Picture of 3 of the puppies playing when they were younger
Spencer Sekyer was teaching street children in Kabul in the summer of 2010 when he was out for a walk and found a mother dog and her young puppies crying puppies outside his guesthouse. He picked up the puppies and took the mother dog to his school so they would have a roof over their head and be safe from people on the street. Kabul’s dusty streets are filled with stray abused dogs. Some are bred to fight and then turned loose when they don’t do well and others are fed poison dying a slow death. Not a place for a dog and her young puppies though efforts are being made to help educate the younger generation in Afghanistan that animals should not be abuse but it is a long slow process.
Sekyer is a teacher in Canada but spends his summer’s teaching children in developing countries so knew his time in Kabul was limited and that due to cost and extensive paperwork could not bring the dogs with him right away. At about $4,000 to fly each dog to a Western country he knew he was in for some major fundraising. Last summer, Sekyer and his wife Christie raised about $5,000 by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The publicity surrounding their climb paid off when Air Canada saw the video and agreed to transport the dogs from Germany (their Western Destination after Afghanistan) to Sekyer’s home airport at a cost of $28,000 Canadian.
Both animal lovers and non animal lovers have been criticizing the puppy airlift as extravagant, unnecessary, selfish. Sekyer and his wife disagree. Critics say they should be rescuing people and not animals out of developing countries but the reality of that is there are so many laws both in Western Countries and the Developing countries on how and when people can leave and go to live in the West it is extremely difficult. Even children in Orphanages can’t just be collected and flown to the US or Canada or Europe. Its a long very expensive process that takes children (not babies because by the time they can leave they are older) away from a life they knew. Plus not every country allows foreign adoption even if you are native to the home country of the child. The Sekyer’s do what they can working in Canada during the year with him as a teacher and then fly to remote parts of the world teaching street children how they do develop bonds with but know their few months of teaching these children might be all they have in their lifetime.
On the other hand there are the animal rescuers who believe that there are already too many animals without homes in Western countries and don’t understand why they have to be flown around the world at a cost that would help so many local animals. I don’t think it should matter where the abuse or neglect of animals is found if you are in a position to help them you should. And Sekyer just like all of the Military people who have been bringing back the strays they find and bond with in Afghanistan know that there is no happy life for these dogs there the list of potential adopters is very limited. There is no chance of adoption into a family that by Western standards would be suitable maybe in 10 years time there will be more families who are willing to welcome dogs into their homes as part of their family but for now that is not the case. The strays picked up off the streets sit in a kennel situation with the only Animal Rescue in the entire country until they can be airlifted out. That is the situation in Afghanistan for dogs. All of the Afghanistan stray dogs brought back have homes waiting for them by the time the arrived its not like they are going to be added to the shelter system and await a home they have a loving family waiting with their arms open.
interesting opposing opinions here. so much hurt and pain in the world….one helps where one can, people or animals. Have you seen the new movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”?
Food for thought.
Rsoemary
My heartbreaks for any animal in a shelter. All my dogs have come from the pound, and they are truly amazing animals. While I know our shelters are overflowing, the compassionate part of me says to bring the strays over. Maybe their life in a shelter here is better than a life as a stray there…
I think it’s great they are doing what they can to help both the people, and the animals! And those puppies are so cute! I don’t understand why people can’t just look at them and see what they doing and how great it is. I bet you all these people who are criticizing, aren’t even doing as much as this couple is! Judge not, lest ye be judged…isn’t that what the Bible says?
I think it is amazing that they are trying to help people and animals. Yes, this money could have been spent on something in the western hemisphere, but the airlines covered it anyway. These are people who would try and do anything to save people and animals. There should def. be more like them. Thanks for sharing
I think it’s an awesome idea. They did these with dogs in Puerto Rico (my friend has one) and it saved a lot of dogs!
Wow what a great idea…Following you from the Blog Hop!
Following you from the Blog Hop!
touching!
They are heroes to these dogs, no doubt, but I can easily see both sides to this. Over-breeding is still a huge problem in every part of the world, including here…
That’s an amazing story. Thanks for sharing.
Nice story. Thanks for sharing.
Bob Barker said it best when he ended his show with the familiar reminder to get your pets spaded and neutered.
Thanks for sharing! I hate to read about stories where animal are being hurt – makes me mad!! I think of my own dogs and iguana who are loved so much and I wish all these dogs had the same. Nice to see there’s people doing good things!!
Good to see that people can open up their hearts for our furr friends
Amazing post! It is so sad…but glad there are organizations out there to help!
Wow, a lot of food for though. Big controversial subject, but it was his money and the people who chipped in to help!
This is entirely too cool! I had actually never heard of this going on before. It really warms the heart there is help for our little friends.
Yeap interesting a nice hing to do but that money would have feed 100’s of strays in his own country sorry I think it dumb thing to do
A heart warming story… Thanks for the post..
A heart-warming story, every dog deserves a good home.
Love this story!
-RG
Really a fascinating article. Wherever you come down in this debate, it’s interesting information into a situation I had never thought about. Thanks for publishing it.
A heart-warming story! I just hope that someday there will no more wars and there will be no need to rescue animals from abusive people.
Thanks for the post, Felissa. Unfortunately there will always be those who criticize that it should be people saved instead of animals, which I always dismiss as short sighted – as if the world only focuses on one wrong, one disease at a time. It’s praiseworthy that Sekyer and his wife took action and raised the funds and got recognized by the airlines to get the job done!
I think this is a great example of people helping and trying to contribute in their own way. I can never fault anyone who is helping and giving of theselves to others, animals and humans. The issue is not the ones who are helping but the vast majority that are not.
Wow! I am so glad these animals will have homes~
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