Reuters and others are pushing a story about a Gazan animal shelter that turns toys into mobility devices for disabled animals.
An animal shelter in the Gaza Strip is using the wheels of toy cars and kids bicycles to build mobility devices for disabled cats and dogs, helping them walk, run and play again despite a lack of access to specialised prosthetics.
Workers at the Palestinian enclave’s Sulala Animal Rescue society are working to fit some 32 cats and dogs with the makeshift wheelchairs or with artificial limbs made from recycled wood and metal.
“They (the animals) get exhausted when they are paralysed, so we give them something that allows them to them walk, so they would feel normal. Animals have feelings, too,” Said Al-Aer, who helps run the shelter, said.
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While it does have two prosthesis centres, they are busy providing artificial limbs to some 1,600 amputees in the Strip, including many who were shot during border clashes with Israeli troops.
Good to see those toys going to a better use than as mere propaganda props.
While I cannot fault the efforts of those trying to improve the lives of animals (assuming this is a real thing and not just another lie for the cameras), I can fault the mainstream media rushing to paint Gaza as a humane society, without showing the other – more realistic – side. It seems to be all part of an effort to generate sympathy for Gazans at the expense of Israelis.
This is evident especially from that last sentence I excerpted above:
While it does have two prosthesis centres, they are busy providing artificial limbs to some 1,600 amputees in the Strip, including many who were shot during border clashes with Israeli troops
Of course, no mention of the rampant animal cruelty in Gaza, which I am sure has led to plenty of disabled animals.
