In the days after October 7, IDF soldiers searched Sderot, five dogs were found in an abandoned building, alone, without food or water. They looked well maintained and were clearly well taken care of, but no one knew what had become of their owners. "I get goosebumps when I talk about it, I was very touched by this story," says Inbal Kasem, director of Atlit's Shanti Farm, where dozens of animals rescued from the surrounding communities arrived, including the five dogs.
"When the volunteers brought them, we didn't know if they belonged to a family that quickly left the city, or if someone had thrown them out. When I checked the chips, I saw that they were all registered in the name of a man named Netiv Maayan Naveh. We looked for him, I wrote a post on Facebook with the dogs' details, I told myself that we had to find him and return them to him. After all, it can't be that only recently he vaccinated them – according to the data we found in the chips – treated them so well, and simply abandoned them.
"The response from people to help has been incredible." Inbal Kasem at the Shanti Farm, Photo: Efrat Eshel
"A few days later, thanks to the publicity and through very good people who came to Sderot and made a few phone calls, we discovered that his body was in the Martyrs Identification Institute.
"It turned out that Nativ was a childless man, 60 years old, who was murdered outside his home during the attack, and because there was no one looking for him, the institute did not know who it was. The body had been there for two weeks, unclaimed, and no one knew he was dead. Thanks to the post about the dogs and his personal details that were listed in the microchips, we were able to identify him.
"Someone who knew Nativ wrote after his death that he was a pure man, who cared for dogs before he took care of himself. I felt as if they had protected him even in his death, and thanks to them a proper and dignified funeral was held for him. The dogs received medical treatment at our farm, and after they recovered they went out to new and loving families."
Slowly reopening
When the war broke out and the painful picture from the ground began to become clearer, it was clear to Inbal that she was mobilizing to help do what she has been doing for more than 20 years – to save as many animals as possible that were damaged or abandoned. "Over the past four and a half years, I've taken animal rescue one step further and opened an association called Shanti Farm. I rescue all kinds of traumatized animals, because it's important to give them their place. It's also an example of how to treat animals I call 'transparent,' those that aren't treated properly.
"Six months ago I opened the farm in Atlit, which operates thanks to donations from people and lots of volunteers. Most often, people message me or call me asking for help. We rented the farm when it was empty, built it from scratch, and it's run on a non-profit basis."
How did you come into the picture when the war began?
"I wrote a post that we are ready to help the animals with whatever they need. We were quickly approached through Brothers in Arms – whose volunteers took care of and assisted us all along the way – and asked us to take in dogs from the envelope. I immediately published another urgent post, which rolled out everywhere possible, in which I wrote that I also needed hotels, building materials and working hands, in order to set up more enclosures inside the farm to house the dogs that arrived. The response was amazing: hundreds of volunteers arrived, and within three days we set up all the compounds. In addition, thanks to the tremendous exposure, many people came to adopt dogs who had waited here for a whole year to find a home, thus freeing up more space.
"We couldn't immediately give the dogs that came from the envelope for adoption, because we were looking for the owners first. As the war progressed, so did dogs belonging to families from the north, who were unable to keep them in the places to which they were evacuated."
Many of the dogs were found wandering the streets of abandoned cities or kibbutz paths, shocked and lost among the destroyed houses, and arrived at the farm in a difficult mental state. "We had post-traumatic dogs here, really 'frozen,' in an apathetic state, not communicating. After long days of warmth and love from the volunteers here, we managed to get them to open up a bit."
How do you approach treating an animal with PTSD?
"First of all, they give him time to get used to the place, just to be here, to allow him his peace. We attach volunteers who will be only with him and accompany him in the exposure to the place, little by little, with the warmth and touch. This is a process we are accustomed to and experienced in, because even on routine days we take in animals that have undergone trauma. Here, there is a dog named Mary, who is seeing crazy progress in her. She came from the south after the war began, and unfortunately we couldn't find a chip in her possession and we didn't locate the owner.
"For the first few days, she refused to even walk, was with her head bent, quiet, didn't move and didn't leave the compound. She's been with us for two weeks, and slowly we managed to get her to the point where she's walking outside. It's a process that takes time, but they come back to themselves."
