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Reda Sawaya wrote in the newspaper “Al-Akhbar”:
Amid the devastation caused by the explosion in the port, the Chilean rescue dog “Flash” sent to the hearts of the Lebanese people a hope that lasted hours for life under the rubble. But Flash, who is trained in rescue work, is not alone. In Beirut, many dogs and pets were spicing up their owners’ lives, doing what the Chilean female dog did, even without training, in search of the families that raised him. Hundreds of these animals have been buried under the rubble and hundreds more still roam the destroyed streets in search of food and shelter.
It is difficult to determine the number of pets that died in the port explosion or were lost afterward, according to Safin Fakhoury, public relations officer for the Beirut Association for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA), “but it is definitely estimated at hundreds “and noted that veterinary clinics received, after the explosion, more than 100 pets to receive treatment for various injuries. From the first day after the explosion, “the association has sent teams to search for animals that have been displaced from the destroyed houses. We have found a large number and we are trying to return them to their owners.” As for those who were martyred, we searched with their families and relatives to support and care for their animals. Fakhoury emphasized that “the problem is fundamentally great, because since before the explosion, there is no official plan to address the situation of homeless animals, despite our continuous appeals, since 2006, to the municipalities and the Ministry of Agriculture. so that they take actions to fulfill the role that the laws stipulate in this field. For our part, as an association, our absorption capacity peaked, as we were, before the explosion, mainly concerned about more than 1000 animals, and some of the animals we encountered had to take them to our homes until we find a solution. for them or we find someone who might want to adopt them ”, noting that“ Many of the animals that are still alive are threatened with starvation because, unlike street animals, they cannot ensure their livelihood and are used to obtaining their needs feed from their owners without difficulty ”. He noted that “we have been informed that among the aid sent to Lebanon there is a section dedicated to pets, but as an association we have not received any and no one has contacted us about it.”
The tragedy of the Lebanese animals is one of its tragedies, beginning months before the sinister explosion, with deteriorating economic conditions that led many to forcibly abandon their animals because they could not afford to care for them. How “the big Royal Canin brand dog eating bag increased in price from 140,000 pounds to about 600,000 pounds, which is equal to minimum wage. As for the bait that cost about 50 thousand lire for the doctor’s hand, then it cost double, and the price of the medicine jumped from 20 thousand lire to 100 thousand, which means that the simplest operation has cost a lot “, according to the veterinarian Jihad Darwish.
Added to this is “the difficulty of importing some medical equipment, especially the large ones that are necessary to perform radiographic and ultrasound examinations, the loss of which negatively affects our ability to properly diagnose the disease”, warning that “cheap animal food available in the market it lacks quality, which reflects poorly. In food, it can cause health complications in animals such as skin, liver and kidney diseases. Consequently, what animal owners provide for food, they may have to pay more than to treat them.
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