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Brenda Shoss of Kinship Circle interviewed BETA's Helena Hesayne, a Beirut architect who volunteers nearly full-time for animals, for a column on animals in war. EXCERPTS FROM BETA INTERVIEW Brenda: What is BETA's primary mission in Beirut? HELENA: To help the animals, because there is nobody else who will do it. We are the only animal association in Lebanon, just 9 volunteers, trying to do the work of a giant! BETA is no-kill and on-call 24 hours to help dogs, cats, all animals. We rescued a bird last week, a turtle just before the war. We hope to facilitate more adoptions abroad, so we can save more animals in the streets. BRENDA: How does warfare accelerate problems for animals? HELENA: ABANDONMENT. [People fleeing] don't think of animals as family members. They think of them as possessions, like cars. During the [July 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war], thousands of animals were left behind. Abandoned animals and strays bred in the streets. BETA is trying to secure a spay/neuter program. But while possible to release altered cats back into the streets, municipalities don't want loose dogs, even if spayed/neutered. BRENDA: Describe what happened to BETA's shelter when it was bombed. HELENA: The war began July 13, 2006. On July 18, two bombs fell just two meters away from BETA's old shelter at the border of the Hezbollah camp and green line. Shrapnel from the missiles landed inside one of the dog's cages and lodged between two bars. No animals or people were hurt, but our staff house sustained cracks and part of the ceiling fell off. One of our dogs, a golden retriever, flipped out after the bombing. He'd been a gentle dog under my care. The day after the bombing, he jumped on me and bit my arm. He is still the sweetest dog, but since the bombing he may randomly attack or bite. The other dogs are paranoid of planes. Each time they hear one fly overhead, they think it means bombs will fall. Even if they hear commercial planes, they turn and run or bark like nuts. BRENDA: Where is BETA's shelter now? HELENA: We've been in a abandoned pig farm since one day after the bombing. We installed higher walls, steel doors, plumbing, everything. We moved about 150 dogs in two days, driving back and forth between the ruined and temp shelters. We only traveled from noon to 4:00 p.m. when the bombing was lightest. This dog shelter is in Beirut's upper suburbs, close to the mountains in a pine forest, away from downtown Beirut. Currently, we have two separate cat shelters on each side of the old green line. During war, the shelters are isolated from one another. To get from one to the other is hell because there are burning tires and it is forbidden to drive. Last February, Margot, our cat person, had to transfer bags of food and litter in her arms for two hours (it takes 10 minutes by car). We are trying to consolidate all our dogs and cats into a new shelter secluded from war zones. BRENDA: Does war breed an ongoing culture of violence? HELENA: With so many animals abandoned during war, we can't reach them all. People go nuts [in an already volatile war setting] and start shooting animals right and left. Some in the extreme Muslim factions believe dogs pollute their souls. If a dog comes close to them, touches them, they cannot pray until they wash themselves seven times. During the height of the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, we saw many dogs with bullet wounds. They shoot them. They poison them. But this type abuse is ongoing. Many of our rescues are abused, especially by children. They just like to kill puppies. Take a puppy and bang his/her head against the sidewalk. Or tie the dog with electrical wire. Or a guy on a motorcycle drives past a garage where there is a dog. The dog barks at him. So he takes out a gun and shoots the dog. Nobody can say or do anything. One of BETA's staff members at home asleep awakens to dog barks. Suddenly he hears three gunshots and the dog is silent. They just shoot the dog. We deal with this everyday, war or no war. 
FEBRUARY 2007
Diary Of An American Animal Rescuer In Lebanon From Kinship Circle: We're corresponding with Joanne Greene, an American rescuer working with Beirut for the Ethical Treatment Animals (BETA) in Lebanon. Below are excerpts from Joanne's journal of animal rescue in a war zone. Joanne asked us to expose these stories, so more can be done. Joanne Greene writes from Lebanon — "The merciless government poisoning and shooting is routinely implemented. We are gathering contact information for a [Kinship Circle] alert to help stop this slaughter. Government intervention is also needed for a huge captive primate crisis in Lebanon. Your activists are the help BETA has prayed for. Thank you again." ABOUT JOANNE — Joanne Greene was a Katrina volunteer and first responder in Lakeview, New Orleans who is in Beirut for animals abandoned since the war began. Stray populations are tormented during wartime unrest. Joanne joins BETA to feed them in hot zones. Her dedication to animals led her from New Orleans to Beirut — much like Linda Nealon, the only other independent American to volunteer for animals in Beirut. Joanne notes: "BETA is not just fighting to save animals in a war zone, but also to change the way animals are treated in Lebanon. With Hezbollah on hand, the job is difficult and dangerous." 
