Volunteers to bring back some happiness • for rescuing animals from war zones

The disaster that occurred in the Otaf settlements and in the south of the country on 7/10/23, as well as the evacuation of the northern settlements, left quite a few frightened animals in the area. Associations and private individuals returned to the abandoned sites to rescue dogs, cats, birds and farm animals from there, with the aim of moving them to protected places and caring for them until they calm down and get out of the traumatic situation that some of them are in. Saving animals is often saving people who have lost so much and when their dog returns, it gives them hope.

Volunteers with a love for animals

Many civil groups and organizations joined the effort to save animals that were left alone, those that were injured, abandoned or fled in panic during the shelling. I searched on Facebook under "dog rescue", and found many groups of individuals and organizations who kindly rescue dogs, cats, and even chickens.

It is important that every rescue be coordinated with the standby units and the IDF, say those in the know, and indeed the sharing of rescuers explains the importance of coordination before arriving in combat zones. Among the various associations I found "Animals" which rescues turkeys, sheep and all animals in general from different areas , and also "Bats" - a group that rescues fruit bats from destroyed buildings.

"damaged dog"

"A damaged dog", is a page of one of the larger groups (over 175 thousand members). It started as a happy space for sharing happy moments of people and their dogs, and became a volunteer organization that rescues dozens of animals. The link to the appeal for animal rescue is attached at the end of the article.

On the page of "damaged dog" it says:

This is the most loving group on Facebook today, love that cannot be explained in words, unconditional love, endless love for our dogs. The group is meant for humor and the sharing of love.

"National compassion for dogs in war - a damaged dog"

Since that opening article, reality has changed, and the humor has been replaced by the need to help, rescue, save animals, and the members organized another page called "National Compassion for Dogs in War - A Damaged Dog", a national database for saving dogs and animals in war. All activity is done by private individuals who do everything voluntarily out of love for animals. They rescue animals and not just dogs, from the south and the north, linked to all associations and organizations to achieve the best results for the animals.

Link, extract and coordinate - Reut Reshef

Manages the national shelter for a damaged dog She is bad. In the past, she worked as a project manager for non-profit organizations, and since the war, she has been voluntarily managing the shelter for a "damaged dog". How is she related to animals? "It's a hobby, I don't deal with it, I studied dog training and training, but mostly pure love," she says.

This is how Reut says:

With the establishment of the group, within two days people connected without knowing each other, creating an array that works every day, all day. It started from rescuing dogs, and quickly turned into rescuing cats, parrots, ducks, rodents, turtles, and even lizards.

We have created links with forms that you can fill out to arrange contact with rescuers, associations and field personnel who know how to help and save animals. The registry is organized so that it is possible to find the owner or fit a new home for the rescued dogs. Those who want to adopt can connect to the "Damaged Dog Adoptions" group, which was opened following the situation, for animals seeking a loving home.

To connect dogs to families

When the fighting in the south started, Reot saw a post by Assaf, one of the administrators of the page, in which he writes that he needs help. "I'm a dog person. I suggested he establish a charity to coordinate the rescue and tracing of the animals and their owners, and I did so. It gained momentum. There are a lot of people who want to help. A lot of people who help." The charity that she established is one of the largest in the country.

This is how she continues to tell: "We centralize all the information in front of active rescue headquarters, document what happens in the field, try to make people work in an orderly manner because there are a lot of citizens involved and there is no body that generalizes, that centralizes everything.

We worked hard to respond to what needs to be done in the field and to optimize the processes, to respond to inquiries in the south and north but also in the center. We are helped by people who volunteer to be foster homes, go to rescues, donate food. From the moment the animal is rescued, it goes to foster care or boarding. There are also veterinarians who volunteer, help locate a chip that identifies the owner, and take care of the injured animals."

Many volunteers for action

They do not have a facility to keep dogs or cats, but there are many volunteers and information that can help match a dog with volunteers who are willing to take dogs into foster care. "We recruited art, we received many volunteer requests and we connected dogs to families. There is an organization called Liv One and they were very helpful in making contact with foster families for animals. I applied and continue to apply to other associations because we have many volunteers who want to help, rescue teams in the north and south, all on a voluntary basis." .

Returning a dog to its owner gives some happiness

The array consists of many organizations: Brothers in Arms, Hero Dogs, Transparent Walls, the Association of Veterinary Doctors for Domestic Animals, Eilat Animals, the Bat Association, Eshkol Negev Eshkol, the Eshel Hanasi educational veterinary clinic, Ein Hashur and dozens of independent volunteers, civilians and soldiers who give their time to rescue from the south, And now also from the north animals that were left behind.

A dog that was rescued and returned to its owner, gives some happiness in a time when there is a lot of pain. Sometimes it's a lot more than a little for people who have lost so much.

20 hours a day are dedicated to rescues

"I have a family, a partner, dogs that I adopted, and at this time 20 hours a day are dedicated to rescues. Right now there is a little calm because many animals have already been rescued, but still every time there are shelling and alarms, it puts the animals in distress," she says. And it's not just dogs. There are other animals. Cats, small animals, parrots, voles, ducks. There are members who also rescue wild animals, there is the "Animal" association which rescues farm animals, helps with the evacuation of chickens, cows and any help for large animals.

"There were a lot of inquiries from people who ran away and didn't take their animals with them, people who went out for a few hours and didn't know they wouldn't be able to come back. Animals remained trapped in warehouses, bathrooms, locked houses, sometimes we had to use a locksmith to open locked houses, enter and take out the owner Life".

