Yahoo – AFP,
Majeda El-Batsh, August 26, 2017
 |
| Diana Babish spent much of her own money on setting up the shelter but now receives funding from international groups, including the France-based Brigitte Bardot Foundation as well as from British and German charities (AFP Photo/Musa AL SHAER) |
Beit Sahour
(Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Palestinian Diana Babish enters a cage full
of dogs at a rare shelter in the West Bank and is immediately swamped by
puppies clamouring to be picked up or petted.
Babish, in
her 40s, runs the shelter in the Israeli-occupied territory, where residents
are not all known to be dog lovers.
The shelter
opened 18 months ago in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem after
Babish gave up a 20-year career in banking to devote her life to care for the
animals.
As she
makes her way into the shelter, she pats each puppy as she searches for one
particular dog that needs an injection for a bite injury.
Babish has
no veterinary or medical background, but the shelter, which is now home to
around 40 dogs, has become her labour of love and she has learned to give shots
and other medical treatment.
About 200
puppies and 130 mature dogs have been treated, given affection, fed and
prepared for adoption since the shelter opened.
"In
the Palestinian areas animals are subjected to abuse. These animals were
created by God," says Babish, who wears discreet jewellery and make-up.
10,000
strays in Bethlehem
"These
animals can't talk. So we have to talk for them because they need our
help," she says.
Babish
spent much of her own money on setting up the shelter, but eventually needed
outside help to meet the steep cost of running the refuge.
Now the
shelter receives funding from international groups, including the France-based
Brigitte Bardot Foundation as well as from British and German charities.
 |
Shelter
founder Diana Babish estimates there are about 10,000 stray dogs in the
Bethlehem
district alone, and many people favour poisoning or shooting them (AFP
Photo/Musa AL SHAER)
|
The cost of
running the shelter is high -- around $60,000 a year, says Babish, as the dogs
need 50 kilos of food each day, much of it leftovers from nearby chicken farms.
She says
the biggest challenge is not acquiring the funding but "getting people to
accept the idea that animals can live in the streets and you should not
exterminate them".
Babish
estimates that there are about 10,000 stray dogs in the Bethlehem district
alone, and many people favour poisoning or shooting them.
The local
government has committed to not killing them and Babish says they are working
together to find ways to reduce canine birth rates.
Islam
generally calls for people to be kind to animals.
A savage
attack
The Prophet
Mohammed once told the story of a man who saw a dog panting with thirst and
gave him water. The man was rewarded by God for his good deed and allowed to
enter heaven.
And yet
many religious authorities consider dogs to be unclean or impure.
Last year,
a shelter opened in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamist Hamas
movement.
Kareema
Allan, a Palestinian teacher who lives in a town south of the southern West
Bank city of Hebron, recalls how she called Babish in a panic when a stray dog
had puppies under a tree on her property.
It was
during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and she gave the dog food and water.
But one
day, "I woke up to the dog's screams" and found the mother
"stabbed in the neck, while her puppies were still breastfeeding".
Allan
cleaned the animal's wound with iodine and fed the puppies.
She then
phoned the shelter and Babish quickly arrived and took both the mother and her
puppies to the vet.
They all survived.
An average
of two dogs a week are adopted from the Beit Sahour shelter, most of them
finding new homes in Israel.
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