Dogs and cats need your help

Dear friends,

As we see whatever it was that we thought was our civilization lying in the ruins of Gaza, it’s easy to feel powerless.

It’s a sentiment I urge people to reject, because it is demobilizing, demoralizing, dehumanizing, depressing — and because if it’s true that none of us have an air force, it has always been my principle and practice to do whatever I can.

One thing that breaks my heart is the suffering of animals in this conflict. For a few years, I have supported a tiny animal shelter in Lebanon. They had a hard time before Israel started its horrific bombing campaign. The destruction of homes, neighborhoods, and entire towns is devastating for people, but it is even more devastating for animals.

Here in France, we recently celebrated the 14 juillet, Bastille Day.

We live in the country, which means the fireworks were nowhere near us. Still, we could hear them, and my precious dog Basso could hear them even more clearly. To see how frightened he was by the noise brought me to mind all the little animals in war zones. People, at least, can understand what is happening. Dogs, cats, and birds cannot. And bombs are a million times scarier than fireworks.

For this shelter, the war brought more and more animals streaming in.

And add to their difficulties the devastation of the Lebanese economy, the fact that most people in Lebanon are struggling to get by themselves, and you realize how hard their situation is.

Please look at the slides below. And if you possibly can, send them a bit of money. Even if you can only send $10 or $20, it will mean a lot to the people doing this work, and it might save the life of a beautiful, traumatized creature who has even less of an idea than we do of why this is happening.

You can follow them on Instagram here.

If you can, please donate here.