Bonus: Ukraine's Little Bullet

[00:00:00] This is BewilderBeasts, an infotainment show dedicated to inspiring curiosity for all

[00:00:13] ages by investigating the ways animals intersect at humanity.

[00:00:17] I am not a historian, an ethylogist, a researcher, a scientist, a zoologist, a trained audio engineer

[00:00:23] or an expert in, well, anything.

[00:00:26] Y'all, I'm lucky if I can remember to put my clean laundry in the dryer before it gets

[00:00:30] funky.

[00:00:31] And while I make every effort to present things as accurately as I can with a fun flair,

[00:00:36] I'm going to mess up!

[00:00:37] And that's okay.

[00:00:38] I hope I've given you a nice place to jump off from on your own adventures into curiosity

[00:00:42] or at the very least, I've given you the key to when your next round of trivia.

[00:00:56] Hello and welcome to BewilderBeasts.

[00:01:10] I'm your host Melissa McKee-McGrath, recording 7,095 kilometers from Kiev, Ukraine.

[00:01:15] Today, we are doing this!

[00:01:19] Let's go to Ukraine and be the tiniest, mightiest little bomb detection popper.

[00:01:24] Let's go!

[00:01:42] Hi, Hope, patrons.

[00:01:44] This is a wonderful suggestion from Kristi.

[00:01:47] Another one.

[00:01:48] Thank you so much, Kristi.

[00:01:49] She always has the best suggestions for this show.

[00:01:51] I am so close to summer I can taste it, though I'm still wearing kind of flannel and

[00:01:57] warm things.

[00:01:58] I just know that warmth is around the corner, though.

[00:02:01] And I am ready for it.

[00:02:04] And I hope you are too.

[00:02:06] Just a reminder, though, before the sun starts peeping out for you, do you have your

[00:02:10] allow, your allergy meds, sunscreen, big floppy hat?

[00:02:14] Cool good, because I forgot about all of those things when it hit 55 degrees and still

[00:02:18] ended up with a sunburn, so get that stuff ready and prepped.

[00:02:22] OK, with all that said, let's get on with today's episode.

[00:02:25] Again, thanks Kristi.

[00:02:26] I hope you guys like it.

[00:02:35] Two years ago, Misha brought home a puppy named Patron from a coworker as a gift to his

[00:02:40] son.

[00:02:41] He then took him to work with him because, you know, bringing Doug's to work is pretty

[00:02:43] fun, right?

[00:02:44] And it's a perk of his job!

[00:02:47] Misha works and has worked since 2014 in the Ukrainian government.

[00:02:52] The arm of the government that uses animals like Patron to find landmines, explosives,

[00:02:56] and more.

[00:02:58] So I wanted to know a little bit more about this bomb doggy, so I started digging.

[00:03:03] And well listen number one, do not start your research in Reddit.

[00:03:08] Well, okay, so I first wanted to know what Patron meant in Ukrainian.

[00:03:13] And I got…

[00:03:15] This helpful, not helpful list.

[00:03:17] According to the comments of a Reddit thread, Patron can mean cartridge.

[00:03:22] I initially thought printer, but I guess it's a bullet thing.

[00:03:25] Comment number two, if it's from the same root as the Swedish Petron, same similar word

[00:03:30] in German, Afrikaans and Finnish, then it means the whole package.

[00:03:34] It's a word for unified ammunition, bullet casing primer propellant from the French

[00:03:39] Petron which means model or pattern.

[00:03:42] In English that's cartridge shell ammunition and it's something translated as bullet.

[00:03:46] But bullet is a figure of speech and a cynic dog in English like saying…

[00:03:51] Okay, so it means bullet.

[00:03:58] That's what I'm getting from that whole thing.

[00:04:01] Okay, so the third suggestion was tequila in Spanish, which…

[00:04:05] Okay, whoever wrote that, that's not Ukrainian.

[00:04:10] And it's not even the same reference book let alone the same page.

