How Maps Integrated with CRM Help Animals in Crisis

#HangInTherePunch

This hashtag must have been introduced to a lot of you by your Instagram feed. If not, here’s the bittersweet story behind it.

Punch is a tiny macaque in Japan who recently captured hearts worldwide. Born at the Ichikawa City Zoo near Tokyo in July 2025, he was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth. The tiny creature in a social species that depends heavily on connection and warmth struggled to survive without affection.

The zoo staff stepped by bottle-feeding Punch, cared for him, and tried to help him adjust. But what truly captured global attention was an unexpected source of solace, a stuffed orangutan plush toy from IKEA. Punch clung to it as if it were his mother, dragging it around the enclosure, curling up with it at night, and holding it tight whenever the world felt too big.

The Internet fell in love. Videos showing Punch hugging his plush companion went viral, racking up millions of views. This story reminded the world that even the smallest beings deserve care, protection, and a chance to belong. It also showed how a simple act of kindness, like giving a toy, can become a symbol of hope and resilience.

From One Monkey to Many Creatures in Crisis

Punch’s story draws our attention to how fragile life can be. For thousands of animals caught in conflict zones around the world, solace is not found in plush companions but in shelter, food, medicine, and a little human compassion.

Nowhere was this more evident than during the war in Ukraine. As the conflict unfolded, countless animals were left homeless, injured, or orphaned.

1. Owners fled,
2. the infrastructure collapsed, and
3. shelters were overwhelmed.

Dogs, cats, and other animals caught in crossfire needed urgent help. Many were lost without food, medicine, or a safe space. That’s where organizations like the Ukraine War Animals Relief Fund stepped in.

The Ukraine War Animals Relief Fund is a non-profit group made up of people who simply could not stand by while animals suffered.

1. They quickly organized volunteers and resources,
2. focusing on rescuing animals displaced or injured by the war, and
3. providing them with care.

This involved setting up mobile clinics to sterilize, vaccinate, and microchip pets and strays. They distributed animal food, medical supplies, and everyday necessities. More than that, they created a network of shelters and volunteer drivers who risked danger to ensure animals were safe.

Mapping Need to Action

But rescuing animals in a war zone is chaotic. When you’re trying to deliver food, medicine, and help to dozens of shelters scattered across rubble-filled cities and towns, how do you even begin to plan?

This is where technology played a role that was far more than technical. The Ukraine War Animals Relief Fund used the geo-mapping tool, Maplytics, to plot the locations of shelters, drivers, warehouses, and areas of need directly from their CRM data onto the integrated map. That meant all the details volunteers had collected about shelters and animals could be visualized on a map in real time.

Instead of relying on spreadsheets, volunteers could see exactly which shelters needed food, which needed medicine, and which needed new supplies. Filters helped them identify the highest-priority locations quickly. Some shelters had dozens of animals and were running out of supplies. Others were unreachable without planning. With an efficient map visualization overlaid on their CRM data, volunteers could plan efficient routes, coordinate supply deliveries, and make sure scarce resources went where they were needed most.

1. This mapping capability gave the volunteers visibility into the scale of the problem.
2. It helped them break down barriers of distance and disorganization, adding clarity where there was only chaos.
3. Maps turned fragmented data into a picture of real needs, and that picture saved lives.

Compassion in Action

In Ukraine, the Relief Fund’s work was not just about food and medicine. It was about restoring dignity to animals abandoned by war.

1. They documented each shelter’s needs,
2. helped drivers verify deliveries by providing them with optimized routing directions and turn-by-turn navigation directions, and
3. even monitored the number of animals in shelters to reduce waste and fraud.
4. As the area of operation increased, effective territory management became useful in dividing the regions into smaller, more convenient working territories for the volunteers to handle efficiently.

In a context of scarcity and danger, these systems helped volunteers work with accountability and trust.

This story shows how human empathy can become a structured, organized effort that saves lives. It shows how people, ordinary volunteers with extraordinary commitment, stepped into a war zone to rescue those who had no voice. It also shows how tools like mapping can turn heartbreak into practical action.

A Shared Humanity

If something as small as a baby monkey with a plush toy could make millions feel compassion, imagine what we can do when we channel that emotion into a structured effort. Punch reminded the world of resilience and the need for comfort. The Ukraine War Animals Relief Fund reminded us that compassion can be organized, planned, and executed in the toughest circumstances.

Their work shows that when compassion meets clarity, the results go beyond emotion. They go into action. And when technology is used to bring precision to that action, lives are changed.

‘Death Never Scared Me. Not Living Fully – That Was the Terrifying Part’, as quoted by Dan Fine, the founder of UWARF, in his final message after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

What’s more?

If you wish to combine maps, routes, schedules, and real-time updates to make a difference, Maplytics with MapCopilot, its AI assistant, is available immediately for Dynamics 365, Power Apps, Power Pages, and Dataverse. Organizations interested in adoption, 15-day free trials, or personalized demos are encouraged to contact Maplytics’ sales team at crm@inogic.com

For more information, visit our website or Microsoft Marketplace. One can hop onto the detailed Blogs, Client Testimonials, Success Stories, Industry Applications, and Video Library for a quick query resolution. Technical docs for the working of Maplytics are also available for reference.

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