Joanne Greene, a Chicagoan volunteering for animals harmed in war-torn Beirut, calls images like these "everyday snapshots. I'm not sure what's worse — the war or the average Beirut citizen who tortures, maims, and mistreats animals."
FIRST MORNING IN BEIRUT
I awaken to black smoke billowing skyward, a scramble for supplies and the ultimate paralysis of Beirut. A country-wide strike is called and all hell breaks loose! I quickly join members of BETA, Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, as they desperately jockey food and medicine to their makeshift shelter, located in an abandoned pig farm and isolated from today's fighting. Funds are low and food and medicine are purchased only as needed. In the wake of a strike, the rush to find money, locate supplies, and purchase them before stores close is always difficult. But today they make it! So begins a day in Beirut and the never-ending battle to save animals in war-torn Lebanon. For Margo, who tends to BETA's two cat shelters in downtown Beirut, things are even worse. Margo traverses the Army's checkpoints, just steps ahead of the fighting, burning tires and gun-wielding demonstrators. Her day is perilous; never knowing if she'll make it back to the shelter. There is no food, water or medicine if she fails. As the day unfolds, we all wonder if Margo and the cats are safe. BETA faces these obstacles daily, along with municipalities that shoot and poison their animals. Where will my next day take me? SECOND DAY IN BEIRUT I join Joelle Kanaan, BETA's cofounder, to deliver food/water to downtown cat shelters. As we approach the center of town, Joelle gets a call warning us about fighting ahead that is randomly spilling in and out of neighborhoods. Joelle's father pleads with her to take cover. But the cats come first and she presses on. Joelle tries to reach Margo by cell, but overloaded lines make connection impossible. Where is Margo? After what seems like hours spent in grid-locked traffic and chaos, we reach the shelter. Joelle swiftly unloads supplies and tends to the cats. Margo has miraculously sped through Beirut's streets to return to the shelter — and even rescues a tiny kitten along the way! Margo risks her own life to scoop up a kitten caught in a surge of fleeing people. Somehow, Margo navigates the combat to ferry this kitten to a vet so she can place her in the shelter. But the vet has closed without warning. So Margo isolates the kitten in another BETA member's home. She'll try again tomorrow. I join Helena to transport a worker from the dog shelter to his home. With curfew near, Helena's Wrangler zips over smoldering barricades. Flames prevent smaller cars from passing and visibility is difficult. I cannot imagine how terrified the street strays are. Too dangerous for us to feed in some spots, but they've gone hungry for days. The worker arrives home safely and I too escape harm. BETA ends another harrowing day. THIRD DAY IN BEIRUT Calm settles over the city. BETA retrieves a week-old puppy left on its doorstep, plus an older pup surrendered by a woman in a pricey SUV and discards her pup without a single cent in donations. How can BETA afford more meds and food? As the day proceeds, a volunteer asks for pick-up of a four-month old pup; another volunteer finds a yellow lab loose in her neighborhood; a college student pleads for a six dog pick-up. A man calls about a Great Dane who has been shot and beaten so viciously his right eye is blinded. Helena meets the man, who cannot afford medical treatment, at the vet. The dog's fate is uncertain, as bullets are lodged internally and wounds are badly infected. Helena approves necessary surgery, but worries about the dog and how BETA will finance his care. Yet these are the lucky ones, plucked from streets teaming with strays, government-poisoned animals, war-abandoned pets. Later that day, Margo and I leave food at a few feeding stations. Margo wants to establish more stations, but cannot fund them on a regular basis. So she feeds animals as her budget permits and aches for the ones she cannot save. But today we feed, after days waiting out the crossfire. We go after dusk, so Hezbollah doesn't notice us. At our first stop, across from Hezbollah tents, a weary cat limps toward the food. The cat's injuries suggest collision with an automobile. BETA has no cat traps and must think quickly. So we position a small crate over the food pile and add more food. Though the cat enters