It all starts with a phone call to Sharon Cohen, who runs an animal shelter near Netanya in Israel. “A guy from Gaza calledshe says. He was very angry with Israel and asked to stop sending donkeys there because they end up dying in Egypt. It was terrible, in Egypt, where there are slaughterhouses, it’s very violent with electric shocks, it was really hell”
The meat was eaten in Egypt and the skins and hooves sold in China. For Sharon, hair with purple highlights, a donkey’s head tattooed on her left arm and another in a medallion, it’s impossible to sit still. “I tried to call everyoneexplains the Israeli. Who was in charge of this story? The Ministry of Agriculture didn’t know what was going on! Police, no one to talk to! The civil administration didn’t know what we were talking about, just like the border police!”
Sharon then goes directly to the wholesalers who sell the donkeys, obviously in good faith, and buys back from them all the animals planned for Gaza. Nearly 400 donkeys, for which they then have to find accommodation. And that’s how Patrick and Francine Violas, from the La Tanière refuge near Chartres, will take half of it. Francine still remembers when she was warned by one of her acquaintances in January. “We were expecting rabbits coming from a laboratory, I told her that rabbits were wonderful and she said to me: ‘Yes, it’s wonderful but I still have 200 donkeys’.” Taken aback at first, Francine then replies: “Very well, we have 200 donkeys. They came from Israel and they used the word Gaza Strip.”
“We say ok and we’ll manage. We’ll need planes, probably five, to be able to bring in 200 donkeys… It’s a lot of money, it’s a rescue that will cost 250 000 to 300,000 euros.”
Patrick Violas, refuge la Tanièreat franceinfo
La Tanière hopes for donations and even more for foster families for all these donkeys. The first donkeys will arrive in France at the end of April, beginning of May. A relief for Sharon Cohen who would like to find the Gazaoui who phoned her. “He’s scared, they were going to kill him thereshe explains. Another overseas animal relief organization asked me if they could find him with a detective in Gaza.”
And when asked if this story shows that it is also possible to do good things between the people of Gaza and those of Israel, Sharon Cohen responds : “Of course it is possible. There is also a person in Gaza who rescues cats and other animals. People give him cat food. It is extremely important to cooperate when it comes to of animals.” In Gaza, the ruling Hamas can punish Palestinians who call Israel.