Good people who have joined the rescue of animals

Hamel Shel Reut and "Damaged Dog" has a web page through which you can ask for help rescuing animals from the south as well as from the north, and there is a team that takes care of them. "When the soldiers purged terrorists, they released a lot of animals and people couldn't find their animals.

We are still going around all kinds of areas and trying to collect as many animals as possible and bring them to a protected place, which is not exposed to fire, and also to find out if they have owners to whom they can return. We and the other compassionate people rescued over 1000 dogs," says Reut and requests that soldiers who meet animals and cannot take them because this is prohibited in most units in the IDF, contact them and they will send rescuers and give the animals a home.

Fast and efficient civil response

"There have been many cases of domestic dogs and cats escaping to military bases, because there are people there and they are used to people. Their owners have left the area or been evacuated or God forbid they have been murdered, and the animals are in anxiety. We are trying to work with the authorities in an orderly manner so that they are also involved, but the torture Civil is faster, there is less bureaucracy and it is easier to organize a rescue.

Recently, the authorities in the south are starting to get more involved, and take responsibility, and I hope this is what will happen in the north as well."

A lot of patience and love will heal the trauma

A lot of good people got involved in rescuing animals. Today, Reot runs a nationwide operation that is based on volunteers, and receives hundreds of inquiries a day from people who need help finding their animal or who themselves have found animals that need help.

"It's a big setup and we're here to manipulate the situation until the families the animals belong to are found," Reut says and adds: "It's not easy to adopt a traumatized dog. The dog will be a new member of the family for many years and it needs to fit. The dog needs to be matched to the family and the family to the dog. People are moved by a picture of a poor dog, but a beautiful picture and pity are not enough.

Every saved animal is a saved soul. Adopting a dog means saving a life, bonding, receiving and giving unconditional love. A traumatized dog needs time to get used to the new family, to a new environment, to learn to trust again. It is a process that requires a lot of patience, time and care. With patience and love it will be possible to heal the trauma."

Cats guarding borders - Yasmin Cohen

Yasmin Cohen She is a veterinarian from Kibbutz Yaftach in the north. "When the fighting started in the south, we couldn't sleep, we were under stress from the thought that the northern border could be ignited any second, and even before an evacuation was announced, we went with our dog to relatives in the center," she says, adding: "We left our cat, who is afraid of strangers, at home. We thought we would return after two days Three, so we left large containers of food and water. When it turned out that it was impossible to return, I had to find a solution and in coordination with the emergency room, I went up every three days to feed."

Border cats

When the evacuation of the north was officially announced, Yasmin and her family moved to the Nof Ginosar hotel along with most of the kibbutz members. Since she knew all the animals in Petah, she became interested in the cats and the few other animals that remained around the houses.

"We created a WhatsApp group that we called border guard cats. As a veterinarian, all the kibbutz cats and community cats (what are called street cats in the city) are my clients, and this made it very easy to create the group. We made an organized array of feeding and water corners, and we rescued all the cats that were closed in the houses "Cat owners and everyone who cares about cats joined the organization. We bought concentrated sacks of food, we bought special dishes that fill up gradually so that they also fit the shy cats, the ones that don't get along with everyone else, and that's how we created a feeding system that takes care of all the animals that were left behind," Yasmin says.

arrive at a hotel with the dog

Yasmin contacted other settlements in the area and with groups of cat lovers in Kiryat Shmona, and made sure that there would be someone who would take care of the feeding: "In coordination with the army and emergency teams, I went up to the kibbutz with the food that the stores delivered, and people from the emergency teams received a list of locations and houses for feeding in rounds, so that once every three days Someone comes with food and water."

Yasmin says that a fish also joined the feeding round:

Some friends gave the soldiers the option to stay in their homes, so they could shower and rest. In one of the houses, the tenants asked the soldiers to be responsible for feeding a fish. It's a 6 and a half year old fish that you can't get away from. Later, two more aquariums were added, and the apartment owners left keys so they could feed the fish.

Abroad with the dogs

Yasmin says that among the people she knows, there are some who went abroad with their dogs, until it calms down here. At first, it was difficult to organize the paperwork to leave the country, but after a few days, the destination countries lowered the requirements and allowed dog owners to bring dogs in without too much bureaucracy. The State of Israel also removed Some of the restrictions are to allow people to return with their dogs when they return.

Sedatives for anxious dogs

People brought cats and dogs with them to the hotel, and in the Ginosar landscape they allowed it as long as the dog owners cleaned up after the dogs. A man from Kfar Bloom who left with a rabbit, and there were those who brought a bird cage with them.

Yasmin says: "Many hotels confirmed arrival with the animals because they understood that it was not possible to leave the animals in combat zones. But there were also other cases, such as a random woman who did not agree to evacuate because there was no board for her five dogs. Everything was full of dogs from the south. We contacted the associations And in the end we found a boarding house for dogs and were able to help her evacuate."

Animals need people to feel safe

"I have clients from Kiryat Shmona, Meiraon, Baram, Marmat Naftali who come with animals to the hotel, and I take care of them here. Some of the animals are anxious and receive sedatives, and some cling to their owners to feel safe. The noises, the 'booms' of going out or falling They put a lot of pressure on the dogs. They need people to feel safe. Out of this, the few dogs left in Petaf accompany the soldiers at the gate and the standby squad."

A link that is important to share: to order a rescue and join Hamel

For soldiers, civilians, anyone who finds a dog or cat or any animal and requests rescue from areas where residents have evacuated. Attached is an important link to a national "damaged dog" dog pity. You need to enter the details in the online form and you will get an answer.

Farms that can be reached in coordination with the owner to save chicks, roosters, calves, goats, lambs, or other animals that remain locked up on the farm and need rescue - contact "Animals" through The next form…