The Give Me A Paw (GMAP) shelter is organizing Shelter Day on Saturdays for people to come and spend the day interacting, playing, walking, and cuddling with dogs.
The shelter is located in Ras El Matn, where Shelter Day takes place between 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm, as a way to embrace human interaction with sheltered dogs.
GMAP shelter is home to hundreds of abused and stray dogs, a haven of care for them.
It also matches dogs with suitable families, raises awareness, and educates the local community to create healthy and loving relationships between people and animals.
Its main mission is to demonstrate that animals are not disposable and their lives should be valued.
First opened in 2017, the shelter has been growing in its dedication to animals, mainly dogs. It grew from a small backyard into a 4000m2 space, now home to 150 dogs.
Abandonment of pets has increased in Lebanon with the current socio-economic crisis and hyperinflation forcing families to live on a very restricted budget.
Pets are also paying the price, left in a state of vulnerability in the streets, where they don’t only endure hunger and the weather elements but also face the danger of abusive humans.
People should enact humanness when meeting a stray dog in the streets. The GMAP post below explains, in both Arabic and English, what to do in such a case:
Initiatives like Give Me A Paw and others, such as MetaDogTagz and Animals Lebanon, are all working to provide an alternative to the issue of stray dogs in Lebanon and seek to prevent abusive behaviors against them.
Related: New Initiative Aims To Help Abandoned Dogs In Lebanon Through NFTs
