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13 February 2012 |
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In addition to gaining support for animal rights and fostering awareness, rescuing hurt or helpless animals is a large part of Animals Lebanon’s work. Most recently, two dogs in the same vicinity were rescued by a team of Animal Lebanon members. While the organization’s team rescues many animals on a regular basis, this rescue of Baxter and Chippers was especially memorable.
Chained to one spot, with no shelter from sun and rain, Chippers was an obvious and easy target for a group of young boys. He was already in poor shape because of the lack of shelter which caused badly infected skin and a severe ear infection, but things became worse when the boys let their dog attack him. Fortunately, his rescuer heard Chippers’ whimpers of pain and confronted the boys and was able to literally rescue Chippers from the other dog’s jaws; Chippers was treated for a dog bite wound on his leg. Given Chippers’ experience with humans, he’s still cautious around people but is not showing any signs of aggression. Although he accepts everyone around him, he will need time to recuperate and gain back trust toward humans.
Similarly, Baxter was found confined to one spot. No one was expecting to see him there. On the same rescue mission to help Chippers, an Animals Lebanon member needed some tarp materials to aid her. She went to pick it up from a caged enclosure and then found Baxter crouched in the small cage under metal tin and the tarp. This brave dog was left without food or water and did not have anything under it to drain the rain water seeping up under him. As expected, it took the rescuers much time to reach him as he was scared and needed to gain their trust. In fact, with every step of the rescuers’, Baxter would hide under the metal. However, after nearly two hours of interaction between the rescuers and Baxter--which included the rescuers giving him space and then him yelping out to them--the dog was ready to be rescued.
He was removed from the area and taken into the organization's care. Because Baxter is scared of people and often flinches when someone pets him, we believe he was abused. For now, he prefers hiding in places and avoids being seen, but with time he is slowly opening up and soon will become a playful and energetic dog.
Chippers was adopted one month after his rescue in a good home in the US. To adopt Baxter, send an email to adopt@animalslebanon.org.
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With the national animal protection and welfare legislation campaign officially launched, Animals Lebanon volunteers and supporters are out on the streets of Lebanon to spread awareness, garner support, and secure petition signatures of those in support of the law.
In addition to taking to the streets, Animals Lebanon volunteers are holding awareness events at schools and universities across Lebanon. Most recently, the organization coordinated an event at Haigazian University where they worked with the school’s Environmental Club. Organized on December 19-20, 2011, Animals Lebanon supporters and the club members wholeheartedly campaigned on the campus to gain petition signatures, and ultimately, enact the national animal legislation.
Commenting on the event’s success, the president of the Environmental Club said, “Around half of the university’s students signed the Animals Lebanon petition and many shared the petition online.” She continued, “The club’s members are eager to help in spreading the message because they recognize that animal abuse is wrong and, as such, should be made illegal.”
Animals Lebanon volunteers and Haigazian University students put an impressive amount of effort into trying to reach out to many people and the members are still willing to do more in future collaborations.
Thus far, the organization has secured over 5,000 signatures and will continue to work toward its goal of 25,000 signatures in support of this law and meeting individually with parliamentarians, while cooperating with the Ministry of Agriculture to see the legislation is enacted in the immediate future. Given the success of the event held at Haigazian University, Animals Lebanon plans to hold several more awareness events at schools elsewhere in the country |
