Jordan: Stray Animal Care extended to the Middle East
A FOUR PAWS team of Stray Animal Care project SAC has completed work in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Over the course of several weeks, stray dogs and cats have been neutered and treated, vets trained and lectures held on applied animal welfare at the prestigious universities of Amman and Irbid. During the stay, paralyzed stray dog Zambilica was adopted by the team to ensure his treatment is being continued.
Her Highness Princess Alia of Jordan, a renowned philanthropist in her own right, welcomed FOUR PAWS to Jordan. The princess had recently visited LIONSROCK when animals saved by her organisation were brought to the South African sanctuary. In a press opportunity shared with SAC team leader Anca Tomescu, Alia expressed her deep concern about animal rights issues in Jordan. While in Irbid, the third largest city of the country and home to the Jordan University of Science and Technology, one of the best academies in the Arab world, FOUR PAWS started training local vets. Three of these veterinarians are already scheduled to visit SAC teams operating in Romania and Bulgaria in order to establish a modern, animal-friendly stray animal policy in Jordan.
The dog with the sad eyes
When treating and neutering more than 130 stray animals, the team found a dog in a field, all covered in mud that had already grown hard, as if buried alive. It turned out he was severely paralyzed, apparently from having been beaten on the spine. Scared to death at first, the dog that was named Zambilica quickly became accustomed to the FOUR PAWS employees. He was showing signs of excitement every time one of the team members approached him and responded considerably well to the therapeutic measures taken. The numbness in his hind legs is difficult to cure, though, but no-one in the group was willing to leave him behind, so he was taken along when the team moved back to Amman and ultimately travelled back to Eastern Europe with the SAC unit. Zambilica, the dog with the sad eyes, will be walking again someday.