Cherkizovo employees join efforts to support stray animal shelters in Moscow

Cherkizovo Group employees have held a volunteer event supported by the Ray Foundation for Helping Homeless Animals. They brought food, medicines and other useful supplies to two Moscow shelters and helped with dog walking.

“Volunteering has become a good tradition for Cherkizovo. It’s not only people in need who get care from our employees but also animals that have no home. For the third year in a row, both white- and blue-collar staff from the Company’s different assets visit shelters to donate necessities, winterize enclosures, walk dogs and thus contribute to their socialization,” says Anastasia Mikhailova, Head of Communications at Cherkizovo Group.

This year, baskets were installed at Cherkizovo Group's Moscow sites (two offices and Cherkizovsky Meat Processing Plant) before the onset of cold weather to collect aid items for dog and cat shelters – pet food, medicines, hygiene products, leashes and harnesses, blankets and beds, and much more. The Company's employees took a very responsible approach to this campaign, so the aid had to be carried in several fully loaded vans.

On Saturday, November 25, Cherkizovo volunteers visited two shelters in the Moscow districts of Biryulyovo and Ostankino. There, they were welcomed by representatives of the Ray Foundation who gave them a tour to get acquainted with their pets. After the acquaintance, the Company's employees walked the dogs, with everyone taking out several animals in turn rather than just one.

Volunteers come to the shelters mostly on weekends, so every walk is a real treat for the dogs. However, it may be stressful for some of them, as many shelter residents have never before walked with a human, and a harness or leash scare them a lot.

People from the Ray Foundation say that a walk with a shelter dog is not just a trifle but an opportunity to start socialization: to get used to strangers and vehicles, to stop attacking other dogs, to learn to trust a human and follow their commands. All this increases the dog's chances to find a new loving family.