CHERNOBYL EXCLUSION ZONE — A dozen puppies with satellite-dish ears and wagging tails scampered behind Natalia Melnichuk as she carried an oversize bowl of dog food. She stopped walking, turned around, and commanded the puppies to sit, showing off one of the four commands they’re required to know before leaving the small Ukrainian town of Slavutych to find new homes.
These puppies are about to become the first dogs ever to leave an area known as the Chernobyl exclusion zone and go live abroad with foreigners who’ve adopted them. The dogs have spent their lives in one of the strangest places on Earth, a region still grappling with the fallout of Europe’s worst-ever nuclear disaster.