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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2006

Saving animals through 40 days & nights of war in Lebanon & Israel

BEIRUT, HAIFA--Forty days of Israeli bombing in response to Hezbollah militia rocket attacks from southern Lebanon devastated the fragile Lebanese animal aid infrastructure along with everything else caught in the crossfire.

"Noah's Ark is needed for the animals of Lebanon," proclaimed Best Friends Animal Society cofounder Michael Mountain on August 15, 2006, announcing a mass evacuation of shell-shocked dogs rescued by Beruit for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"The howls of the 133 canine refugees echoed through the pine-and-oak-covered hills above the Lebanese capital, crowded into cages but safely away from airstrikes," reported Associated Press writer Donna Abu-Nasr 30 days earlier. "The dogs were moved by volunteers from a shelter in Beirut's southern suburbs to an abandoned pig farm 10 miles east of the capital," near Monteverde, "and might be considered lucky compared to pets left to fend for themselves by foreign and Lebanese owners fleeing the Israeli bombardment," Abu-Nasr added.

"Working with BETA, we've looked into lots of options for these dogs," said Best Friends president Michael Mountain. "But there is so much damage to the country that taking care of them there, finding them new homes in the region, or moving them one at a time to new situations is pretty much impossible. So we have agreed to be the staging area for adoptions in the U.S.

"The plan is to fly all 150 dogs to the United States as soon as possible," Mountain said. "Most likely we'll need to drive them from Lebanon to Jordan and fly them from there. Yes, cat lovers, there are cats, too," Mountain added. "But they don't yet have health certificates, and there are some other issues to be sorted out before we can start working on that."

BETA had 113 dogs and 100 cats at small shelters in Beirut near Hezbollah strongholds when the fighting erupted on July 12. During the next month BETA took in 25 more dogs plus another 34 cats.

"Two of the dogs, named Thelma and Louise, were found trapped in an apartment one week after their people were killed," summarized Mountain, from BETA updates. "One dog belonged to a Saudi family who were in Beirut on vacation when the war broke out. They left, gave the dog to the doorman of the building where they were staying, and the doorman put the dog out on the street."

"They're innocent. They don't know what's happening to them. They can't run away from the bombs," BETA cofounder Helena Hesayne told ABC News.

More than a million people reportedly fled the rocket attacks in northern Israel and the bombing in southern Lebanon. While many left pets behind, BETA evacuated the dogs and cats in their care in repeated convoys of three cars and a mini-van.
"Thank God we rescued these dogs from South Beirut before they leveled the place," said shelter volunteer Mona Khoury.
"A missile fell one night 400 meters from the shelter. We found shrapnel inside the cages," added fellow volunteer Joelle El Massirh.

"We kept saying, 'Please don't bomb us,'" volunteer Marguerite Sharawi said.

"The new dog shelter is at a pig farm, which was donated by a kind man. Needless to say, this space is in dire need of construction works. The place is therefore both a dog shelter and a construction site," explained BETA cofounder Joelle Kanaan. "For every incoming dog, a new cage must be built, and this requires a lot of construction material, in other words a lot of money.

"The animals in Lebanon need a lot of help," Kanaan continued, "but the only thing that can reach us for the moment is money. The country has been isolated from the rest of the world, and not in any possible way can goods or products reach us, although we need a lot. The supplies available in Lebanon are becoming scarce, and we're trying--as much as our finances permit--to stockpile food for cats and dogs, and medicines, for a long period."

"BETA is in the process of finding a new space to put the cats," Kanaan added. "We were always against overcrowding, and we still are."

To avoid overcrowding, veterinarian and BETA president Ali Hamadeh advised people who called in search of a place to leave their animals to call boarding kennels.

"Some owners asked me to meet them as they headed to their ships," boarding kennel operator Hani Rayess told Abu-Nasr of Associated Press. "A couple of Westerners told me they would not leave Lebanon because they had nowhere to place their pets."
Hani Rayess said he took in about 45 dogs, charging their owners $100 a month.

The Humane Society of the U.S., World Society for the Protection of Animals, Kinship Circle, and South African National SPCA, among others, pleaded with governments who were evacuating their citizens from Lebanon to allow refugees to take their pets with them--to no avail.

"In south Lebanon, war is taking a toll on animals who did not escape with their masters. The carcasses of cats, dogs, goats, and sheep litter the roads, mowed down by fleeing villagers careening out of the hills in packed automobiles," Agence France Presse correspondent Jailan Zayan observed on August 8.

"In the village of Srifa, a Hezbollah stronghold that endured Israeli bombardment, a donkey with his front leg snared in a tangle of toppled fencing brayed desperately. Horses ambled down the main street. A stray cow foraged in the kitchen of an abandoned home."

Hezbollah fighters' attitudes toward the animals varied, Zayan reported.

"Americans care more about their animals than they do humans," a 40-year-old field commander named Haj Rabia Abou Hussein said derisively.

