INJURED, THEY’RE UP FOR ADOPTION

Dog-Rescue

Mission Sends

SSPCA Director To Beirut

By LIBBY CUDMORE

Stacie Haynes, Susquehanna SPCA executive director, is taking her mission to rescue neglected animals world-wide.
“In Lebanon, people don’t adopt dogs like we do,” she

said. “If people have dogs, they’re purebreds. Here, it’s cool to adopt dogs from shelters, but not over there. They have shelters for cats, but not dogs.”
She’s partnering with Dr. David Chico, a state Ag & Markets veterinarian, on a mission of mercy to Beirut, to work with Animals Lebanon, a rescue organization that takes in abandoned and abused dogs in hopes of finding homes for them.
“When a dog comes in, they have to foster it with a family and then board it at a kennel,” she said. “It’s expensive, and these dogs have zero percent chance of being adopted in Lebanon, so they have to try and get them adopted in other countries.”
She first got the idea while speaking with Libby Post, of the NYS Animal Protection Federation. “We had some kennel space and we asked her if there were any shelters that needed help,” said Haynes. “We ended up taking in some dogs from the Mohawk-Hudson shelter, but she offered me this trip to Lebanon, all-expenses paid.”
Chico makes several trips a year to Beirut to provide medical care to the animals in the shelters. Haynes, along with vet tech Sara Haddad, will be traveling Thursday, Feb. 28, until Monday, March 4.
While there, she will work with Animals Lebanon on professional development, showing them how things are done at shelters in the United States. “In working with consultant Barbara Carr, everything about standards and best practices is fresh in our minds,” she said. “We’re going to go there and share all of the great things we’ve been learning with Animals Lebanon.”
The difference between American shelters and shelters in Lebanon, she said, is that while there are shelters for cats, there are none for dogs. “Culturally, dogs are not accepted into homes,” she said.