Blue dogs in the Chernobyl region. “They seem healthy and active.”

The non-governmental organization Clean Futures Fund (CFF) is trying to capture wild dogs near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to check why their fur turned bright blue, UPI reported.

The organization's employees encountered blue animals when they tried to catch dogs living in the wild in the so-called exclusion zone to sterilize them, the agency said.

“We came across three dogs that were completely blue,” the CFF said in an Instagram post.

Local residents claim that the dogs were not blue a week earlier.

About 700 dogs live in the area surrounding the power plant, where there was a failure and radioactive contamination in 1986. They are descendants of animals abandoned during the evacuation of the area.

According to the CFF, the blue color is most likely not the result of radiation or contamination. Members of the organization do not rule out that the dogs may have come into contact with strong industrial dyes or chemicals.

Despite their amazing color, the blue dogs seem healthy and active – said CFF. However, the Foundation wants to capture and study them in hopes of finding a solution to the mystery.

In the spring of 1986, the reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. The USSR authorities established a 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the gym and evacuated over 120,000 people. people from approximately 190 cities and towns. Evacuees were not allowed to take pets with them, the foundation informs on its website. Over time, dogs attacked by wolves in the forest began to live in the power plant area. The foundation treats them, vaccinates them, sterilizes them and feeds them.

os/ akl/