Last July, volunteers of the small shelter “Give Me a Paw” in Lebanon witnessed a horrific tragedy. Sixty-nine sick dogs, many on the verge of death for suffering from scabies, mange, distemper and leishmania, were dumped in front of their doors.
These dogs came from a hoarder “shelter” in Nahr Ibrahim run by a woman, known for keeping animals in large numbers. There were claims that this woman hoarded a total of 250 dogs, but so far there is no tangible evidence of the total number (except for the 69 dumped in front of the gates of GMAP’s shelter). Considering their health conditions, they must have been neglected for months. Residents in Nahr Ibrahim were starting to complain about the situation and the pungent smell of dead dogs, forcing the woman to kick them out. On July 15th, those dogs were supposed to be relocated to another shelter. However, a rescuer who arrived to the original “shelter“, saw the 69 dogs being loaded onto a truck. She insisted to stop at a vet clinic, where dogs were treated with Nexgard and tested for distemper. At least 10 dogs were on the verge of death, one even gave birth to dead puppies on the horror truck. Some of these dogs should have been immediately admitted to the clinic and not left on this death truck.
On the way to the safe location, for an unknown reason the horror truck was intercepted and dogs could not be taken to their new location, but instead were dropped in front of Give Me a Paw’s shelter. All happened in the middle of the night (for the full story, see this post. and a video summary)
A tremendous disaster for wildlife of the area exposed to contagious and deadly diseases, for the 70+ dogs already in the shelter, and for the dumped dogs who needed medical attention and a safe place to stay.
Our member league GMAP managed to find and capture the 69 dogs, thanks to the support of volunteers and local animal welfare NGOs, including Animals Lebanon (another OIPA member league association). Some vets also appeared on the scene to help and began treatment on site and once the dogs got treated, it’s been agreed that the responsibility for these dogs will be divided between the NGOs.
Following the urgent request for help of GMAP, OIPA International has contributed to refund some vet bills for 6 of the 14 dogs under their care. For one dog they had to do a SNAP 4Dx test to see if he was still tested positive for Ehrlichia (which gladly he wasn’t anymore!), 5 blood tests for 5 different dogs and a surgery performed on one of the dogs to remove a small tumour.
❤️ All this would not have been possible without your donations for our project❤️ “SAVE A STRAY”
Thank you again for supporting us!
If you want to contact our member league Give Me a Paw : website – Instagram – Facebook
