Beirut Explosion – Disaster Response
Following the catastrophic explosion in Beirut, Animals Lebanon is on the front line helping the animals.
Our focus:
- reuniting lost pets
- rescuing pets trapped or hiding in damaged or destroyed areas and buildings
- providing veterinary care for injured animals
- caring for animals whose guardians sadly passed away
- providing pet food and supplies to those most affected to help get them through the next month
- caring for rescued animals that will eventually need great new homes
- removing animals which died in the explosion
Despite the difficult economic time, we believe it is only right to spend where we can now to help with these cases, but this is money that was not budgeted for. It’s difficult to access funds in our bank because of the ongoing financial crisis and local donations are impossible now.
We are also coordinating with the Red Cross, Civil Defense, and other groups so we can help rescue animals they might identify through their work.
Our Impact:
2 hours after the explosion we deployed a team to help
88 hours spent on the ground in the affected area
300+ requests for help have been received
202 people volunteered to help search, rescue and care for the animals
57 (tbc) animals given veterinary care
42 animals taken to our shelter
8 rescued animals currently needing adoption
61 lost animals reunited with their guardians
18 animals found dead following the explosion
320 kilograms of food distributed for affected animals
This work is ongoing – we will reassess the needs as time moves on.
Our Need:
Immediate – Funding for veterinary care, transport crates, trapping cages, capture equipment, volunteer support, protection equipment, transport, animal food.
Secondary – Serious concerns of availably of supplies. Must identify way to import wet and dry cat and dog food, cat litter, and medication.
Adoptive homes for rescued cats and dogs, some animals were homeless and injured, some were owned but no owner found, some were owned but owned died.
Please help if you can.
Animals Lebanon now has a dedicated GoFundMe page. That is where they are asking people to donate as the money is safe, 100% goes to Animals Lebanon, and people can see how much has been donated.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/ani
Animals Lebanon has a specific website page about this. It is functional and correct, but there’s still a lot of information to add and some design work. The information covers the organisation’s impact so far. https://www.animalslebanon.org
Jason Mier
Executive Director
Animals Lebanon
+961 (0)3 026 596
jason@animalslebanon.org
www.animalslebanon.org
Image: Star, one of the resident cats injured and traumatized post-explosion