Why People Risk Their Lives for Animals in War
The hidden psychology behind a choice that seems irrational.
Posted April 21, 2026 | Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano
A woman stands in a doorway with a small backpack. The shelling is no longer distant. It comes in uneven bursts—a sharp crack followed by a dull, concussive thud. The pauses between impacts are getting shorter. All her neighbors left maybe a quarter of an hour ago. Her mind tells her she should do the same, and she should do it immediately.
She feels she cannot leave without her elderly dog. She keeps reminding herself that bringing her dog will slow her down and could cost her her life. Then, impulsively, she picks the animal up and puts him over her shoulder. Now she's ready to leave.
Scenes like this have unfolded repeatedly across Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. Civilians fleeing artillery and drone attacks have carried dogs across their shoulders, tucked rabbits into backpacks, and coaxed terrified cats into carriers as they moved toward border crossings. Children clutch turtles.
To an outside observer, such decisions can seem irrational. In conditions defined by survival, risking one’s life for an animal is hard to explain. But the explanation lies at the center of how the human mind functions under extreme stress .
In environments of sustained danger, the mind adapts in order to keep going.
Dr. Richard Mollica of Harvard Medical School’s Program in Refugee Trauma has described a phenomenon first identified by psychohistorian Robert Jay Lifton as “psychic numbing.”
“When people are facing the fear of death ,” Mollica explains, “they can’t live every moment thinking about their own death or the death of their children. So they shut down their emotions.”
The response allows people to function. It enables them to make decisions, care for others, and move through daily life even when danger is constant.
But it comes at a cost. As emotional responsiveness diminishes, so does the ability to feel connection, empathy, and meaning. Over time, something essential begins to thin out. People remain alive but less fully engaged with life.
Animals as Emotional Anchors
This is where animals take on a role that is easy to underestimate.
“You wake up in the morning with fear of death and annihilation,” Mollica notes. “And then your dog jumps on you, gives you love. For that moment, you are living in the present. You can feel again.”
Interactions with animals can interrupt psychic numbing. They restore emotional responsiveness in a way that is immediate and physical.
A cat curled against an individual’s chest in a cold apartment. A dog bounding forward to greet its owner. A horse nuzzling a person’s hand. These small moments reintroduce connection. They allow people to feel something other than fear.
Because of this, the decision not to abandon an animal is not irrational. It helps preserve the part of a person that can still feel alive, still connect, still love.
When the Bond Is Broken
The loss of animals in wartime carries consequences that go beyond the immediate.
A Ukrainian social worker, Pavel Pavlovsky, described conditions early in the invasion. At evacuation points, animals were being abandoned faster than anyone could care for them.
“In the first year of the full-scale invasion, there were veterinary volunteers at train stations putting hundreds of abandoned animals to sleep every day,” he said. “They simply had nowhere to shelter them, feed them, or provide any care because of the sheer numbers.”
Dogs, cats, parrots, chinchillas, and other domesticated animals were left behind as trains departed for safer regions or for Europe. The moral injury to the veterinarians who had to euthanize the animals is thought to have been incalculable.
In other areas, civilians have reported a reason more deliberate: “The Russians kill everything that breathes,” Pavlovsky said. The goal is not only physical destruction but psychological damage—akin to the bombing of churches, museums, and hospitals.
The Hidden Role of Veterinarians
Within this context, the work of veterinarians becomes more important than ever. Veterinarians are part of a larger system of psychological resilience , though their role is rarely acknowledged. They are not only treating animals—they are helping maintain the emotional stability of the people who depend on them.
Even in peacetime, veterinarians have one of the highest suicide rates among healthcare providers. War intensifies every strain. They operate under the same conditions of threat and scarcity as the populations they serve. They treat animals injured in attacks, care for farm animals with limited supplies, and bear witness to both animal suffering and human grief . And yet, each animal they save helps sustain the mental stability of its owner.
The conditions in Ukraine are extreme, but they clarify something often overlooked. Survival depends not only on physical safety but on the ability to remain emotionally engaged with life. Without that, endurance becomes far more difficult.
Animals play a distinctive role in this process. They offer a form of connection that remains accessible even when other systems break down.
Acts that may appear minor—a person refusing to leave without a dog, a family carrying a cat across a border, a veterinarian continuing to provide care under wartime pressures—reflect processes that are central to endurance.
These behaviors do not change the reality of war. But they shape how it is lived and survived. They create moments of emotional connection that allow individuals to withstand prolonged trauma.
If animals are part of this emotional survival system, then supporting them—and those who care for them—should be recognized as part of humanitarian response. Mollica would like to see:
The decision to carry an animal out of a war zone is not irrational. It is an act of preserving the capacity to feel, to connect, and, ultimately, to survive.
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Author and speaker Mitzi Perdue is an 81-year-old war correspondent who writes about Ukraine. Most recently she authored Relentles s, a biography of Mark Victor Hansen, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul .
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.