[00:04:14] Number four, little boss dog.

[00:04:16] Okay, I've in my line of work met many Jack Russell Terriers and this totally tracks.

[00:04:21] Oh god, this track's so hard.

[00:04:26] Number five, tuna cans.

[00:04:28] Okay, this person might not have been on the right thread or might have had too much

[00:04:32] of the Spanish tequila before jumping in on this conversation.

[00:04:36] Number six, round as in round bullets?

[00:04:40] Okay, I think this person might be reaching its straws.

[00:04:43] Oh, reddit.

[00:04:45] I honestly don't know why I expected anything different.

[00:04:49] But what I do know what this means is very good boy in bewilder bastion.

[00:04:54] As Petron is a wonderful little Jack Russell Terrier who is tearing it up in the Russian

[00:04:59] attacks against Ukraine.

[00:05:01] I'm going to go with the translation brought by the new voice for Ukraine site which

[00:05:05] is probably where I should have started my research to begin with.

[00:05:08] Petron, according to the English translation of their website means bullet.

[00:05:13] So that's what I'm going with and I hope you do too.

[00:05:16] Though it could be tuna cans, it's not quite the same punch.

[00:05:20] Okay, we now know how to say his name and what it means but who is he and why are we talking

[00:05:27] about him on a Patreon episode?

[00:05:29] Well, Petron went to work with Misha that day to be trained.

[00:05:33] Not necessarily to protect God and his country from bombs and landmines but to do little

[00:05:38] demonstrations and public service performances.

[00:05:40] Basically to show how these dogs can be trained and to do remarkable tasks.

[00:05:45] I have done this in my actual line of work.

[00:05:47] You've heard me speak many times about my job as a professional dog trainer.

[00:05:51] And the last thing I got to do before the COVID lockdowns of 2020 was take my dog kept

[00:05:55] in love, his real name, to the museum of science to show hundreds of kids every weekend

[00:06:00] and their families how they can teach their pets to find specific things in their home.

[00:06:05] But when the tanks and the bombs and the guns and the Russian army invaded Ukraine a few

[00:06:09] months ago, everything changed.

[00:06:12] And instead of fun time demonstrations with a little dog fighting empty canisters, Petron

[00:06:17] went to real work.

[00:06:19] In a way, Petron took a similar course of careers, Ukrainian President and certified

[00:06:23] Hathi Volatomir Zolinsky both started an entertainment and found themselves in a position

[00:06:28] of service.

[00:06:29] And as soon as the bomb started to fly and the people needed to flee and the working

[00:06:33] to them, they did not run away.

[00:06:35] They ran through the destruction to help people.

[00:06:39] Petron has moved successfully from entertainer to landmine finder much like the bees in the

[00:06:45] rafts that we have already discovered and discussed in earlier episodes of Be Willterbeast

[00:06:49] but he's also the mascot of the state emergency service of Ukraine.

[00:06:54] Y'all listen to this.

[00:06:56] That emergency service is the Ukrainian arm of the government that deals with, well, big

[00:07:02] civil emergencies, evacuations due to natural disasters or maybe a neighboring country invading

[00:07:08] with tanks.

[00:07:09] Emergency preparation in response, so sending rescue groups to large populations of people

[00:07:13] after earthquakes, large fires and well, a neighboring country invading your country

[00:07:19] with tanks.

[00:07:20] And back when Ukraine was part of the USSR which we now generally think of as broadly

[00:07:27] Russia-ish, the Chernobyl disaster.

[00:07:31] What is now the state emergency service of Ukraine was tasked with rescue response and

[00:07:36] cleanup efforts after the largest, most deadly and most dangerous nuclear reactor explosion

[00:07:42] in history.

[00:07:44] The initial emergency response together with a decontamination of the environment involved

[00:07:50] more than 500,000 people and it cost an estimated 18 billion Soviet rubles.

[00:07:57] That's roughly about $68 billion in 2019 money.

