———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Kinship Circle - kinshipcircle [at] brick.net
Date: Jun 24, 2007 1:39 AM
Subject: Animals ­ Unseen Collateral Damage

RELIEF GLOBAL / KINSHIP CIRCLE ANIMAL DISASTER RELIEF LIST

KINSHIP CIRCLE COLUMN, 6/24/07
PERMISSION TO CROSS-POST

Columns & Articles: www.kinshipcircle.org/columns_articles/

Animals - War’s Unseen Collateral Damage
By Brenda Shoss, 6/24/07, www.KinshipCircle.org

Kinship Circle’s column runs in The Healthy Planet. Ms. Shoss is also a contributing writer for The Animals Voice, Satya Magazine, VegNews, and other publications. To reprint this column, please request author permission at info [at] kinshipcircle.org

LEFT PHOTO: 8/5/06, network.bestfriends.org/middleeast/news/6547.html
– BETA rescued this little kitten, Louli, from the war zone.

RIGHT PHOTO: 6/4/07, from BETA Team, listmaster [at] betabeirut.com — Car bombs and hand grenades went off in Beirut. The first bomb exploded very close to one of our cat shelters in Ashrafieh area…

War devastates. We grieve for soldiers lost and the involuntary destruction of civilian life. But headlines rarely publicize war’s other collateral damage.

Animals, crimeless and naive, dodge mortars and armored combat vehicles. Their lives explode in a flurry of desertion, starvation, injury and death.

A month into last summer’s Israeli-Hezbollah war, bombs rain over Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israel’s military hopes to defuse Hezbollah’s command post, so Lebanese officials can assert autonomy along the border. Meanwhile, Hezbollah launches rocket strikes inside Haifa and northern Israel.

Helena Hesayne, a Beirut born architect, has little patience for the politics behind battle. Her mission is clear: To rescue animals abandoned in Lebanon’s exodus of one million people. In late July 2006, Hesayne and three others from Beirut For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (BETA) navigate smoldering rubble in a small convertible. Israeli soldiers eye their car full of dog and cat food.

Hesayne displays BETA’s accreditation papers. She has no fear, only stark resolve to retrieve four cats and one puppy seen locked inside a pet shop. “These animals are banging against the glass door, trying to get out. They are without food and water. I don’t know how long,” Hesayne recounts.

The women persuade another storeowner to unlock the pet shop for them. They are without crates, so they ferry animals toward their car under a downpour of bombs. “The entire time, this tiny puppy just licks our faces. It is the most amazing thing,” Hesayne says.

A BRUTAL LANDSCAPE

At the onset of conflict in Lebanon, citizens and foreigners fled. Canadian, British and American evacuation protocols banned companion animals. In the chaos, evacuees released animals into the streets or confined them in buildings. BETA believes thousands of companion animals were discarded.

It is a familiar scenario. War casts companion, wild, zoo and farm animals into the shadows, terrified and hungry. Unlike people, animals do not intellectually grasp their circumstances.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq ravaged Baghdad’s zoo, killing all but 80 of 400 animals. Bombings stranded survivors without food, water, or wound care until U.S. military veterinarians interceded with mobile clinics. Some kind-hearted U.S. troops even shared their ration packs with zoo animals, livestock, horses, donkeys, cats and dogs.

By the time BETA reached a zoo south of Beirut in Tyre, its emaciated inhabitants could barely move. “People fleeing think of animals as possessions, like cars,” Hesayne observes. “We leave the car. We leave the animals.” BETA confiscated several baboons, monkeys, and one macaque from another municipal zoo and transported them to a sanctuary in Wales.

On July 18, 2006, two bombs swept over BETA’s former shelter at the border of the Hezbollah camp and Green Line. Shrapnel lodged between bars inside one dog’s cage. Though animals and people escaped injury, the dogs sustained psychological scars.

One friendly golden retriever “flipped out” after the explosions, Hesayne says. “The next day, he bit my arm. Since the bombing he may randomly attack or bite.” BETA’s other dogs panic each time a plane engine roars overhead.

PHOTOS: 4/25/03 — A lion rests in Baghdad zoo * Sick animals in Iraq to be rescued by vets
news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/animals/newsid_2975000/2975397.stm

A CULTURE OF CRUELTY

War plainly leaves innocents in the line of fire. It can also breed an impulsive culture of cruelty. As infrastructure crumbles — with the paralysis of roads, bridges, ports, communication, water and power sources — some aim their unrest at animals.

In 2007, videos of U.S. soldiers engaged in animal abuse circulated the Internet. Unsettling footage from a CD found in Baghdad’s Green Zone revealed several servicemen hurling rocks at a dog with a spinal deformity. As the dog wailed, one man laughed, “That is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” Another suggested they “go over and kill it.”