our carrier, he bolts as soon as Margo approaches. We fear we've lost him. Fortunately, he returns and Margo closes the door behind him. We leave the rest of the food for other cats and depart with our crated cat before Hezbollah discovers us. Back at the shelter, we learn the soot-covered cat has labored breathing from prolonged exposure to burning rubber. His back appears broken. We hope he'll survive till morning. Margo and I return to the tents to check feeding stations before calling it a night. The first two stations look good but as we near the third, a Hezbollah blockade freezes city traffic. Men are armed with automatic weapons, forcing me to contemplate my own mortality. I cannot think outside this moment. But this is BETA's daily reality and Margo instinctively maneuvers through barricades until we are safe, for now. A HORRID DAY IN BEIRUT Joelle and I work at the dog shelter, conducting home checks and ferrying dogs to the vet. Midway through our day, Joelle receives a phone call. A woman has witnessed a sack thrown from a speeding car. The sack contains three puppies with their mouths tightly bound in electrical tape. The woman manages to grab one, but the other two pups flee. We race to the scene in a downpour. Joelle leaps from the car to find one pup cowering in a pile of rubble. Sweet and gentle, the pup is grateful for kind hands and a warm car. Joelle returns to search for the other pup amid rain, mud, and bone-chilling cold. But the third remains lost, doomed to hunger, illness, loneliness. We pray the tape around her mouth loosens to ease her suffering. Our hearts are heavy, but the day is not over. Margo and Joelle are replenishing food stations on the other side of Beirut when a garbage truck begins to lift a trash bin filled with panicked, stray cats. The trapped cats try to claw their way out. The drivers ignore Margo and Joelle's cries and fatally crush the cats. The two BETA volunteers will go to their grave with the image of screaming, mashed cats. About Beirut For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (BETA) OUR MISSION: IT'S THEIR PLANET TOO — BETA is a Lebanese registered non-governmental organization (Charity #205/AD) established to improve the lives of animals. We provide rehabilitation and a safe haven while striving to find the loving, permanent homes these animals deserve. Through education and direct action, we work to prevent animal overpopulation and cruelty, and encourage a society that treats animals with compassion.
AUGUST 2006
Kinship Circle Contacts U.S. Senator To Help Make Airlift Evacuation Of Animals From Lebanon Happen Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 To: KINSHIP CIRCLE Subject: Thank you Dear Brenda, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your help during the initial phase of looking for an aircraft for the airlift evacuation from Lebanon. You were great to jump in and contact Congressman Lantos' office and to do what you could without any hesitation. The moral support was very much appreciated. Attached is a photo collage that I put together as a thanks from all of us. Hope you enjoy it. All the best, Rebecca Preston, Special Projects Manager Best Friends Animal Society 5001 Angel Canyon Road / Kanab, UT 84741 435-644-3965 ext 4150 www.bestfriends.org 
8/18/06
Congressman Tom Lantos 400 S. El Camino Real, Suite 410 San Mateo, CA 94402 Dear Congressman Lantos, My name is Brenda Shoss. I am founder/president of a national animal advocacy organization, Kinship Circle. I am working with a coalition of individuals and Best Friends Animal Society to provide aid to injured and displaced animals (many are left-behind pets) in war-torn Beirut, Lebanon. We're working directly with BETA (Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the only animal shelter and rescue organization in Lebanon. BETA's former facility in Southern Lebanon was caught in the crossfire and bomb fragments were scattered throughout animal cages. Due to safety concerns, BETA relocated about 150 dogs, 100 cats, and four primates to a makeshift shelter in the mountains of Northern Beirut. Many of these animals require immediate medical attention. For example, one dog's leg was mutilated so badly she underwent amputation and needs further aid. Other animals face unnecessary amputation because supplies and veterinarians are scare in Lebanon. There are no splints for broken bones, so limbs are simply removed. Because humane euthanasia