Must-See Movie: Checkpoint Zoo – Heroic Mission To Save Animals Trapped Past Ukraine Front Line

Must-See Movie: Checkpoint Zoo – Heroic Mission To Save Animals Trapped Past Ukraine Front Line

This documentary was produced by the same filmmaker who brought us Cropsey, the story of Staten Island’s own bogeyman. Someone was kidnapping children, particularly those with developmental disabilities, and outside of one, were never found. The local woman responsible for the search effort, Donna Cutugno, recently passed.

You may find this movie to be a “Box of Tissues” movie, so you might want to prepare accordingly.  

This incredible film follows the rescue mission for the zoo right on the border of Russia and Ukraine, in what had become a gray zone. This was not a demilitarized zone either. It was an active war zone, and right in the middle of it was a zoo. With 5,000 animals, including predators and a petting zoo and animal therapy.

Before the war, it seemed like a great idea in the perfect place. The person who created it was an animal rescuer at heart, bringing home all sorts of little friends who needed help when he was growing up. So when he came up with the idea for a zoo, it seemed like a natural fit.

The movie leaves aside the arguments about zoos, but one thing is clear: generally zoo animals are born and raised to be such. They are wild in the sense that they’ll eat you if they can, but they wouldn’t be able to survive outside any more than your housecat or bunny rabbit. These animals had been there for years, and were now living and in need of help- from humans of course – because other humans were attacking Ukraine.

At first, the employees of the park, of which 10 remain, bring the animals food and water. But then, there is a serious bombing right in the ecopark, and multiple animals thrash themselves to death or die of fright. It is at that moment they decide the animals must be evacuated, but they need help. And that’s when Tymofii, a trained veterinarian, finds their social post and goes there himself. He puts together a band of friends as crazy as his is- and as willing to put their lives on the line for animals as he was.

Amazingly, in the course of the 71 days between start to finish, only four humans die, and only one from an animal attacking them. The other three were from missiles.

The animals weren’t quite so lucky, but none of them were killed during the rescue operation, though some died during one particularly concentrated bombing.

One of the incredible aspects of this whole operation was how the animals acted. They are driving along in a large truck, and there’s a moose standing there, looking at the driver. There’s a family of kangaroos sitting contentedly, waiting to reach their destination. You can see the animals expressing gratitude that they were rescued. Like they have an idea of the risks that were taken, and that their nightmarish ordeal is finally over.

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This small team of volunteers came together and rescued every animal that survived long enough to be taken out. All the while they were running and hiding from bombs, past the front lines of the Ukraine War. Every single day that they went to rescue animals was a day they risked their lives. And what was their reward? That the animals were safe and they’d done all they could. There is nothing that can describe was they did. They literally laid down their lives for another, and in this case, the other wasn’t a human. But they did it anyway, because they were compelled to help.

The most wonderful part of the story started when the predator cages were damaged by a night of particularly heavy bombing. It became truly possible that lions and tigers would be running through the streets hunting people in the neighboring town. So a plea from the heart was made by Oleksander, owner and creator of the Ecopark: either they put down all of the predators or they rescue them. But they cannot do it. They had no medicine, no predator safe transportation cages, and no vehicles that were big enough. And here, the world came together. They were given trucks, cages, medicine, everything they needed, and every predator was rescued.

This team embodied the spirit of O’hana, expressed so eloquently in Lilo and Stitch: “O’hana means nobody gets left behind.” And they also embodied the spirit of Milo Thatch in Atlantis, where he says, “It may not be the smart thing…. But it is the Right thing.”

This understanding the animals possessed was especially true of one of the lions. This giant lion in his cage after the rescue requests, receives, and most importantly ACCEPTS a cuddle from Oleksander…and Oleksander leaves the encounter intact, hands and all! To say that the lion doesn’t know what’s going on is total hogwash. He knows he was just rescued by people who risked their lives in the bombs the animals saw and heard daily. But the humans still came…. again and again and again.

Imagine if PETA’s Ingrid Newkirk had been rescuing animals under gunfire, most of the time! And yet, despite the risks, this group went back. And back. And back again. Until EVERY ANIMAL WAS SAVED, from the smallest hamster to lions to the giant camels and moose…. They brought out every last one…at great risk to their own life and limb. Ask yourself: would you have done the same?

This is definitely a must-see movie, the best documentary I’ve ever seen, and the best movie of this year so far. I highly recommend you watch it, especially if you love animals and even if you don’t. This film will demonstrate beyond any doubt that animals are just like us, in every way that counts.

Following are some quotes from the movie: 

“There are smart decisions and there are right decisions”

Andrii:”Animals have feelings too…When I look into the eyes of an animal, I see…I see love”

“When we were transporting the moose,I turned around and looked at them, and they were watching, almost with tears in their eyes. Such a stare, human-like. Human-like emotions. Fear, even gratitude”

“We saw that these animals are in many ways like us, but…they have no choice”

“If we have problems with a leopard in a cage, it’s because we put it in a cage…”

“We kept telling ourselves over and over…it’s not the animal’s fault that they were put in cages. They cannot save themselves. The animal is not to blame.”

Of the predator saving mission, multiple members of the team are heard to say “Saving Private Lion”

“The whole world came together, and we saved all the big cats”

“We fight for everyone”

“No animal will be abandoned. It doesn’t matter if it’s a piglet or it’s a tiger or a bear…”

“Not all animals are animals, and not all humans are humans. But many animals are human, and a whole lot of people are animals.”

Oleksander: “When they hold their hands out to you, asking you to pick them up, you don’t have to be a genius to see they understand everything”

“… these are our children, you know.”

Banner Image: Checkpoint Zoo. Image Credit – Falko Ink