Thursday, February 17, 2011

CAT THURSDAY

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! (share your post in the Mr. Linky below)

I have a very special Cat Thursday for you today.  Caren at CAT CHAT shared this wonderful guest post by Gwen Cooper regarding the plight of animals in Egypt during the current unrest there.  She has generously allowed me to cross post it here today!

********************

By now, we’re all aware of the current unrest in Egypt. What many don’t realize, however, is the catastrophic toll that unrest is taking on Egypt’s animal population.

Egypt hasn’t traditionally had much in the way of infrastructure when it comes to animal welfare, so there was already a large population of cats and dogs living on the streets. Those cats and dogs are now getting caught up in the tear gas being used against protestors. ESMA (the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals) has retrieved dozens of cats and dogs who were on the brink of death, unable to breathe because of the tear gas and with eyes so swollen they couldn’t see. And even the physical injuries often pale in comparison to the sheer terror these defenseless creatures are being subjected to.

Foreign citizens living in Egypt have been returning to their own countries, forced to abandon their cats and dogs. Pet stores—most stores, in fact—have been closed for days, with nobody checking on the animals trapped inside who are slowly starving to death. The same goes for zoos. The banks are closed, which means ESMA has no access to funds with which to purchase food and medical supplies. Some rescue groups are being forced to feed their rescues a diet of bread soaked in water. Homes are being raided and burned down with defenseless pets inside. The volunteers at ESMA are taking turns guarding their shelter 24 hours a day, as raids and fires are happening in their neighborhood as well.

An influx of dollars is the best immediate thing we can do to help ESMA and the animals they serve. Dollars will actually be more useful than Egyptian pounds right now when it comes to buying food, medicine, and other supplies. Dollars can also be used to hire trained teams to rescue animals from abandoned pet stores, zoos, and homes. Even a small amount of money—say $20—can go a very long way in a situation like this.

Here’s a link to ESMA’s donation page. Please, please give what you can—as I said, even an amount of money so small that you think it couldn’t do any good can save lives now, especially if all of us chip in.

http://esmaegypt.org/blog/how-to-help/

Donations are made through PayPal.

The other thing you can do to help the animals of Egypt is to continue to spread the word about their needs. Link to this post, or ESMA’s donation page, on your own blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc. Tell your friends, families, co-workers, veterinarians, rescue groups you may work with, and anybody else you can think of. While the media has finally started to pay attention to this story, any additional awareness we can create will go a long way toward making things better.

I’ve spent the past several days in touch with members of ESMA’s board. They’ve asked me if I truly think readers here will be concerned about the plight of animals all the way in Egypt. I told them that there are many animal lovers here in America, and we all understand that animals aren’t citizens of countries. They’re citizens of our hearts, and our hearts have no borders.

Please do what you can—and God bless!

ABOUT GWEN COOPER-"Author of the 2007 novel "Diary Of A South Beach Party Girl" and the 2009 New York Times Bestselling memoir "Homer's Odyssey." Currently writing my third book, a novel called "Love Saves The Day" for publication in Spring 2012."

I hope you enjoyed today's post.  What is happening in Egypt is terrible and to now find out that the animals are suffering as well...it's heartbreaking.  I'm going to give a little to this cause.  I can't afford much, but every little bit helps.



12 comments:

Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment. It means so much.

I apologize for word verification, but as soon as I changed the settings from only users with Google accounts, I started receiving a ton of spam comments...within one hour of changing the settings. The bots are on high alert apparently.

  1. This is a very sad situation. Thanks for posting it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So sorry to hear about the cats and other pets in Egypt. I have to admit my mind took it for granted that the cats and pets were okay. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a very sad situation. Hopefully, raising awareness will help.

    Thanks for stopping by ladies!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a sad post....we have seen and heard about other such situations after disasters, such as Katrina, etc. It is good that the animal organizations are helping out....with the assistance of donors, of course. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks so much for reposting this....you are wonderful!
    I am going to let Gwen know, she will be thrilled!!!
    xoxoxo

    ReplyDelete
  6. I also just tweeted it, put it on my cat chat facebook page and I posted this on Gwen's Facebook page to tell her.
    You are INCREDIBLE!!
    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for posting this entry. It makes me sad to think about all these poor animals - who suffer because of all us human beings' thoughtlessness.

    Now I am going to cuddle my cats and play some games they like - and show them that I love them and that I care for them.

    Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This made me so sad :( thanks for sharing the link with us.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you so much for sharing this! With everything that's going on in Egypt now, it's easy to forget the animals, be they pets or in the zoo, or elsewhere. :(

    ReplyDelete
  10. We posted this on our facebook page. Thank you and Gwen for making us aware, and the incredible efforts of the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals. We sincerely pray they are successful in protecting their building.

    All of our animals are rescues so reading this makes us even that much more appreciative for them.

    ReplyDelete
- See more at: http://www.techtrickhome.com/2013/02/show-comment-box-above-comments-on.html#sthash.TjHz2Px9.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.techtrickhome.com/2013/02/show-comment-box-above-comments-on.html#sthash.TjHz2Px9.dpuf