More than three weeks have passed since the outbreak of Operation Iron Swords. Since then, several organizations and individuals have started helping families get their animals out of the region after they were left there or managed to escape.
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These nonprofit organizations include Let the Animals Live and For the Wildlife, which rescued many animals from the area. "About two days after the fighting broke out, we started roaming around the area to help the animals and their caretakers," Dr. Noa Barak, medical director of the Let the Animals Live Veterinary Center in Ashkelon, told Israel Hayom. We picked up dogs and cats that had run away from their owners with the outbreak of the Hamas attack. Some of them were wounded, and we also searched for, and rescued animals, that had been left behind."
Video: A dog saved from a home in Kibbutz Be'eri / Credit: For the Wildlife
She added: "Every day, our cars go out to the area full of food, which we distribute to anyone who needs it, including those who feed street cats, even though only a few of them are left on the front line, and the animal owners who have not left. We also deliver food to the combat soldiers who are in the surrounding communities, and they distribute it to animals that are in places where civilians are not allowed to enter. If they manage to capture them – they do so and send them on to us."
For the Wildlife also joined this important cause. "We received the rescue lists from the Animal Rescue Department of Brothers in Arms NGO, who obtained permits from the IDF to enter the area," said the association's chairman, Avihu Sherwood. "We arrived with our equipment and a large team and caught all the animals that we had to, from dogs and cats, through exotic animals, such as iguanas, parrots, swans, and even spiders, which were all returned to their owners, and as far as entire petting zoos, which were transferred to other locations outside the war zone. We go to every place where animals are left, and also attend to animals that are now afraid of humans, because of the anguish they experienced," he noted.
"If the animal is friendly, then it is easy to pick it up, but in cases where it is afraid, we have to place food for it in a cage that closes when it enters, and if necessary – we camouflage the cage," Dr. Barak says. "We have also come across some cases where the owner of the animals we found were murdered, kidnapped, or are missing. In such cases, we look for the relatives of that person, or we transfer the animal to foster care. Fortunately for us, many people have joined our efforts and want to foster animals rescued from the area."