After the microchips are checked and whenever possible, Inbal contacts the owner to report that the dog has been found. "Some of the families asked us to wait until they could come pick him up, some wouldn't let us give the dog to foster families, and some asked us to find a home for him because they can't keep an animal in the hotels they went to. There are also dogs whose families we haven't found yet because they were without microchips, and of course we've put out ads to track them down. We give families the option to keep the dog until they want or can pick it up, but there are also those who have given it up.
Rabbits found in cages in an abandoned apartment in one of the surrounding communities, photo: Efrat Eshel
"Owners who hear that their dog is with us are 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 that connection is to them. But it's not just dogs or cats: we also took in rabbits and guinea pigs found in cages in abandoned homes, a blind calf from the envelope that a volunteer managed to remove from the area, and 110 turkeys that the chickens released so they wouldn't die in the destroyed chicken coops. Activists from Animals and Freedom for Animals, as well as private activists, came to the kibbutzim and simply took them out of there."
The least you can do
In the farm's cat enclosure, on a large pillow, lies a beautiful cat with a red collar named Fiona. Our hearts clench when Inbal tells us that its owners are Rimon and Yigev Buchstev, who were kidnapped to Gaza from their home in Kibbutz Nirim. The two, whose relatives said their home was "full of flowers, music and love of animals and man," raised five dogs and four cats. Fiona was adopted when they came to vaccinate one of the dogs and the veterinarian, who knew their generosity, asked them to adopt the blind and disabled puppy who was looking for a warm home.
On that Black Saturday, the family managed to talk to the couple at about 7 a.m., when Rimon told her mother, 'We're shooting at the window, there are terrorists outside the house,' and they have since been cut off. 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 escaped and were only found when they returned home the next day - except for one dog that has not been found to this day.
Inbal, who took in Fiona at Shanti Farm, wrote in a Facebook post: "Yagev and Rimon - I promise to do everything in my power for her until you return safely from her terrible captivity. I will look after her, take care of her, protect her and pet her for you. I see how well groomed she is and realize how much you loved her. The least I can do is keep your Fiona."
"Not every human being takes disabled animals," says Inbal, "it shows what good people they are. I talk about it and I have chills. My dream is to bring it to them when they are released, give it to them and say, 'I kept it for you as best as possible.' I'm sure they think about their animals all the time. In the meantime, she is here with us, and we surround her with love as much as possible."
The contribution of the farm during the war was reflected not only in the absorption of animals rescued from the field or handed over by families who were forced to leave their homes. Inbal: "There's a guy named Alex Giller who enlisted in the reserves at the beginning of the fighting and brought us his dog, Panda, to look after her, because he had nowhere to leave her. After three weeks, he came straight back here from the south for the emotional encounter with the dog, and I couldn't understand how he got out so quickly. He told me that his brother, Selva, had been murdered at a party in Re'im, and since he was not allowed to be on the conference grounds because of this, he was unable to continue serving.
"Then I also understood: Five days after he began his reserve duty, he found out about his brother, but he continued to watch over us for another two weeks, despite the grief. His dog was with me all this time, and I was glad I could at least help him with that and let him be there. He told me, 'There's nothing we can do, now we have to get up and protect the country.'"
The exciting encounter between Alex and the dog Panda // Photo: From the Shanti Farm Facebook page
Restoring trust
The talk of unity and mutual responsibility is expressed on the farm every day. "A lot of people come to volunteer and pitch in to help at an insane level. We are embraced during this time like never before the farm, including donations in everything. They brought us everything, above and beyond.
"I wish for all of us that this will continue after the war, that people will continue to help animals and people. We must see the other, be sensitive. I am an optimistic person and strongly believe in people, in giving. In general, our generation is characterized by endless giving."
Shanti Farm will continue throughout the war and after it to do what it did before October 7 – to help every animal in distress, from the south, north and center. "We are not an association or kennel where people can call, say they want to give the dog away and bring it to us," Inbal emphasizes, "We take the very, very difficult cases and emphasize rehabilitation.
"We restore trust in humans to animals that have undergone extreme cases, help them achieve full healing, mentally and physically, and only after all that, find a home. The animals that come here receive the best conditions, with a lot of warmth and love, so it's important that people continue to volunteer, help and contribute – even after the war."
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