Chris Jimenez has safely returned home along with 35 German Shepherds he rescued from Ukraine.
Update May 15, 2022
Jimenez used social media to help him raise over $55,00 to charter a plane to bring the dogs home to California.
“The warzone aspect wasn’t the difficult part. It was the logistics of traveling with 35 German Shepherds,” said Jimenez.
Jimenez is currently busy building thirty-five 8′ x 8′ x 8′ feet high kennels. Friends are helping Jimenez construct the kennels as quickly as possible.
“Right now, the dogs need to go through some extensive rehab, they’ve been shoved in a car for hours and then shoved on a plane, and they were in bad condition when I showed up,” said Jimenez.
The German Shepherds range from 6 months to 7 years old and are trained for explosive and narcotics detection and missing person searches.
New homes for the dogs will need to be the right fit. Jimenez stated that most dogs would likely go to police departments or a government agency.
Below is Jimenez’s journey.
Update April 16, 2022
The funding goal to bring Chris Jimenez and German Shepherds home from Poland has been reached.
However, Go Fund Me has frozen the funds due to fraud reports. In a Tik Tok video, Jimenez updated followers that he isn’t concerned about the fraud investigation as he is still stranded in Poland and has documented his journey in videos on social media.
Jimenez has been able to ship home eight German Shepherds and has an airline lined up to fly himself and the remaining 27 German Shepherds back to California.
Below is Chris Jimenez’s story about rescuing 35 German Shepherds from Ukraine, published on April 11, 2022.
Chris Jimenez, the owner of K-9 Connect, based in San Diego, California, is a man of action. Jimenez is currently in Poland after evacuating thirty-five trained German Shepherds from Ukraine.
Chris Jimenez, the owner of K-9 Connect, based in San Diego, California, is a man of action. Jimenez is currently in Poland after evacuating thirty-five trained German Shepherds from Ukraine.
Jimenez is a 27-year-old army veteran using social media to document his journey and raise funds to fly every dog back home to San Diego.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Jimenez got a text from a Ukraine contact. The message was short, “We are being bombed.”
Jimenez immediately booked a flight to Warsaw, Poland, then took a train into Ukraine and hitchhiked to the capital city of Kyiv to meet up with his contacts and rescue 35 of his German Shepherds trained to work with military and law enforcement.
Jimenez decided to evacuate the dogs to the Polish border. Initially, Jimenez made the ten to twelve-hour drive with three German Shepherds at a time, in a small hatchback which was all the little car could fit. Jimenez was loaned a van which sped up the relocation process.
The evacuation process took three weeks, but all the dogs are safe in Poznan, Poland.
Photo Credit: Chris Jimenez
The City Council of Poznan is letting Jimenez and the dogs stay in an abandoned animal shelter. Jimenez is grateful for the accommodations and is trying to raise funds to get home with no K9 left behind.
K9 Handler Tim Davis with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office in Maine is connected to Jimenez through social media. Davis is sharing Jimenez’s journey with his Tik-Tok followers to help raise money to get Jimenez and the dogs back to the United States.
Several dogs were scheduled to fly home separately, but the flights didn’t happen. Jimenez has a company able and willing to fly all the dogs home on one plane. This happening is a matter of money. Jimenez has set up a GoFundMe page.
As of Monday, April 11, 2022, Jimenez has raised $30,545 with a goal of $38,768.
If you want to donate to help get these dogs home, click HERE for GoFundMe
Paypal: k.9.connectllc@gmail.com
Venmo: k9connect
Jimenez is desperate to return home but has stated in Tik-Tok videos not to feel sorry for him or feel bad if you cannot financially help because he knew what he was getting himself into.
After spending the last five weeks in Europe, Jiminez is grateful to all the people he encountered in Ukraine and Poland who helped him get his dogs transported and safe.
“In all these terrible places, people saw me, and they’re like this guy looks lost, he’s going to get himself killed, we should help this guy,” Jimenez said. “We don’t speak the same language, never met, will never meet again, probably. Complete strangers took me in every single step of the way and just helped me.”
Jimenez’s journey is on Tik-Tok @partieswithwolves
h/t NewsCenterMaine.com, cbs8.com
