We hear about the war in Syria almost every day. But have you ever thought about how does a war affect local animals and that the self-sacrifice must not always be made by an animal for humans, but it can also be the other way around? The person that I’m going to tell you about today, remained in the war zone to take care of the local cats.
Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, has since 2012 been almost a permanent war zone, where enemy forces strive to gain rule over the city. Therefore, it’s no wonder, that most inhabitants ran away from there in the effort to save their own lives.
Mohammad Alaa Jaleel told the BBC News that when people went away, cats started coming to him. He started with about twenty cats that the fleeing people have left in the city. Some of them just gave him the cats, because they knew that he loved them. A year later, he had more than a hundred of them. So, he founded a shelter known also as Il Gattaro d'Aleppo. They call him the “Cat man of Aleppo”.
One little girl who was handing his cat over to him in tears, asked him, whether he could send her some pictures of it. Mohammad assured her, that he will take care of the cat until she gets back home and he also really sends her pictures of the cat.
After all Mohammad’s friends left the city, his friends became the cats. He says that he will stay with them no matter what happens.
Take a look at a video:
Mohammad Alaa is not the only one, who stayed in the war zone to help animals. Despite of chaos and tragedies that take place in Syria, animal lovers founded an association called the Syrian Association for Rescuing Animals (SARA), which tries to save animals in the area. They take them home and they also have a farm for dogs in Damascus. Besides that, they also go to the streets to feed abandoned animals. They’ve also created an educative campaign for animals. They teach them love for dogs, so that they wouldn’t torture animals that live on the streets. Since they are the last hope of animals for life, they’ve decided, despite all danger and difficult searching for new homes or sponsors, to remain in Syria.
The organisation Animals Syria is trying to find homes in Europe for the animals saved by SARA. They also pay for their veterinary costs.
It is nice to see, that there are still some people today, who think more about others than about themselves.
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