formulas are unavailable, animal caretakers are forced to use T-61, a painful and slow-acting lethal agent. We appeal to your animal-friendly side, as founder of Congressional Friends of Animals, for help in this urgent situation. A former staffer on Capital Hill informed us that C130 military cargo planes are sometimes used to transport animals in need. A Congressperson must arrange any free transports on military cargo planes. Presently, our critical need is to airlift animals out of BETA's temporary shelter to the U.S. for medical treatment and adoptions. Lebanon itself has no formal animal welfare policy or adoption network. Best Friends Animal Society has committed to organizing the evacuation and housing animals at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah before they go to new homes across the country. Can you help us arrange use of a C130 military cargo plane to airlift these animals to safety? Any information you have for initiating this effort is greatly appreciated! Below are key USA and Lebanon contacts for your office to coordinate airlift logistics: IN THE USA Best Friends Animal Society, Howard Bronson, Middle East Airlift Coordinator 435-644-3965 ext. 4547, howardb@bestfriends.org Rebecca Preston, Special Projects Manager and Middle East Contact 435-644-3965, ext. 4150, rebecca@bestfriends.org Linda Nealon, ABC's Person of the Week for animal rescue work in Lebanon cell 917-455-8771, home: 646-678-3770, LNealon1@aol.com IN LEBANON Joelle Kanaan, cofounder, BETA Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals 011-961-341-0191, joelle_k@idm.net.lb Helena Hesayne, BETA 011-961-323-3382 We look forward to a return phone call from your office so we can airlift these animals to safety and a better life as soon as possible. Thank you very much, Brenda Shoss, president'founder, Kinship Circle Action ● Education ● Animal Disaster Aid 314-795-2646, info@kinshipcircle.org www.KinshipCircle.org
AUGUST 2006
Innocent Faces Of War, Please Help
HOW TO HELP THE ANIMALS IN NORTHERN ISRAEL 2006 Concern ForHelping Animals In Israel (CHAI) — Please help Hakol Chai, CHAI's sister charity in Israel, care for the animals caught in the crisis in the north of Israel.
CHAI in Israel: Hakol Chai Yadin Elam, Director info@hakolchai.org, 03-6243242 POB 51858; Tel Aviv 67214, Israel CHAI in the U.S. Nina Natelson, Executive Director chai.usa@verizon.net, 703-370-0333, 866-308-0333 PO Box 3341; Alexandria, VA 22302, USA
As for the increasing number of cats, BETA is in the process of finding a new space to put the cats. We are against overcrowding. Much more news of BETA and the animals to come. What we want to do is find a permanent paradise for these animals. Yes, I call it paradise because that's what they deserve. They are like children who never grow up and stay innocent for as long as they live. So a paradise they deserve. — O.G. BETA
JULY 2006
Panic From The Blast Of Rockets
7/27/06 Concern For Helping Animals In Israel (CHAI), Tel Aviv — Working through the night to avoid rocket fire, Hakol Chai, CHAI's sister charity in Israel, rushed 4 tons of food and hundreds of plastic water containers to the northern Israeli settlement of Nes Amim, near Nahariya. Volunteers fed animals throughout the region.
July 2006 Tenu L'Haiot L'Hiot (Let The Animals Live) — It has been nearly two weeks since northern area fighting began (Katyushot falling from Haifa to the border). We calls daily from people forced to leave homes and looking for temporary pet shelter, plus people willing foster dogs and cats from the north. Anat Refua of Let The Animals Live has already paired about 200 animals with families in southern and center regions. Our rescue vehicle has gone to the northern area numerous times to retrieve abandoned dogs and transfer about 50 food bags for distribution. We've also relocated dogs from Junt Kennel in Lehavot Habashan to central locations such as Glil-Yam inn, to open up space for more stranded dogs from the north. Massive reports on animal suffering — animals chained or locked in deserted homes — forced us to go to Naharia many times to attempt rescues (along with Anat Salmovitz of the vet clinic Rescue In The City).
WE NEED YOUR HELP
NORTHERN AREA RESIDENTS Please let water drip from faucets, with buckets or bowls beneath. Animals cannot survive in this heat without water. Also, if able, please scatter dry food and buckets filled with water across the streets for abandoned animals.
