Jesse Adams, founder of Victoria’s RainCoast Dog Rescue Society, died after suffering fatal injuries when a drone struck his vehicle during a rescue mission in eastern Ukraine.
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Jesse Adams, a British Columbia man who founded the RainCoast Dog Rescue Society in Victoria, has died after being injured while transporting animals in eastern Ukraine.
The rescue society said that last Friday Adams posted on Facebook that he was heading out on a rescue mission in eastern Ukraine. Two days later, an FPV (first-person view) drone struck the vehicle he was using to transport the animals, according to the society.
Adams suffered severe injuries and underwent emergency surgery, but doctors were unable to save him.
Penny Stone, executive director of the Victoria Humane Society, said Adams “was a force of nature.” She added that he was “unbelievably go, go, go” and stepped up wherever help was needed.
Stone said Adams had also travelled to small communities to help the people living there, and that while he was in Ukraine he was rescuing “tigers and lions and different kinds of species, pigs and goats and stuff,” as he posted about his work.
RainCoast Dog Rescue Society announced Adams’ passing on social media, writing that “after a life lived in service to animal welfare, Jesse made the ultimate sacrifice to his beliefs on the front lines of Ukraine.”
Lori Kalef, the SPCA International Director of Programs, said she was stunned by the news, adding, “I still can’t believe it.” Kalef said she estimated Adams and his team had evacuated as many as 1,000 animals from the war-torn country, including thousands more at home. She added, “Wherever there was a need, Jesse was there,” and described the loss as a “huge, huge hole.”
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