But a Hezbollah soldier who identified himself only as Hussein said, ""I saw a dog. His tongue was hanging from hunger and thirst. I gave him my last can of tuna. If I showed mercy on the dog, maybe God will show mercy on me."

A mirroring crisis developed in northern Israel.

"More than 8,000 dogs and cats have been abandoned in the north by owners who fled south," said Eli Ashkenazi of Haaretz.
"Numerous dogs are roaming the streets in the Galilee, and many cats have been left with no food or water," Yesod Hama'ala veterinarian Gil Shavit told Ashkenazi.

"Thousands of dogs have been abandoned. The cats have lost their food supply and simply die," rescuer Gaya Goldberg said. "The dogs are helpless. They can't even jump onto the garbage containers. We try to collect them and bring them to pounds, but the pounds are full."

The rescue organization Ahava took in 200 additional dogs and cats during the first two weeks of the fighting, Ahava general manager Tamara More told Abu-Nasr of Associated Press.

More tried to reach across the border to help, to no avail.

"A non-profit group comprised of some 50 volunteers, Jews and Arabs alike, Ahava secured a ship in the hope of sailing Lebanese strays to safety," wrote Toronto Star Jerusalem correspondent Mitch Potter.

"We have the boat, we have permission from the Israeli navy, we have the contacts with animal lovers in Lebanon," More said. "What we don't have yet is co-operation from foreign embassies and aid groups to let people know we are ready to help."
"Ahava volunteers were in contact with their Lebanese counterparts about the latter-day Noah's Ark mission," Potter wrote, "until all direct phone links between Israel and Lebanon ceased."

"Every day we dispatch a rescue team to the north to gather up abandoned dogs, cats and other animals that have been abandoned and bring them back to the safety in the center of the country," Let the Animals Live founder Eli Altman e-mailed.
"Let the Animals Live is also taking animals from the shelters of the northern animal organizations and municipal dog pounds," Altman said. "The animals are brought to private boarding facilities where Let the Animals Live is funding their accommodation and veterinary evaluation and care.

"In addition," Altman said, "we are sending teams to distribute food and water for feral cats and other animals in the now almost empty settlements throughout the north. We have teams working to locate the families of the abandoned animals and make arrangements for reunions, as well as finding new homes for the rest."

Delphine Matthieussent of Associated Press described "Julia Meiler, a volunteer with Hakol Chai, putting a water container on a street corner in the northern Israeli town of Maalot while the sound of explosions in nearby Lebanon rang out. As Meiler stepped back, a few cats cautiously approached the water. Within minutes the street corner turned into a mewing gathering of a dozen cats. Many animals let Meiler pet them, a sign they were not strays but had been abandoned or fled their homes following a rocket attack, she said.

"A few blocks away," Matthieussent continued, "a small dog with long gray hair hid behind a bench. Hakol Chai volunteers eventually coaxed him out of his retreat, and he was soon eating the pet food they brought.

"When they find themselves near rocket hits, dogs can get hysterical and run aimlessly for miles," Nahairiva veterinarian Zafrir Volansky told Matthieussent. "Cats tend to find a shelter in a dark and closed place and stay there, sometimes for days."

"Stray animals depend on food found in trash containers and water dripping from air conditioning," said Hakol Chai volunteer Noam Vardi. "When more than half of the residents are gone, strays slowly die."

"We have been asked to evacuate horses and sheep, provide food for municipal pounds, food for sheep, and more," said Concern for Helping Animals in Israel founder Nina Natelson. "We've also been asked to set up a temporary shelter for lots of puppies, and will likely do that. Our phones are absolutely flooded with calls from people asking us to rescue their animals, and from volunteers wanting to help. "

CHAI, based in Washington D.C., partners with Hakol Chai. Their joint relief effort began on July 27, when Hakol Chai volunteers "rushed 4 tons of food and hundreds of plastic water containers to the northern Israeli settlement of Nes Amim, near Nahariya, where volunteers immediately began the process of distributing it to animals in need," Natelson e-mailed.

"At midnight, the delivery van was met by the coordinator for volunteers in the north. While rockets exploded in the background, local Dutch and German residents helped unload bag after bag of food and begin distribution. Afterward, Hakol Chai's rescue team quickly moved on to Akko, responding to a report of animals abandoned in cages behind a house. As they went, they saw dogs and cats desperate for food and water everywhere.

"Entering the yard in search of the animals," Natelson continued, "the team was soon joined by police, alerted by neighbors alarmed by the sounds in the night. As soon as the police took stock of the situation, they joined Hakol Chai's efforts. Three dogs, eight puppies, pigeons and rabbits in small cages, 20 chickens, parrots, and many cats were abandoned. All were fed, watered, and transported to foster homes. The team worked until 3 a.m. Then the noise of the explosions grew louder, and they were forced to head south."

The Hakol Chai team observed animal casualties. "Three dogs were killed when a bomb hit a house in Kiryat Shmona," where they were left tied by evacuees," Natelson said.

The team also saw two dogs who were killed in the streets, and rescued a dog who was wounded by shrapnel from a rocket that flew into the doghouse where he was chained.