JULY 2006
War Has No Borders: Same Eyes, Same Fear ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUP FIGHTS TO LET ANIMALS EVACUATE TOO 7/20/06 Agence France-Presse, from correspondents in Washington — The US military ought to let those evacuating Lebanon bring their pets, an animal rights group said today. Unlike the French, which made provisions for animal evacuations, US military commanders are ordering evacuees who brought their dogs, cats, birds and other pets to leave them behind, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said. "Apparently French generals are able to deal with a child holding a five-pound rabbit and the US military is not," PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said. In a letter to the evacuation operation's commander, PETA said its office had been flooded with calls on behalf of desperate Americans in Lebanon. "Even elderly residents — who, in some cases, have suffered amid the rubble for days, just so that they could safeguard animals whom they consider to be members of their families — are being told that they must leave their animals behind to starve to death," the letter said. "People are upset enough without this complication. And America can surely do better." PETA said policy on animal evacuations was supposed to have changed after Hurricane Katrina, when scores of people refused to evacuate New Orleans without their pets and thousands of forcibly abandoned animals died. EVACUATION RULES LEAVE THOUSANDS OF ANIMALS STRANDED 7/20/06 Joelle Kanaan, cofounder of Beirut For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals, tells us — This is an extremely sad situation. Not only the Canadians, but many other embassies do not allow any pets evacuated outside Lebanon with their guardians. As a result, foreigners leave the country without their pets, releasing them on the streets in dangerous areas under bomb attack. Even worse, they lock animals inside houses where no one can reach them. Animals die slowly and painfully while terrified the whole time. The new place we've found is quite big. We will pick up any animal seen on the street and shelter them with our rescued dogs and cats. Animals are being abandoned in thousands and unfortunately many of them will die before any BETA rescuers reach them. 
PHOTOS OF ANIMALS IN LEBANON DURING 2006 HEZBOLLAH-ISRAEL WAR. Sent by Joelle el-Massih (Kanaan) cofounder of BETA, Lebanon's first animal welfare organization.
JULY 2006
More Forgotten Victims In Middle East Wars TRYING TO SURVIVE THE FIGHTING IN LEBANON July 2006 ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper — BERUIT: The young Lebanese humane movement is struggling to avoid becoming a collateral casualty of the July 12 Israeli invasion of Lebanon in pursuit of Hezbollah militia members, who raided Israel earlier in the day. "I just came back from two weeks in Lebanon, and by chance left just two hours before the airport was destroyed," Kenya-based wildlife trafficking investigator Jason Mier emailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE. Mier has worked closely since January 2006 with Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to facilitate several rescues of illegally obtained and exhibited nonhuman primates. "I am speaking to BETA twice a day by phone," Mier said. "Lebanon is now at war," affirmed an emergency appeal from BETA. "We are effectively cut off from the rest of the world. The necessary goods to care for our animals are becoming more difficult to find, and what is available is now becoming more expensive due to scarcity. With the country shut down, all of our in-country fundraising has been forced to stop. "Many of us are literally risking our lives to visit our shelters early in the morning and again before nightfall," BETA continued. "The dog shelter is located on the border of Dahye, a suburb where many of the attacks are taking place. Many of the 130 dogs are visibly suffering. Trips to our cat shelters take us through a large part of Beirut. Attacks and destruction continue making this more difficult and dangerous." BETA houses about 100 cats, divided between two locations. BETA was formed in 2004 through the collaboration of five individual activists, Hania Jurdak, Marguerite Shaarawai, Katia Sleiman, Joelle Kanaan, and Sylvie La Voie, who had all been working alone, assisted by Beirut veterinarian Ali Hemadeh. A DOG (AND CAT'S) EYE VIEW OF WAR DogsInTheNews.com ● Israel, West Bank, Afghanistan — Do you ever wonder what dogs think about these crazy humans driving tanks and launching giant sticks? We can only guess. As the Middle East Crisis and other violent conflicts rip through Southwest Asia, dogs, the silent observers, form an eerie and omniscient presence. KINSHIP CIRCLE NOTE: Sadly, so do the everyday unseen animals used for for food, entertainment, research…cows, chickens, pigs and other farmed animals (dairy cows were the most tragic victims of Japan's 2011 mass earthquake and nuclear plant radiation). Primates in labs or zoos, along with other entertainment-used animals such as big cats, elephants, camels, etc. Wild animals are also harmed, but at least have the chance to flee because no human bars or chains confine them.
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