[00:08:03] Elon Musk himself could buy Twitter and still have money left over to make a significant

[00:08:09] dent in those numbers, but he won't.

[00:08:14] That agency, the one that cleaned up after Chernobyl, that's who Petron the dog works for.

[00:08:21] And in fact when you look up Petron on Wikipedia because he has a Wikipedia page, under employer

[00:08:26] it says, the state emergency service of Ukraine.

[00:08:31] He is specifically the mascot of his unit in Chemigov.

[00:08:34] It's unclear what his daily take home pay is in terms of Ukrainian dollar-dollar bills

[00:08:38] but we do know that he works for cheese.

[00:08:42] I also work for cheese.

[00:08:45] Hmm, cheese.

[00:08:47] Okay so here's how it works.

[00:08:50] Petron detects bomb odor and this could be explosive material or the specific plastics

[00:08:55] used or the wee bits of metal used in bombs, which is honestly why metal detectors are

[00:09:00] not necessarily the best tool for finding landmines.

[00:09:04] They are usually made out of plastic, making it impossible for many of these metal detectors

[00:09:09] to pick up but these dogs can hold in their head up to 1700 odors, compounds, sense associated

[00:09:17] with explosives and compounds and debt cord all of it.

[00:09:22] That is a whole roll of decks of sense and these dogs can just do it better than no other.

[00:09:27] Most explosive detection dogs will sit at a source like, hey buddy, it's here.

[00:09:32] Fuck very, very carefully.

[00:09:36] But he's a dog, won't he set off the bomb?

[00:09:38] Isn't that why we use landmine detection rats and bees and all these other animals?

[00:09:42] Well, true.

[00:09:44] And I'm not sure how Petron is specifically trained.

[00:09:48] Many dogs trained on scent can give one of two kinds of alert.

[00:09:52] There's an active alert with digging, barking, jumping, a big performance or a passive

[00:09:57] alert sitting patiently by the source of the big boom smell.

[00:10:01] An in my experience and all of the explosive detection folk that I know they train a passive

[00:10:06] alert for what I hope is an obvious reason.

[00:10:10] You don't really want a dog digging and jumping on a bomb.

[00:10:15] But every video I see of Petron he's digging in the dirt and he's jumping around.

[00:10:20] And luckily this mighty dog is tiny.

[00:10:24] He's a jack Russell Terry, meaning he likely weighs between 13 and 17 pounds.

[00:10:28] And according to my favorite website, the measure of things, that's basically a dog

[00:10:32] the size of a medium sized cat, hilarious comparison, two bricks, four human brains, 17

[00:10:40] hands of soup, 30 hamsters which is just too many hamsters.

[00:10:44] It's two and a half chihuahuaas or one fifth the size of a Dalmatian.

[00:10:47] These are both dog breeds.

[00:10:49] So Petron is basically the size of a bread box or as heavy or less heavy than two other

[00:10:54] kinds of dog but almost the size of a docksand which is yet another dog.

[00:10:59] Okay, so if you're into kangaroo math though, ten jack Russell's equals one kangaroo for

[00:11:04] my Aussie friends.

[00:11:08] Even that you only need a minimum of 11 pounds of pressure to set off a bomb, he is likely

[00:11:13] between 13 and 17 pounds.

[00:11:16] That is cutting it very close.

[00:11:19] But I'm not his handler.

[00:11:20] I'm not his trainer.

[00:11:22] I do not know this dog.

[00:11:24] I have worked in enough media to know though when there's a camera they often will have

[00:11:28] a trainer or handler have the dog do something more visual for what's called B-roll.

[00:11:34] This is something that when you're watching a news broadcast that you see a lot of action

[00:11:37] and the reporter is talking over it so maybe what they have him do is jump around bark

[00:11:42] and dig for the B-roll and then in real life he just walks over and sits or points or is

[00:11:47] just like, I don't like this and runs the other direction then they know where to go.

[00:11:52] Look for their bomb clearing stuff.

