Zeros

The Blue Dogs of Chernobyl : A Halloween Mystery With Real Consequences As Halloween approaches, an eerie sight has emerged from one of the world's most haunting places. In early October, animal welfare workers in Ukraine's Chernobyl Exclusion Zone discovered something deeply unsettling: three feral dogs whose fur had turned bright blue. This isn't a costume. It isn't special effects. And that's precisely what makes it so concerning. The dogs were spotted by volunteers from the Dogs of Chernobyl program, an initiative run by the nonprofit Clean Futures Fund . For years, these dedicated workers have traveled into the 1,017-square-mile exclusion zone to provide veterinary care, food, and sterilization services to approximately 700 dogs that live in the contaminated area. These animals are descendants of pets abandoned when residents evacuated following the catastrophic 1986 nuclear disaster. The timing near Halloween feels almost too on the nose, but...