Lebanon: Standing by the animals during a month of war

BETA never stopped rescuing abandoned animals

As the war started, bombs began to rain on the southern suburbs of Beirut, reducing whole city blocks to rubble. In the deafening and terrifying sounds of war, BETA’s ((Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) small animal shelter holding 100 homeless dogs stood right on the border of the targeted southern district.

Some of BETA’s staff spent many nights in the shelter with the dogs so they wouldn’t be alone, terrified by the sounds of bombing close by.

Dogs have a hard time understanding war; it’s not something that they do themselves, and bombs can be louder than thunder.

During one of the worst of these times, Joelle Kanaan, co-founder of BETA, emailed to Best Friends, “We will never, never, never leave these dogs!”

The BETA team stood faithfully by the dogs (and cats too, in another shelter), at great risk to their own lives. During all this time, they never stopped rescuing starving, thirsty, abandoned animals from the streets.

Almost miraculously, they were able to move the dogs to a new shelter, still under construction.

Over this month, one million people left Lebanon. Roads, bridges, ports, the seacoast, television stations, power plants, the entire infrastructure of a country, now lie in ruins.

Apart from the vast, unimaginable devastation, on a minute scale, this translates into myriads of everyday hardships.

In a war zone, even the simplest of tasks—getting gas for the car (three to four hours waiting in line for only two gallons) can assume exhausting proportions.

The heroes of BETA have steadfastly protected their animals.
Now, one month after the war began, this is BETA’s story of saving their animals:

Our Efforts Throughout the War

Since the 12th of July 2006, the BETA team has been struggling to alleviate the suffering of Lebanon's neediest animals.

BETA has welcomed abandoned animals into its shelter. In 31 days, 25 dogs have joined the dog shelter, while the cat shelter has become home to another 34 cats.

Each of the abovementioned animals has had its vaccines administered, and has received de-worming and de-fleaing treatments, and any other treatment necessary.

In the first week of the war, BETA was forced to move its 130 dogs in two days from the previous shelter, which was located in a war zone. The dogs were moved in our cars, 3 at a time, and in a mini-van.

The new dog shelter is space 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 a dog shelter and a construction site at the same time.

In other words, BETA is building a new shelter from scratch, which certainly requires many hours of work, and significant resources.

Thus, with every incoming dog, a new cage is to be built and this requires a lot of construction material, in other words a lot of money.

As for the increasing number of cats, BETA is in the process of finding a new space to put the cats. We were always against over crowding and we still are…

Much more news of BETA and the animals of Lebanon will follow-Ed.

''What we want to do is find a permanent paradise for these animals. Yes, I call it paradise because that's what they deserve. They are almost like children who will never grow up and will stay innocent for as long as they live. So a paradise they do deserve." -O.G. BETA