PHOTO/VIDEO — Soldiers taunt crippled dog in Iraq: www.liveleak.com/view?i=6445f9fdd7

Video 2: US Soldier shoots dog with M203 training round: www.liveleak.com/view?i=0a5ee2d6eb

Indiscriminate abuse stems from the illogical premise that animals matter less during war and are easy scapegoats for violence.

For BETA’s small volunteer staff, constant uprisings afford little respite from bloodshed. By June 2007, steady shelling and machine-gun fire had resumed in Lebanon as the army cornered Fatah Islam militants secluded in a Palestinian fugitive camp near Tripoli.

On June 4, car bombs and hand grenades discharged next to BETA’s cat facility in the Ashrafieh neighborhood. BETA’s dogs, situated in a former pig farm, were miles away from two cat shelters across the old Green Line. The group hopes to consolidate cats and dogs in a new shelter before the hostility escalates.

In this volatile setting, people “go nuts and shoot animals right and left or poison them,” Hesayne says. “We see puppies whose heads were banged against sidewalks or tied in electrical wire. If a dog barks, they just shoot the dog.”

Chicagoan Joanne Greene can attest to animal cruelty during war. From January 15 to February 3, 2007, the Jewish American who runs a dog-walking business joined BETA to feed animals roaming Beirut’s “hot zones.” Though she’d volunteered for three animal relief missions in post-Katrina New Orleans, nothing prepared her for rescue in a combat zone.

Among Greene’s eyewitness accounts, she depicts one particularly “horrid day in Beirut” when she and BETA’s Joelle Kanaan respond to a call about three puppies tossed from a speeding car. The dogs are buried in a sack, their mouths tightly bound in electrical tape. Kanaan retrieves two, but the third pup disappears into the rain and mud.

“We leave, praying the tape around her mouth loosens to ease her suffering,” Greene writes. “But the day is not over.” As Kanaan and another BETA volunteer replenish food stations, they see a sanitation truck hoist a dumpster full of live cats. The drivers ignore the women’s cries and pulverize the screaming cats.

LEFT PHOTO: 1/15 to 2/3/07, from American rescuer in Beirut Joanne Greene — “I’m not sure what’s worse, the war or the average Beirut citizen who tortures, maims, and mistreats animals.”

RIGHT PHOTO courtesy of BETA: Named Bullet for surviving his hideous wound, this Canadian white shepherd was shot through his left eye as he played in a garden. “He was lucky. The bone of his eye deflected the bullet and it exited behind his ear. It did not penetrate his brain. We removed his eye and the bullet fragments…”

LACK OF POLICY FOR ANIMALS IN WAR ZONES

America’s Universal Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) contains no anti-cruelty clauses. Defense leaders seldom penalize soldiers for animal torture. The military also advocates lethal rabies control to safeguard troops, despite proof that rigorous vaccination programs inhibit disease transmission more effectively than gratuitous slaughter.

The Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) and Humane Society International (HSI) want the U.S. Department of Defense to revitalize rules for animal cruelty and control, as well as permit soldier adoption of animals.

General Order 1-A (GO-1A) forbids soldiers to care for pets or mascots. For reasons unknown, the military lumps animal companionship under behavior “prejudicial to the maintenance of good order and discipline of all forces.” Since 2005, security clampdowns along borders have blocked soldiers from transporting strays back to the states.

Well, some soldiers. The fiercely determined rely on Iraq’s “canine underground railroad.” HSUS gathers their stories as testament to the spirit of the human-animal bond.

During a 2004 offensive in Fallujah, Marines found a grubby, flea-infested puppy. With help from a reporter and the Helen Woodward Animal Center, Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman sent “Lava” from Jordan to California. In Kopelman’s book, “From Baghdad, With Love,” he details arrangements that led to Lava’s homecoming. Another army major saved skin-and-bones Bashur during his tour in Kirkuk, Iraq. The dog, now at home in Illinois, traveled 640 miles with a military convoy en route to Kuwait.

PHOTO: 11/04, Jay Kopelman and Lava in Iraq
www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/iraq_us_soldiers_pets.html

A HOME ON DISTANT SHORES

On September 25, 2006, 150 dogs and 145 cats flew from Beirut’s International Airport to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. The Best Friends airlift freed an overwhelmed BETA to recover more displaced pets — like Nougat, a blue-eyed Labrador-Husky mix left for dead in a vehicle collision.

Nougat suffered a shattered jaw and maggot infestation over four days before anyone notified BETA. But emergency surgery saved Nougat, who is now prime pooch at her new Rhode Island home. BETA hopes to orchestrate more adoptions in the U.S.

