Dr. Amir Khalil is not your average vet. The brave Egyptian doctor risks his life to rescue animals from war zones and their zoos of “sorrows and horrors.”
Against the backdrop of political unrest, landmines and military, Khalil and his Four Paws team have dodged bullets to evacuate animals living in deplorable conditions – starving, mistreated, neglected – deeply traumatized by war and bombing, caught in crossfire of surging global armed conflict.
In March of this year, Khalil and a team of vets and wildlife experts carried out their biggest and most daring rescue mission to date: evacuating 47 animals suffering at the notorious Rafah Zoo in war-torn Gaza.
“We go to places where the logic doesn’t exist… the government doesn’t exist. No one cares. And where no one will believe you are coming to save animals,” says Khalil, who is coming to Toronto Oct. 23 to share his rescue stories and raise national awareness about Four Paws International’s global animal welfare efforts.
That successful high-risk rescue, delayed multiple times, was a nightmare of logistical, mental and physical demands and negotiations. They only had mere days to examine, load and transport the animals out of Gaza, including wolves, baboons, porcupines, foxes, monkeys and a lioness that had been declawed with garden shears without medication so visitors could play with her.
“For far too long, the animals of Rafah Zoo had to live under unimaginably dreadful conditions,” reports Khalil, director of project development for four-paws.org . In January of this year, four lion cubs froze to death at the Rafah Zoo and a month later a video of the brutal declawing circulated online.
Suffering knows no bounds: They have also rescued 13 animals trapped in the Magic World Zoo in Aleppo, Syria, and evacuated Lula and Simba, a bear and a lion, from the devastating war in Mosul, Iraq. The Four Paws team also closed down two other zoos in Gaza, and even saved animals from Saddam Hussein’s private zoo in 2003. The rescued animals are relocated to wildlife sanctuaries.
The animals need a global voice, and along with Khalil and international animal welfare advocates — including Princess Alia bint Hussein of Jordan — will share stories at this week’s event at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York put on by The Eric S. Margolis Family Foundation. The princess hosts many of the rescued animals at Al Ma’wa for Nature and Wildlife sanctuary through The Princess Alia Foundation.
With recent escalating military conflict in the Mideast, animal suffering increases too. “Animals are left abandoned in locked cages in active war zones. These animals are terrified,” says Eric Margolis, a veteran Canadian journalist and animal welfare advocate whose foundation generously donates to Four Paws and other organizations that advocate for and rescue abused and neglected animals.
Margolis has covered 14 wars or major conflicts in his career, including African wars and Mideast conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan where “the human suffering is gut wrenching and staggering.”
It’s no different for the animals.
According to Dana Margolis, executive director of the Margolis foundation, “The animals are emaciated. They are traumatized by the shelling and bombing and gunfire that occur on a daily basis. In some cases, they are covered with scars and sores, and have severe eye infections. They exist in filthy, decaying cages.”
The Four Paws team travels to some countries where there is little rule of law, where people are fleeing for their lives, says Eric Margolis. “They experience threats from people who have decided that they ‘own’ the animals. From gunmen and bandits, from people who want to profit from sale of these animals on the black market.
“I have followed their rescues and what seems to be insurmountable odds stacked against them is simply a roadblock to them; something that they will find a way around – they never give up!” he adds. ”They are genuine. Hands-on. Boots on the ground.”
The group fights for animal justice around the world through rescue and refuge, education and advocacy. Ongoing Four Paws campaigns give a voice for animals under human control, including companion animals and farm animals.
Once the animals are rescued, they begin living. Each creature is welcomed to a safe home following every mission. “It’s a new experience to feel earth, grass and nature for them – and I think nature is a big healer,” says Princess Alia.
Los, the black bear, and his companion Sukar live at the Jordan sanctuary. They survived after hundreds perished at the Syrian zoo in Aleppo. Rescued bear Lula and lion Simba, the only two surviving animals from the small zoo in Mosul, live there too.
“It’s valuable to save lives, it’s something honourable for humanity,” says Khalil. “No matter which type of life, if it’s animal or human – animals can connect people. I’ve watched it in rescue missions before.”
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