残された猫たちを命がけで救出 レバノンの動物保護団体

【ベイルートＡＦＰ＝時事】レバノン・ベイルート南郊のダヒエでは、イスラエル軍による空爆が行われる中、動物保護団体のメンバーが残された猫たちの救出活動をボランティアで行っている。（写真は、ベイルート南部郊外で、動物保護団体「アニマルズ・レバノン」に保護された猫）
　動物保護団体「アニマルズ・レバノン」は、これまでにベイルート郊外で１２０匹、南部地域で６０匹を救出した。
　団体のマギー・シャラーウィー副理事長は「戦争は動物にとっても人間にとってもトラウマになる。動物も私たちが感じる不安を同じように感じている。（中略）救出された猫たちはトラウマを抱えてここにやって来る。食べることも拒否し、おびえ、離れ離れになった飼い主を恋しく思っている」と話した。
　イスラエル軍の空爆により人々が避難する中、団体のメンバーはがれきの中を進み、残された猫たちの救出に奔走している。
　シャラーウィー副理事長は「野良猫も多く、心が折れそうになる。道のあちこちに餌を置かなければならないし、まるで命がけの活動だ。私たちの目標は、（がれきの）中へと入り、救出し、そして戻ってくるだけだ」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/10/31-19:08）

After Israeli bombardment forced them flee their homes in haste, displaced Lebanese have been asking volunteers to enter their bombed out neighbourhoods to retrieve their pets.
Maggie Shaarawi, vice president of the Animals Lebanon charity, is one of the rescuers.
A lot of people had to evacuate their homes in a hurry. In most cases, cats stressed by bombing hide, making it impossible to scoop them up quickly, she said.
Our goal is to just enter, rescue and leave.
On Thursday, Shaarawi and two others helped a resident of Beirut's southern suburbs retrieve her eight traumatised cats.
Through a video call, the worried woman in a white headscarf guided them to the living room where she had herded Fifi, Leo, Blacky, Teddy, Tanda, Ziki, Kitty and Masha as she left.
We were able to find them all, Shaarawi said triumphantly.
Doing their best to hurry, they managed to entice the petrified felines out from under a green velvet sofa and gently lift each of them into a holding crate.
Luckily we got them out, because (then) most of that area was destroyed, she said.
A strike hit the suburbs as they were preparing to go to another home.
It's the first time we had a hit very close to us. We're lucky to have left alive, Shaarawi said.
- 'Just waiting for their owners' -
Israel has sharply intensified its air strikes against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah since September 23, killing more than 1,000 people and pushing more than a million more to flee their homes, according to Lebanese figures.
Many of the displaced have taken their pets with them.
A teenager was seen clutching a ginger cat to his chest as he fled his southern village this week.
Some people have even ignored evacuation warnings to stay with their pets, Shaarawi said.
So far, we've retrieved from the Beirut suburbs around 120 animals, and from the south another 60, she said.
Despite their close call with the Israeli air strike, Shaarawi and her team were back in the southern suburbs Friday to try to retrieve more pets.
Cats turn into tigers when they're scared, she said.
Parking their car on the outskirts of the heavily bombarded Hezbollah bastion, they briefly zipped in on mopeds.
The war is traumatising for both animals and people. They're being bombed every day, and they don't know what's happening, she said.
They're just waiting for their owners to come back.
Sometimes the team does not get to the pets in time.
On a mission to retrieve three cats on Thursday, they found one of them dead, its limbs stiff and its fluffy white coat caked in dust.
The other two were nowhere to be found, but Shaarawi said she was sure they did not survive. The house was totally destroyed.