Facing unprecedented stress, Israelis struggling to care for their pets are overwhelming animal rescue groups, whose funds are drying up without visitors. But rescues continueShare in TwitterShare in WhatsAppGift this article
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An injured donkey wearing pajama bottoms to protect his legs at Starting Over Sanctuary.Credit: Yael OrenRuth SchusterGet email notification for articles from Ruth SchusterFollow
Jun 18, 2025
Israel’s animal rescue organizations have come under exceptional stress since the start of war with Iran on Friday. More Israelis are dumping their pets, none are showing up to adopt any and income is vanishing, they report.
Animal welfare associations are perennially stressed to begin with, but wartime tends to be worse as people fleeing attacks lose or abandon pets, and as animals frightened by alerts, sirens and blasts run away. The war between Israel and Iran is arguably characterized by conflict and stress at a level new to Israelis, and by a spike in animals in trouble, according to animal rescue volunteers.
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All the societies Haaretz spoke with report a significant increase in calls from people asking to bring over their pet because they just can’t take care of them anymore. Others call in hope of pet hostelry services, which are generally not on offer. (There are some pet hotels in Israel.)
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“On Friday morning, we learned that we are in another war,” says Yael Arkin, the CEO of the Let the Animals Live organization, told Haaretz by phone. “On Sunday morning, when our hotline opened up, suddenly instead of people calling about animals needing medical help –a lot of calls were people trying to get rid of their pets. Calls like that always happen, but we suddenly realized there were more, a lot more – people trying to dump dogs and cats and even a rabbit.”
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The problems the animal rescue groups face aren’t confined to city dwellers and their pets. On Sunday, a horse terrified by explosions escaped its enclosure and was found running down a major highway. Startled drivers called the Starting Over Sanctuary in central Israel, says Sharon Cohen, founder and manager.
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“Our volunteers managed to locate and stop the horse and contacted the police with the information,” Cohen says. “His owner was located. He hadn’t even been aware the horse was gone.”
The day before, on Saturday, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel in south Tel Aviv fielded four tiny kittens that had been abandoned in a box next to their facility. On Sunday, there were four more, says SPCA spokeswoman Sigal Nesher.
SPCA Israel is almost a century old, and runs nine compounds for dogs and three batteries. The Iran war has created desperate financial straits, she adds. Their sources have completely evaporated: adoptions, seminars, classes and community activities, such as birthday parties for children. Even the annual assistance the SPCA gets from the Environmental Protection Ministry, between 80,000 to 100,000 shekels a year, is up in the air: This year the paperwork never even arrived, Nesher says. Only the animals keep arriving, and the SPCA and its branches are a no-kill organization.
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“We have a huge question mark over our heads. If 2,000 people would each donate 50 shekels to us, that would set us up,” Nesher says.
The timing of the Iran war seems to have been particularly unfortunate for animals in the sense that spring and summer tend to be bad for pets, the rescuers says.
“A lot of people abandon animals in April, because that’s when they travel, and there are fewer adoptions,” Nesher explained. And now as missiles fly and people are fearful and many are unsure where they may be living, or expect to spend a protracted time in army reserves – they don’t want the hassle of feeding, walking and cleaning after the pet as well, and the rescue associations are being overwhelmed.
“All the animal welfare organizations are doing their part now,” says Cohen, and all are having to cope with people begging them to shelter their pets in the cattery or dog pound, theoretically on a temporary basis.
Or they need other help. Starting Over has even fielded desperate calls from people asking for somebody to come help wedge large (and elderly) dogs into the car, because the family can’t pick them up and doesn’t want to abandon them, she says. But too many are tying their dogs by their leash to the door handle of an animal rescue organization or a shop, or leaving cats abandoned in a box with no note.
Cohen founded Starting Over eight years ago in Moshav Herut, central Israel. With the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, its rescue and welfare farm was inundated with traumatized, burned and injured cats, dogs, donkeys, goats, pigs and more, from both the south and north of the country. Many have been rehomed by this time, but when the Iran war began last week, the progress was reversed.
Can’t take the cat
It’s hard to know how many cats are abandoned. A person abandoning their cat may just move and leave it behind, based on the common perception that cats can “manage” on their own. Dogs, on the other hand, are registered, and you can’t just dump them and drive away – it’s illegal. When they take fright and get lost, dogs can be more easily regained because under Israeli law, they have to be “chipped.”
Of course, this all depends on the owner answering the phone, Cohen notes. But there’s little point in chipping a cat in Israel, a veterinarian told Haaretz: No vet would check for it.
Another problem faced by animals in wartime is that, as tensions mount, schools are closed, parents are in military reserve duty and afraid of rocket attacks at any time – people aren’t taking their pets to the vet, Nesher added. “If the dog is scheduled to get a shot, he’ll have to wait,” she says.
With income shrinking and donations from visitors nonexistent, and volunteers arriving in smaller numbers because of reduced public transportation, the only thing that’s rising is the numbers of animals, Nesher says. “We are losing money every day,” from clinic visits that don’t happen (but the clinic running costs continue), birthday parties left uncelebrated, seminars not held, adoption packages that don’t go through.
In fact, animal adoptions in Israel have been declining since October 7, Arkin says. “We associate the trend to a lot of things, mainly economic stress, and [the trend of] buying breed dogs.” And since the war with Iran began, calls to dump dogs have more than doubled.
“Very few cats,” Arkin adds. But in about 20 percent of cases, she estimates, they can be persuaded to change their mind.
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If a person has had a dog for years, by the time they have called an association to come take it, they are in extreme stress. Offering genuine help, for instance, even just to cover food costs for a month or medical care for the pet, can make the difference, Arkin says. “We can help with training. If a dog is terrified during the alerts and develops a behavioral condition, often a meeting with a vet or trainer or a medication can help, reducing the stress for the family.”
Let the Animals Live even has a program to help people adopt old dogs from the age of 8 and above, or dogs with medical problems. The adoption is free, and in the case of those who are sick, they receive free medical care for life, Arkin says.
She adds that in the last year, people adopted more cats than dogs, and return rates were lower.
“A person who adopts a cat means it – they’re usually people who know what a cat is, and are intent on their purpose,” she muses. Families are like, oh everybody has a dog, let’s get one too, dog! And then a siren goes off and it does on the floor and.
To contact Let the Animals Live shelter, Israelis can call 03-624-1776, extension 3. To make donations, anybody from anywhere can call +972-3-624-1776, extension 2.
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