[00:11:55] But I do know that he is very successful at what he does.

[00:11:58] His team is safe so whatever he's doing I am not judging it at all.

[00:12:03] The suggestion though is that his small size makes it easier for him to navigate smaller

[00:12:07] and tighter spaces to find these buried bombs or his Misha calls them little presents

[00:12:12] from Russia.

[00:12:13] And to date the total number is a secret as to how many bombs Patron has found.

[00:12:20] But it is confirmed that in two months since the Russian military invaded Ukraine and

[00:12:26] attacked a country which is exactly what they did under the orders of an actual maniac

[00:12:32] and dictator Vladimir Putin Patron has found at least 200 unexploded landmines and underground

[00:12:39] bombs in his city of Chemagov.

[00:12:42] 200 since February in one city a city that is effectively leveled.

[00:12:50] Sure, Ukrainian forces were able to push the Russians out of this particular city but

[00:12:56] not before whistling bombs landed and leveled the city.

[00:13:01] The residents, the families, the kids everyone had to flee with their dogs tied to their backs,

[00:13:06] all seeking borders to cross just to get out alive with whatever they could carry.

[00:13:11] Now imagine coming back to this to rebuild only to hit these bombs lying in wait.

[00:13:20] And 200 of them.

[00:13:23] Even walking through your town and you can walk safely through your streets, to your school

[00:13:27] which is still standing to your favorite McDonald's which is standing or you can drive

[00:13:32] or you can ride your bike or take the train.

[00:13:34] But any of these places could just be hiding.

[00:13:37] If you're in a war zone like Ukraine, a hiding bomb that can go off just as you're minding

[00:13:42] your own business walking over to say hi to a neighbor.

[00:13:46] This is dastardly, this is disgusting, it is despicable, it is inhumane.

[00:13:52] And there are more than 200, these are just the ones he's found so far.

[00:13:59] Petron has only been working since February, there are so many more to clear.

[00:14:05] But Misha and Petron stayed to clean up in the aftermath they worked 24 hours a day through

[00:14:10] the night, through the day, through the afternoon, through the rain they are working to clear

[00:14:14] these bombs for their city.

[00:14:17] And estimates say that it will take up to 3 years to clean just this city from these

[00:14:22] little gifts left behind from Russia.

[00:14:26] All these bombs are not going to find themselves, and that's the poop cherry on top of the glass

[00:14:32] ice cream sundae.

[00:14:34] You can get your city back, but it's in rubble, it's dust, it's grey, it's rocky, there's

[00:14:38] no life here, there are no kids playing, no birds chirping, but at least the bomb stopped

[00:14:42] falling from the sky.

[00:14:44] Now you have to dig through all of this and dig into the ground to pull up every last

[00:14:47] explosive, intentionally left behind to hurt kill or main the helpers who chose to stay

[00:14:53] and not run.

[00:14:54] This is war edits worst.

[00:14:57] And the rebuilding cannot start until the ground is clear.

[00:15:01] And this is not just in Chimagov, but in the hundreds of cities around Ukraine, and that

[00:15:06] cannot start until the Russian army is gone or rendered ineffective.

[00:15:11] Which I will say.

[00:15:12] There has been some creativity on that front.

[00:15:15] My favorite story last week, were when Russian forces tried to steal 5 million dollars worth

[00:15:20] of farming equipment from John Deere in a Ukrainian city.

[00:15:25] You know the tractor is John Deere.

[00:15:27] Well, they were quickly discovered.

[00:15:30] Whoopsie!

[00:15:31] Turns out there was a remote locking system and built-in GPS in these tractors, so not only

[00:15:37] was the stolen equipment found 700 miles away in Chechnya, but they couldn't even use

[00:15:43] it because the keys would not work after they were remotely locked by John Deere.

[00:15:48] So they found their hiding spot because of the GPS and then they couldn't even use

[00:15:52] the equipment.

[00:15:53] Genius!

