Bikya Masr sat down with Animals Lebanon's Executive Director Jason Mier to discuss all things animal. Animals Lebanon is Lebanon's most active animal rights organization and their efforts to reduce cruelty has been well documented. Their success should be supported and buttressed through any effort possible on the ground. Bikya Masr: How does Animals Lebanon function? What are your goals for improving animal rights in the country? Animals Lebanon: Animals Lebanon is a fully registered charity founded 9 September, 2008, by a group of five young Lebanese. There is a definite need to improve the animal welfare situation in Lebanon, and each of these founders has the desire and dedication to make significant improvements. They also recognized that they would need help and expertise, and from the beginning worked to align Animals Lebanon with influential and effective people, corporations and organizations in Lebanon and abroad. Our underlying goal for all of our work is to enact national animal welfare legislation as this does not currently exist and to facilitate Lebanon becoming a Party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to prevent the smuggling of endangered animals. We have introduced a TNR program, closed down two zoos, a lot of work exposing the smuggling of wildlife. While all of this is vitally important on its own, we look at these projects as supporting the need for legislation and illustrating the benefits legislation can bring. This is certainly a large responsibility we have taken on, but setting lower goals – even if easy to achieve – will not bring about the drastic changes needed in Lebanon. BM: What difficulties do you run up against? AL: The difficulty is that animal welfare is starting from the very beginning. This isn't a country with hundreds of years of history with animal welfare or legislation that just needs to be enforced or even necessarily a general understanding of why animals are so important. It is frustrating to see so many things that are morally, ethically, and in some ways legally wrong, but without effective legislation and the will to enforce this legislation our ability to help is often compromised. Politically the situation has improved, but the reality is that there is a great deal of uncertainty and tension, and things seem to be ‘on edge' more than we would like. It seems like every year there is some conflict or tension which keeps setting the country back, and this affects day to day operations as well as long term plans. As soon as things become more unstable than usual people ask us to take their pets as they are leaving the country temporarily, or donors understandably reduce their giving as they are concerned for their own future. Long term, we question how much we want to invest in developing facilities, sanctuaries, shelters, when things can become unstable so quickly. BM: Often, people say that animal rights should be pushed to the back burner until human rights are completely established. What would your response to this be? AL: This question seems to be asked most often by people who don't volunteer with or donate to any charity or organization – even those charities and organizations they are suggesting we should support before working with animals. We fully support and encourage anyone who wants to support other causes, as many of our volunteers and donors do. Animal welfare is what we are good at, and we urge everyone to go and do what they are good at to improve Lebanon. There isn't just one way to make the country better. But to believe that animal welfare does not have a direct effect on humans is completely wrong. The OIE has put out statements that ‘Animal welfare plays a vital role in the economic status of a country' and ‘proper animal welfare standards can alleviate poverty'. Recently a municipality in Lebanon distributed flyers alerting the population that they would begin shooting dogs in the area and telling them not to be alarmed. Everyone knows this is not a solution and carries significant risks, while repeated studies show that TNR can significantly reduce cases of rabies or dog bites. If garbage is disposed of properly there is less of a food source for animals on the street. Ensuring proper disposal of garbage and implementing TNR might be a much better use of the municipalities' time – one which would go a long way to preventing problems with stray animals as well as making the municipality a much better place to live. About a year ago a neglected woman was found living in a tiny apartment with no electricity or running water for over a year. Everything was dirty, hundreds of cockroaches, at least 20 living cats, some which had died and started to decompose. We were able to rehome the cats, but we were not able to find one charity that could offer the woman the help she needed. When Animals Lebanon supporters heard about the story they are the ones who provided bedding and clothes and food to begin to help this woman. A prominent newspaper recently wrote about our work, and most telling was the opening sentence of ‘human rights organizations in Lebanon should refer to the techniques used by Animals Lebanon'. BM: Can you talk on the stigma of animal rights in Lebanon? (I remember when I was there during the 06 war, I went with some activists who saved a bunch of dogs, but the surrounding people were angry that they “cared”) AL: There are a lot of needs in Lebanon, a lot of room for improvement, and a lot of people who shouldn't have to live in the conditions they do. For people who have lost so much, whether family members or homes or livelihoods, it is natural to express some anger or disappointment when their needs are not being met. This doesn't have to just do with animals, but rather the frustration of having to deal with difficult conditions on a daily basis and then seeing others get help. In general the idea that animals don't matter or only come after people doesn't really hold true in Lebanon. Nearly all of our work is done by volunteers, and for every person who does not agree with what we do we have ten more ready to join us. Even if there is the odd look or comment, most people are happy to try to understand what we do. The real opposition comes from the owners of substandard zoos and pet shops, the wildlife traffickers, the people that make a living from animal abuse. These are the people we go up against, and quite predictably they will fight back or try to demean what we do. BM: There is assumption that many make that animal rights are a western conception. Does this hold true in Lebanon? Is your organization multi-national? AL: It is too simple to think in terms of East and West or North and South – the time seems right now when we can make a major difference in animal welfare in Lebanon and that is what we will continue to work towards. Animals Lebanon was founded by five very determined Lebanese, and I believe this is one of the main reasons why the organization has been so successful. It is admirable that so many groups were started in the Middle East by expats when no other groups existed in these countries, but it is very difficult to build an organization if groups are composed of foreigners who have to leave after a couple years. The majority of donations come from Lebanese people in Lebanon and scattered around the world, Lebanese companies which are corporate sponsors of Animals Lebanon…if animal welfare is a Western concept then at least it is one which is being embraced by more and more Lebanese each day. BM: How does the government react to your initiatives? Have there been any notable successes? AL: A new Minister of Agriculture was elected last year and the response so far was better than we could have hoped for. The Minister has taken action against an Egyptian circus which came to Lebanon at the end of 2009, and the regulations – and respect for the regulations – for importing and exporting animals through the airport has improved. The Minister has also made a commitment to have Lebanon join CITES, and we were invited to attend a meeting in Qatar with the Director General of CITES. In May we organized with the European Commission, on behalf of the Ministry, a workshop on animal welfare for 70 stakeholders. European Union experts came to explain EU minimum standards and this was the beginning of a much larger campaign to enact animal welfare legislation. Animals Lebanon is now finalizing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry specifically to finalize and enact draft animal welfare legislation we have been working on. Unfortunately, even though the Minister has exceeded any expectations we had, one person isn't going to make the changes necessary. Customs officials are under Ministry of Finance and there needs to be improvements to help stop the trafficking of domestic and endangered animals. Police are under the Ministry of Interior, and the police need to recognize that they are there to uphold Lebanese law, not just the laws they like or agree with. BM: For those interested in helping and getting involved in animal issues, what would you say to them? AL: We always need help, and only ask that each person gives within their capacity for what they feel strongly about. A seven year old that can't have an animal at home comes and helps care for rescued kittens, and some women in their seventies like to knit small blankets which are then used for the animals in our shelter. It doesn't matter how old you are, what schooling you have had, what your religion is, what language you speak, if you want to help or just see the work done by Animals Lebanon then there is something for everyone. We are in the process of opening a new center and will soon be able to accommodate volunteers and interns much better and be able to involve them constructively in all aspects of our work. BM
