In the days following the brutal Oct. 7 attack by the Hamas terror organization on southern Israel, five dogs without food or water were discovered by IDF soldiers in Sderot. They looked groomed and it was obvious that they belonged to someone, only their owners were unknown.
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"I get goosebumps when I speak about this. This story really touched my heart," said Inbal Kesem, manager of the Shanti Farm animal rescue in Atlit, south of Haifa, which took in dozens of pets and livestock from the area, including the five dogs.
Video: Credit: Israel Police honors the dogs and horses killed in the Hamas attack / Credit: Israel Police
"When the volunteers brought them, we didn't know if they belonged to a family that quickly evacuated the city, or if someone abandoned them. When checking the digit chips, I saw that they were all registered to a person named Nativ Maayan Neve. We looked for him, I wrote a Facebook post with the dogs' details, and I told myself that we must find him and bring them back to him. It didn't make sense that only recently he vaccinated them – according to the data we found on the chips – and took such good care of them, that he would abandon them. After a few days, thanks to the publicity and through the wonderful people who came to Sderot and made a few phone calls, we found out that" he had been killed in the Hamas attack.
"It turned out that Nativ was a 60-year-old man who was murdered outside his home. Because nobody was looking for him, it took some time to identify his body. Thanks to the post on the dogs and his personal details that were registered in the chips, we were able to identify him.
"Someone who knew Nativ wrote after his death that he was a pure person, who took care of the dogs before taking care of himself. I felt as if they took care of him even in his death, and thanks to them he was given a proper and honorable burial. The dogs received medical treatment at our farm, and after they recovered, they went to new and loving families."
When the war broke out and the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas came to be known, Inbal understood that she was going to help with what she's been doing for the last 20 years – saving as many injured or abandoned animals as possible.
"In the last four and a half years, I took the subject of rescuing animals one step further and opened an association called Shanti Farm. I rescue all kinds of animals that have suffered trauma.
"Six months ago I opened the farm in Atlit, which operates thanks to donations from people and lots of volunteers. Most of the time, people send me messages or call me and ask for help. We rented the area of the farm when it was empty, we built it from scratch, and it is run as a non-profit."
Q: How did you get involved when the war started?
"I wrote a social media post that we were ready to help the animals in whatever way was necessary. We were quickly contacted by the Ahim Laneshek protest movement, whose volunteers took care and helped us all along the way, and asked us to take in dogs from the shelter. I immediately published another urgent post, which circulated everywhere possible, in which I wrote that I also needed building materials and working hands to build more enclosures inside the farm to house the dogs that arrive.
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"The response was amazing: hundreds of volunteers came, and within three days we set up all the complexes. On top of that, thanks to the tremendous exposure, many people came to adopt dogs that had been waiting here for a whole year to find a home, and thus even more space became available.
"We couldn't adopt out the came from the Gaza periphery immediately because we were looking for the owners first. As the war progressed, dogs from families from the north also started to arrive as they were not allowed to keep them in the places they had evacuated to."
Many of the dogs were found wandering the streets of the abandoned cities or the paths of the kibbutzim, shocked and lost among the destroyed houses, and arrived at the farm distressed.
"We had traumatized dogs here, really 'frozen', in an apathetic state, not communicating. After long days of warmth and love they received from the volunteers here, we managed to get them to open up a little."
Q: How do you treat a traumatized dog?
"First of all, we give it time to get used to the place, to simply be here. Each dog receives a particular volunteer to slowly get used to touch and warmth. This is a process we are used to and are experienced in because even on normal days we take in traumatized animals here. There is one dog here named Mary who's making incredible progress. She came from the south after the war started, and unfortunately, we didn't find a chip on her and we didn't locate the owner.
"In the first few days, she refused to even walk, she was with her head down, quiet, didn't move, and didn't leave the compound. She has been with us for two weeks, and little by little we managed to get her to the point where she walked outside. It's a process that takes time, but they eventually return to themselves."
After the chips, which are part of the National Dog Database, are checked, Inbal contacts the owner to inform him or her that the dog has been found.
"Some of the families asked us to wait until they could come to pick their pet up, some did not agree that we should hand the dog over to foster families, and there were those who asked that we find them a home because they could not keep an animal in the hotels they were evacuated to. There are also dogs whose families we have not yet been found because they had no chips, and of course, we posted ads to locate them. We give the families the option that we will keep the dog until they want or can pick it up, but there are also those who decide to give them up.
"Owners who hear that their dogs are with us get very excited. The families are waiting for them and miss them very much, but they have nowhere to take them. We send photos, videos, everything because we know how important this connection is to them.
"But it's not just about dogs or cats. We also took in rabbits and guinea pigs that were found in cages in abandoned houses, a blind calf from the Gaza periphery that a volunteer was able to remove from the area, and 110 turkeys that were released so that they would not die in the destroyed cages."
In the farm's cat enclosure, on a large pillow, rests peacefully a beautiful cat with a red collar named Fiona. The heart sinks when Inbal says that her owners are Rimon and Yagev Buchshtav who were kidnapped to Gaza from their home in Kibbutz Nirim.
The two, whose relatives said that their home was "full of flowers, music, and love of animals and people", raised five dogs and four cats. Fiona was adopted when the couple came to vaccinate one of the dogs and the vet, knowing their kindness, asked them to adopt the blind and disabled pet who was looking for a warm home.
On that dark morning on Oct. 7, the family members had time to talk to the couple at approximately 7 a.m., when Rimon told her mother they were being shot at through the window by terrorists. Since then, there has been no contact with the two.
In the afternoon, when Yagev's father arrived with the security forces at the destroyed house, they found it empty. The couple was kidnapped, while the animals ran away and were only found when they returned home the next day – except for one dog that has been missing ever since.
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Inbal, who took in Fiona at the Shanti Farm, wrote in a post on Facebook, "Yagev and Rimon – I promise to do everything I can for her until you return safely from the terrible captivity. I will protect her, take care of her, and look after her for you. I see how well you cared for her. How much you loved her. The least I can do is take care of Fiona for you."
To Israel Hayom Inbal said, "Not every person takes in a disabled pet. This shows what good people they are. I talk about it and I get chills. My dream is to bring her to them in my arms when they are released, give her to them and say, 'I took care the best care of her for you.
"And for after the war, I wish for all of us to continue this way – to help animals and humans. We must see the other, and show sensitivity. I am an optimistic person and I believe in people, in giving. In general, our generation is characterized by endless giving."