[00:15:56] Technology and apps have been pretty great for tracking Russian forces too.

[00:15:59] Which isn't something you want to have happen if you're invading a country.

[00:16:03] When Ukrainian man had been using apples find by feature?

[00:16:07] This is a feature if you're an Android user like myself that locates a device using Bluetooth

[00:16:11] signals that bounce off of other nearby apple devices.

[00:16:15] He is using it to track the movements of Russian troops after they stole his AirPods.

[00:16:21] So not only could he watch his stolen earbuds move on a map, but he could even watch as

[00:16:26] the Russian forces were retreating from an attack in Kiev.

[00:16:29] I think he's the only guy ever to cheer while watching his earbuds run away from him.

[00:16:34] And Apple if you're listening, you're probably not.

[00:16:37] That's Jeff Bezos' job but if you are listening, can you just send this guy some new AirPods

[00:16:43] he's doing his best?

[00:16:46] A researcher in California was similarly able to watch Russian troops invade Ukraine by

[00:16:51] using a combination of Google Maps and radar imagery.

[00:16:55] Check this out.

[00:16:56] Do you know how apps like Waze and Apple Maps, they take out real-time traffic reports?

[00:17:01] Well, when a farming village in the middle of nowhere Ukraine starts having heavy traffic

[00:17:06] reported, particularly when that heavy traffic is bright red for miles at 3 in the morning,

[00:17:13] you can then zoom in using satellite images and watch the marching Russian forces move

[00:17:17] toward cities in small towns.

[00:17:20] Turn left at the next scale field.

[00:17:22] There's unusual traffic ahead.

[00:17:24] Calculating, recalculating.

[00:17:26] But just as heartbreaking, you can also watch these people as they flee their homes and

[00:17:30] cross international borders too.

[00:17:34] Technology does go in both directions.

[00:17:36] Keep Ukraine on your radar.

[00:17:39] Stop scrolling by and if it takes following a little sassy bomb doggie on Instagram to

[00:17:43] keep you connected, please do it.

[00:17:45] So let's end with Little Petron, the puppy who started this whole story.

[00:17:49] And I'm so glad I didn't record this last week because I was planning to because there's

[00:17:53] an update that came out yesterday.

[00:17:56] As of yesterday, President Zelensky himself ordered Petron a medal for his services since

[00:18:01] the Russian invasion from the BBC and I'm going to quote directly from the newspaper

[00:18:06] from Zelensky.

[00:18:08] I want to award those Ukrainian heroes who are already clearing our lands of mines and

[00:18:13] together with our heroes, a wonderful little sapper Petron who helps not only neutralize

[00:18:18] explosives but also teach our children the necessary safety rules and areas where there

[00:18:22] is a mine threat.

[00:18:24] President Zelensky said during a Sunday ceremony, the conference was also attended by Canadian

[00:18:29] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who was visiting the country on Sunday announcing that Canada

[00:18:33] would be sending more weapons and equipment to help Ukraine.

[00:18:37] As Petron and his owner, who we know is Misha, but his real name is My Halo Ilyev, who are

[00:18:42] presented with their medals.

[00:18:44] He has inspired a number of artwork from fans across the country ranging from illustrations

[00:18:49] to knitted animal replicas of him.

[00:18:53] And among them is a sketch of Petron peeing on a Russian missile wearing his signature

[00:18:57] safety vest.

[00:18:59] I want this in my office and another has Petron in front of two backgrounds.

[00:19:05] One half shows a grassy park next to a ball and the other features the remnants of a

[00:19:11] bond out building.

[00:19:15] And stated on the new voice for Ukraine site, highly recommended if you would like to hear

[00:19:19] from what the people of Ukraine are saying, there's a quote from Misha that I would like

[00:19:24] to end with that I feel can be taken to heart.

[00:19:28] Quote,

[00:19:30] Great heroes come in all sizes.

[00:19:32] Keep true to yourselves, trust in our defenders and in our victory.

