Written by Railen Navalete & Leanza Garcia
We’ve all seen strays in our daily lives. Some of us tend to ignore them, give them scraps of our meals, while a few choose to adopt them. But sometimes we don’t realize how these street animals have stories, dreams, and lives of their own.
Laika was just like any other stray from the street. She was small and quietly walking around the cold streets of Moscow in the 1950s, until Russian scientists decided to take her—not to give her a proper home, but to use her in their space program. Stray dogs in Moscow were chosen for these experiments because they were believed to be able to endure the cold, hunger, and confinement required in space travel.
In November 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 with Laika inside. She was the first dog to orbit around the earth, and she didn’t know that she was about to change history. But Laika’s survival from the trip was never expected. She died shortly after being launched into space, all alone in that small spacecraft, placed there by people she trusted.
Laika’s trip marked a significant milestone in space exploration—but was it worth the life of an innocent dog? Oleg Gazenko, one of the scientists responsible for sending Laika into space, expressed regret, saying: “We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.”
But this story isn’t just about Laika. She was just one of the many dogs used in the Soviet space program, and until today, thousands of animals continue to be unwilling participants in scientific experiments.
We at CARA believe that every animal—stray or adopted, small or big, healthy or sick—deserves a life free from harm, fear, and unnecessary suffering. We push for education on compassion and responsibility for animals, and while we recognize the importance of scientific progress, we believe it should not come at the expense of innocent lives.
Laika’s story is a reminder that animals deserve to live alongside humans, and that progress without compassion is not true progress. So the next time you see a stray dog or cat roaming around our streets, remember to treat them with compassion.
Be a voice for the voiceless. Because no one—not even a street dog from Moscow—deserves to die alone in the name of progress.
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