The war in Lebanon was about a week old and Animals Lebanon operations manager Reem Sadek (38) was on a mission to rescue six cats inside an area under Israeli evacuation orders.
“The house was totally in a mess because of random bombing,” she said. “The team were calling us because it was all over the news that heavy bombing was going to start.”
They managed to catch five, but the sixth cat took time to locate. Outside, they could hear warplanes and gunfire. But they kept searching and, in the end, their mission was successful.
Beirut-based animal welfare organisation Animals Lebanon says it has rescued more than 130 animals from dangerous areas since the latest all-out war between Israel and Hizbullah began in the early hours of March 2nd.
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Many of these missions were requested by some of Lebanon’s hundreds of thousands of displaced people, who were not able to find or bring their pets with them as they fled their homes in desperate panic. The organisation’s staff sometimes travel on motorbikes, with carriers on the back, which they use to transport rescued animals.
“Usually we try to finish before 2pm or 3pm,” Sadek says. “Whenever it’s late, it becomes more dangerous.” Instead of flak jackets or helmets, they wear clothing with the logo of their organisation. “We don’t want to give the wrong impression,” Sadek said.
During the last all-out war, in 2024, Animals Lebanon housed almost 500 animals in their offices in Hamra, west Beirut. This was often because displaced people could not bring their pets to shelters, though the owners of 65 animals never returned to get them.
This time, the organisation does not have the capacity to house so many animals, staff said, because of the cost of caring for them. Funding has been badly affected due to the regional scale of the war, they said, though they are assisting with boarding options for $2 (€1.75) a day, or providing metal cages to displaced people in which to keep their animals.
Staff also leave food for stray animals in affected areas and give medical care to those who are sick or injured.
New animals are being dumped on their front door in cardboard boxes roughly every two days, staff said. In their offices, there are already about 100 cats, some of which have been there for years. Every few months, some travel to the US – it is easier for them to be adopted there.
There are other organisations also working to reunite displaced people with their pets, and to improve conditions for animals affected by the conflict. Tamara Abi Khalil, the founder of Give Me a Paw, said they have taken 102 animals from danger zones to safety and are housing 26. Khalil said the war had shown how some Lebanese people were dedicated pet owners, “and consider their pets as family members”, while others were not, as evidenced by “pets being left behind”.
Some of Animals Lebanon’s staff are displaced themselves. Medical co-ordinator Jane Abi Faycal (23) usually lives in eastern Lebanon, but now stays in a hotel, because it is too dangerous to go home. In the office, she examines all newly rescued animals. She has seen eye injuries, fractures from being under the rubble, including spine fractures, damaged hips or legs and respiratory problems – because “we don’t know what type of bombs they’re hitting with”. One cat was getting its front leg amputated that day as a result of its injuries, she said.
She pointed out animals for whom she cared on a tour of the organisation’s multiple floors. There was Aura: a cat with four kittens, rescued from Dahiyeh – an area under evacuation orders – and then abandoned, Tiffany, who has three legs and a bacterial infection, Bianca who was found screaming from pain the day before the war began, had hip surgery and is now doing physiotherapy sessions and Valentino, who was “dumped” on the first day of the war, disorientated and limping, with a trauma in his head.
She also cares for a lion cub, Inara – one of two in the charge of the organisation. Now about three months old, Inara was illegally trafficked into Lebanon and discovered in the country’s south, staff said. She is awaiting evacuation to a sanctuary in Europe or South Africa, but travel arrangements are slower because of the war.
Faycal described night shifts with the lion cub when she was badly dehydrated and a “critical case” unable to eat or make noises. Faycal worried she might not live, but they put her on an IV drip and took care of her. Now Inara has recovered. But “we can’t keep her in this enclosure. She’s wild, she needs space to socialise with other lions.”
A second, younger baby lion – also rescued after being illegally trafficked – is staying at the home of Jason Mier, the Animals Lebanon director. The organisation also takes care of six baboons in Aley, on Mount Lebanon, he said.
Like everyone else, Animasl Lebanon’s staff have no idea how long this war will last. Sadek called for more people in Beirut to house displaced animals in the meantime, saying more than 200 cats need boarding.
In her office, right before she ran off on another rescue mission, Sadek dismissed those who say animals should not be a priority during war. “Ninety per cent of the animals have owners and owners need their animals. We are helping people,” she said.
On a personal level, she added, she sees her job as an “opportunity to make sense of existing … If we are able to change something, that’s the only way to have meaning for our life. I would like to stand for the totally voiceless.”