[00:19:36] Keep laboring to bring it ever closer wherever you are, whatever you do relentlessly.

[00:19:43] Ends quote.

[00:19:46] So get em Ukraine, give em hell Misha and Petron.

[00:19:50] Ukraine's little bullet.

[00:20:07] So thank you for joining me today on Boilder Beasts.

[00:20:09] I can't thank y'all enough for supporting this show.

[00:20:12] I love the y'all show up and support it and it does truly mean the world to me.

[00:20:17] If there are topics that you're interested in hearing about on the podcast or you know

[00:20:20] of any historical animals, you change the world, animals who help humans, other animals

[00:20:24] standing up for the little guy in big ways.

[00:20:27] Send it in like Kristy did.

[00:20:28] Thanks Kristy.

[00:20:29] Muah.

[00:20:30] Send it in.

[00:20:31] Be WilderBeastsPod at gmail.com, tweet up be WilderPod, be WilderBeasts on Facebook and

[00:20:35] be WilderBeasts on Instagram.

[00:20:37] Or since y'all are patrons, you can just message me directly on the Patreon app.

[00:20:41] If there are bonus things that you'd also like, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[00:20:44] My favorite method, going to be builderbeastsPod.com, tap that little say something button on the

[00:20:49] lower right hand side of the screen and leave me a little voice message and you just say

[00:20:53] stuff and then I get the stuff and it's easy.

[00:20:56] And it's fun to hear your voices.

[00:20:57] I haven't heard those.

[00:20:59] Y'all hear mine every week.

[00:21:01] So flipping the script was a joy for me when I heard one from Alia a couple weeks ago.

[00:21:06] So go ahead and do the same thing.

[00:21:09] Anyway, I'm Melissa McKee-McGrath with Much Stuff Media.

[00:21:12] Now go get curious.

[00:21:13] I got today's information from insider.com, mymodernmet.com, Reddit.com, which is don't know what

[00:21:22] it's helpful as I thought, unless you're into like weird translations and tunicans.

[00:21:28] And there is a particular BBC news piece here that I want to bring your attention to.

[00:21:47] According to up to the minute maps provided by BBC, Russia has taken control of Crimea

[00:21:52] which happened in 2014, likely in preparation for this very event that they are in now.

[00:21:58] And much of the eastern border, 100 or 200 miles into Ukraine from the Russian border

[00:22:02] and much of the south are under full Russian control right now.

[00:22:07] And they are continuing to march to take over Ukraine.

[00:22:10] They bombed a school yesterday in event that killed 60 people who were hiding from the

[00:22:15] attacks.

[00:22:16] Y'all, this superhero dog is something that we can cheer for and be excited about but

[00:22:22] this is not over for the Ukrainian people yet.

[00:22:24] The intentional targeted misinformation attacks and straight up lies in Russian state

[00:22:29] media, a common work tactic to get people on your side for terrible, terrible things that

[00:22:35] we see here too in the United States.

[00:22:38] We'll continue to persuade those who consume Russian media to believe that this isn't real.

[00:22:43] The attacks by Putin using Russian tanks and bombs and guns on the Ukrainian people

[00:22:47] is real and it is not okay.

[00:22:49] So just in case it's not entirely clear where things stand on that front.

[00:22:54] And a powerful interview, mandatory reading I think from Time Magazine with Vladimir Zelinsky

[00:23:00] is in the show notes time.com.

[00:23:04] Give him help, President Zelinsky.

[00:23:06] Links as always are in the description of today's episode.

[00:23:09] Intro music is tiptoed out the back by Dan Lieberwitz interstitial music is by MK2.

[00:23:14] Additional music is provided by Pixabay and FreeSound.org.

[00:23:17] So don't forget like, subscribe, review, share with your curious friends.

[00:23:21] Thanks so much for listening.

[00:23:22] I'll see you next time.

[00:23:47] At Podfix Network on Facebook.

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[00:23:55] The Podfix Network, Artist Owned and Loved.