving business
According to Canada’s CBC News, apart from other pets, the plane transported 500 French Bulldog puppies. That breed is particularly popular in Canada, multiple Western media reported.
So many dogs of the same breed couldn’t have been a coincidence, and they were clearly sent to Canada for sale.
Ruslan Fedyna, a logistics specialist at the Ukrainian Pet Cargo company, which offers animal transportation services, says that there’s significant demand for such service in Ukraine and it mostly comes from breeders.
According to Fedyna’s estimates, there are about 10-20 companies that offer such service.
Fedyna says that Ukrainian breeders mostly transport dogs and cats. The most popular destinations are Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia and Belarus. However, pets are sent to places as far as the United States and Canada.
Depending on the destination and the size of the crate, shippers can pay as much as $1,000-$2,000 for transportation.
Despite the high cost, the business is profitable for breeders.
According to Canadian classifieds websites, a French Bulldog can cost anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000. In Ukraine, breeders sell the same dog for about $500.
The opportunity to make a bigger profit pushes breeders to sell pets abroad.
Fedyna says that breeders rarely register pets at customs and pay taxes.
According to an investigation by Deutsche Welle, the canine black market is worth billions of euros in Europe. Puppies are illegally brought from Eastern to Western Europe.
In their chase for profit, breeders often put animals at risk.
Fedyna says that one of his company’s customers requested the transportation of two Sphynx cats to the U.S. The company warned that the cats might freeze — since they have no coat, they have a limited ability to conserve body heat. The customer still decided to proceed and, as a result, the cats froze to death during the long flight.
In such cases, both the breeder and the buyer are well aware of the risks. If the animal suffers an injury or dies, nobody seeks an investigation.
And incidents like that are not rare, Fedyna says.
“It’s a typical situation,” he told the Kyiv Post.
Animals as commodity
Oleksandr Todorchuk, an animal rights activist and co-owner of a PR firm, says that most stories of animal cruelty during transportation likely don’t reach the public eye. He blames poor conditions during the flights for regular pet deaths during transportation.
Todorchuk says that breeding itself is a cruel practice. Throughout their lives, some animals are forced to repeatedly become pregnant, give birth and undergo multiple Caesarean section surgeries to speed the process.
“For (breeders), animals are nothing but profit,” Todorchuk told the Kyiv Post.
The activist says that another issue is the way Ukrainian law defines animals.
“An animal is a commodity with no peculiarities, just like a closet,” Todorchuk says. “So if an owner has no complaints — no one will be held responsible.”
