"My affectionate and necessary animal": announcing the winners

"My affectionate and necessary animal": announcing the winners

On Saturday, April 13, in Zelenogradsk, at the ecological site "Green Cat", took place the awarding of laureates and prize-winners of the fifth season of the International Award "My affectionate and necessary animal" among our younger brothers, as well as among animal rights activists.

The popularity of the good project is growing every year and this season 65 candidates from 34 regions of the Russian Federation, as well as from Azerbaijan, Great Britain, USA, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Peru applied for the Award. The story of each prize—winner and diploma winner is touching and instructive, no matter under what circumstances the heroes committed their bright, resonant deeds - on the line of fire or in peaceful life.

The jury in the fifth season also expanded its geography with representatives from Turkey, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan. 

According to the arbitrators, the winner of the Award in the nomination "Responsible for those.." unanimously became a unique Center for the rescue of cubs from the Tver region, whose employees have been saving club-footed orphans throughout Russia for more than 20 years.

Silver awards went to junior sergeant of the Russian Armed Forces of Russia Yakov Vereshchagin (call sign "Fox"), as well as trackers of the search party "Courage". Vereshchagin sheltered a pregnant cat on the line of contact, and then transported the entire pride to his small homeland in Zlatoust. And the Novgorod search engines having discovered during the expedition near Staraya Russa the remains of an orderly dog from the Great Patriotic War, erected a monument to the heroic dog at their own expense.

The bronze prize winner was the volunteers of the shelter "Mehr" from Samarkand. The jury members could not help but note the selfless activity of the shelter staff, who provide shelter to thousands of street animals. The arbitrators were especially impressed by the story of the rescue of a stray dog, which was beaten and tied to the rails by unknown knackers.

Special prizes were awarded to residents of the Moda microdistrict (Istanbul, Turkey), who created a unique system for helping street animals, as well as the I am Free Foundation (Leningrad Region). The foundation's volunteers evacuated the wounded Oryol trotter from Mariupol and brought it back to life.

Two more nominal prizes "In the name of goodness" went to people who have done very humane things in extreme conditions. Kamchatka rescuer Ivan Berezhnov, pulling a dog that had inhaled carbon monoxide from the fire, brought it back to life by performing resuscitation in the cold. And major Nikolai Klobukov (call sign "Thunder"), demonstrated to the residents of the Lugansk village of Svatovo the essence of the Russian warrior: not to take anyone's life without good reason. The officer did not shoot at the foaled Asian Shepherd dog, which regularly terrorizes the villagers, but having found a common language with the formidable dog, took her to his unit.

The diploma winners were worker Alexey Yakimov from Nizhny Novgorod , who pulled out a moose trapped in a deep hole in the taiga. As well as the project "House of the Yellow Dog", in which Lipetsk volunteers organized a platform for special children to interact with their younger brothers, Yakut district policeman Artur Egizarov, who saved a newborn calf from imminent death, and a student from Anapa Evelina Gurashkina, who created the Nikolsky Red Book turtle rescue center.

The very young candidates of the season were also awarded honorary diplomas for their good deeds and responsible attitude to the world around them. Sofia Tsekapibzeva and Omar Alkhilaev from Stavropol, sisters Maria and Milana Marshina from Kaliningrad, as well as twins from the Ryazan region Alexandra Timonina and Tatiana Timonina.

According to the results of the online voting among the associates of the project, the leader in the nomination "Responsible for those" was the Mikhalych Cats project, in which the Kramarenko family from St. Petersburg takes care of street cats in their neighborhood. 

In the nomination among our smaller brothers, the first place (unfortunately, posthumously) went to the nine-month-old mongrel Varya, who saved her comrades from a drone in the special military zone. The silver prize winner was the cat Piliusha from a hospice near Moscow, where a fluffy therapist helps terminally ill children. Bronze awards were awarded to a police fox terrier from Kaliningrad Fedor, who has solved several serious crimes and a Simferopol Labrador Sardelya, for saving people in the mountains of Crimea and in the special military zone

The special prize of the nomination went to the Russian Hatiko — Yalta mutt Mukhtar. The dog has been waiting for his dead owner to return home for more than 12 years. 

Honorary diplomas were awarded to the border collie Wzhik, who saves people, who got lost in the forests of the Leningrad region, the mascot of the fighters of the Yug group, the cat Barmaley, the raccoon Bulochka from Novosibirsk, who works as a psychotherapist for dogs who were bullied by people, the Nizhny Novgorod cat Strashila, who warned residents of an apartment building about a fire, and a former employee of the Zelenogradsk shop cat Seryozha , unwittingly raised the question of the limits of tolerance in the communication of animals and humans.. 

According to the majority of Internet users, a shaggy therapist from the Moscow region, the cat Piliusha, became a folk hero in the nomination for our younger brothers.

Angelina Strizhenkova, a consultant to the Government of the Kaliningrad Region, was awarded one of the most prestigious prizes of the season — the award of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the North-Western Federal District. The civil servant takes vacations at her own expense and spends them in the Donbas, where, together with local volunteers, she rescues animals left without owners from the bombings.

Congratulations to everyone once again and we remind you that there are no losers in our project!