{"id":779027,"date":"2025-08-15T08:57:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=779027"},"modified":"2025-08-15T09:34:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:34:43","slug":"checkpoint-zoo-new-documentary-retraces-the-evacuation-of-zoo-animals-from-the-russia-ukraine-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=779027","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Checkpoint Zoo\u2019: New documentary retraces the evacuation of zoo animals from the Russia-Ukraine War."},"content":{"rendered":"\t<blockquote  class=\"bs-quote bs-quote-1 bsq-t1 bsq-s1 bsq-left\">\n\t\t<div class=\"quote-content\">\n\t\t\t<p>'Checkpoint Zoo', a heartstring-tugging documentary retraces the evacuation of thousands of animals at the risk of shelling and other attacks.  It portrays a caged and dependent menagerie of animals that bewilderingly experienced humans at their worst and, fortunately, their best.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong>NICOLAS RAPOLD:<\/strong> \u201cCheckpoint Zoo\u201d spotlights a (mostly) four-legged group that has also been affected by the Russia-Ukraine war: animals at Feldman Ecopark, an outdoor zoo located near the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest city. Joshua Zeman\u2019s heartstring-tugging documentary retraces the evacuation of thousands of beasts at the risk of shelling and other attacks.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Workers and volunteers first tried to feed the animals on visits to the zoo. But weeks of war and winter necessitated the gradual removal of the hungry, traumatized population to other zoos and safe havens. These death-defying rescues are the movie\u2019s reason for existing; clips have gone viral. (New interviews and visits are combined with 120 hours of footage from media organizations, Feldman Ecopark and other sources.)&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>The movie has a serial, emotion-milking quality \u2014 serving up the amazing, cute, and tear-jerking \u2014 like a TV news story spun out to feature length. One remains grateful that ostriches, kangaroos, bears, and apes were saved, avoiding the dire fate of other wartime zoo residents. \u201cCheckpoint Zoo\u201d portrays a caged and dependent menagerie that bewilderingly experienced humans at their worst and, fortunately, their best. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/14\/movies\/checkpoint-zoo-review.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>SOURCE&#8230;<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED VIDEO:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FRda1yLRUMQ?si=GVgHHioHqr1W51xA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1dnVuYrteF8?si=r_IUXXUug80NxOBD\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NICOLAS RAPOLD: \u201cCheckpoint Zoo\u201d spotlights a (mostly) four-legged group that has also been affected by the Russia-Ukraine war: animals at Feldman Ecopark, an outdoor zoo located near the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest city. Joshua Zeman\u2019s heartstring-tugging documentary retraces the evacuation of thousands of beasts at the risk of shelling and other attacks. Workers and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":779032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,17,18,20,21,22,23,25],"tags":[26,27,28,30,32,35,37],"class_list":["post-779027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-environment","category-ethics","category-justice","category-kisnship","category-morality","category-rights","category-welfare","tag-compassion","tag-cruelty","tag-entertainment","tag-exploitation","tag-free-living","tag-protection","tag-speciesism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=779027"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779031,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779027\/revisions\/779031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/779032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=779027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=779027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=779027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}