If there is any light in war’s storm on animals, it is the miracle of compassion without borders. In Iraq, citizens and members of the 1st Armored Division and V corps formed the Iraqi Animal Welfare Society. No significant humane organizations existed in Iraq prior to the war.

Sometimes, the miracle is the animal herself. The last nose Army Spc. Justin Rollins nuzzled — before roadside bombs took his life — belonged to a puppy. When the 22-year-old paratrooper’s grieving family saw photos of him cuddling a white and brown-flecked mutt in Iraq, they campaigned to bring the dog home.

With the aid of Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., Hero journeyed about 6,000 miles to New Hampshire. “It was the last bit of happiness Justin had,” Rollins’ girlfriend Brittney Murray told reporters.

Animals like Hero can soften war’s impact. Rescuing them from harm doesn’t devalue human suffering. In fact, it makes us a bit more human.

###

LEFT PHOTO: 3/25/07 — Tired from a long trip, Hero the dog sits with her new Newport, N.H., family, Skip and Rhonda Rollins and Brittney Murray… Rollins’ son, Army Spc. Justin Rollins, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq a day after adopting the pup. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070526/ap_on_re_us/iraq_puppy;_ylt=Ap2k0GxqwxtQB1KacxUtAcnMWM0F

RIGHT PHOTO courtesy of BETA: Nougat, a Labrador-Husky mix hit by a car and left for four days, survives. “Once we found her, our vet operated on Nougat until 1:00 a.m. Her entire jaw was shattered and maggots covered her mouth and head — but he saved her. Now called Bella Nougat, this lucky dog lives with Suzanne in Rhode Island.”

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WHAT YOU CAN DO
================

1. Donate To Beirut For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals

With fundraising activities on hold during times of conflict, BETA desperately needs money to feed and vet animals, maintain shelters, arrange transports/adoptions, cover monthly expenses…

DONATE TO BETA:
beta.beirut.com/donate.php

If interested in adopting war-rescued animals:
beta.beirut.com/Adoption.php

CATS | SEEKING ADOPTION:
beta.beirut.com/display_animals.php?CID=9&stat=1

DOGS | SEEKING ADOPTION:
animals.beirut.com/display_animals.php?CID=4&stat=1

To volunteer for BETA:
animals.beirut.com/howcanihelp.php

Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (BETA) is a Lebanese Registered Charitable Organization (Charity # 205/AD).

2. Contact U.S. Department of Defense officials and ask them to make regulatory changes regarding animals in war zones.

Specifically, urge the DOD to institute these policies:

* Insert and enforce an anti-cruelty clause in the Universal Code of Military Justice.

*Utilize non-lethal vaccination programs to cope with rabies concerns in Iraq or other countries.

* Implement an adoption system that lets soldiers bring vetted pets back to the U.S. with them.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

SOURCE - www.defenselink.mil/faq/pis/dod_addresses.html

web comment form: www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html

Dr. Robert M. Gates, Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon * Washington, DC 20301-1000

Gordon R. England, Deputy Secretary of Defense
1010 Defense Pentagon * Washington, DC 20301-1010

Kenneth J. Krieg, Under Secretary of Defense
3010 Defense Pentagon * Washington, DC 20301-3010

David S. C. Chu, Under Secretary of Defense
4000 Defense Pentagon * Washington, DC 20301-4000

Eric S. Edelman, Under Secretary of Defense
2000 Defense Pentagon * Washington, DC 20301-2000

Tina Jonas, Under Secretary of Defense
1100 Defense Pentagon * Washington, DC 20301-1100

The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
9999 Joint Staff Pentagon * Washington, DC 20318-9999

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
9999 Joint Staff Pentagon * Washington, DC 20318-9999

Secretaries of the Armed Forces
Secretary of the Army
101 Army Pentagon * Washington, DC 20310-0101

Secretary of the Navy
1000 Navy Pentagon * Washington, DC 20350-1000

Secretary of the Air Force
1670 Air Force Pentagon * Washington, DC 20330-1670

The Chiefs of Staff
Army Chief of Staff
200 Army Pentagon * Washington, DC 20310-0200

Chief of Naval Operations
2000 Navy Pentagon * Washington, DC 20350-2000

Air Force Chief of Staff
1670 Air Force Pentagon * Washington, DC 20330-1670

Commandant of the Marine Corps
Headquarters USMC * 2 Navy Annex (CMC) * Washington, DC 20380-1775

DOD answers the question, “Will the Department of Defense change regulations and policies, as they pertain to animal abuse, vaccination and adoption of stray animals in Iraq?” www.defenselink.mil/faq/comment.html

If you believe DOD’s response isn’t good enough, be sure to send them comments!

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