Rescued animals at the front - died in drone attack

Two days before his death, Jesse Adams described his efforts in a post on Facebook.

He described there how he went to a small village outside Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, very close to the front line. The aim was to help a family who, in pure desperation, had asked for help in evacuating their animals.

"This was a very unique rescue for me, as I have never evacuated cows or pigs before. They had two cows with three calves, a pig, two dogs and six cats. They were able to bring their ducks and chickens in the car, but not all the other animals. They needed our help, so that's why we went there," wrote Jesse Adams.

Then he noted how dangerous the mission was. In a film, you hear how it explodes nearby. "It could have been us if we had been there just 1-2 minutes earlier," Adams wrote.

On October 25, he was injured when a Russian so-called FPV drone struck the volunteers' evacuation vehicle, shortly after they loaded it with rescued animals. According to the Kyiv Independent, the drone hit the windshield and Jesse Adams was so seriously injured that he later died in hospital.

Adams founded the RainCoast Dog Rescue Society in 2014 and had a very strong pathos, according to his colleagues. His work was not only about rescuing vulnerable animals, he also tried to help people who for various reasons could not take care of their animals.

In 2021, he traveled to Afghanistan where, according to Today in Canada, he coordinated the evacuation of nearly 300 dogs and cats. He helped bring together various organizations and built a temporary shelter for the animals at Vancouver International Airport.

When he died on October 25, it was the third time he was on assignment in Ukraine. He was already there in 2022 when he mainly helped transport animals across the border to other countries. This time he was in the Donbas region together with the Ukrainian organization Animal Rescue Kharkiv. In an interview with Capital Daily, he said that they carried out five rescue missions a week, each time they brought between 30 and 60 different animals.

"We are deeply saddened by the death of our friend and colleague Jesse Adams," wrote the Ukraine-based organization Animal Rescue Kharkiv, with which Adams collaborated, on social media.

A petition has also been started to try to have him posthumously awarded the Order of Canada. However, according to Capital Daily, that is impossible, as the recipients of that word must be alive when the appointment takes place.