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ISRAEL: KIBBUTZ LEHAVOT HABASHAN: DOG RESCUE MISSION IS SUCCESS

Dislike 0 Published on 21 Jul 2015

Nat Sound

Jeanette Hansen's dog rescue mission has been so successful her kibbutz is looking more and more like a kennel.

More than a hundred stray dogs now live on the Lehavot Habashan kibbutz in northern Israel.

But the pressure to feed and care for them has prompted the kibbutz committee to bite back.

The search is on for a new home.

They say a dog's bark is worse than its bite.

That appears to be the case on the Kehavot Habashan kibbutz in northern Israel where Jeanette Hansen has taken in more than a hundred stray dogs and set up a kennel.

When she arrived at the kibbutz 20 years ago, a dog rescue mission was the last thing on her mind.

Now she has time to think of little else.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"These dogs need looking after every day. Feeding, cleaning, seeing that everybody's healthy. (shouts at dog) Idiot. Idiot."
SUPER CAPTION: Jeanette Hansen, dog rescuer

The dogs and the 15 buckets of food required to feed them every day has made heavy demands on Jeanette's colleagues.

Her fellow kibbutz workers are beginning to bite back.

The kibbutz committee has decided the dogs must go.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"When a family has one dog or two dogs, it is fine to take care of them."
SUPER CAPTION: Shimon Zait, secretary of the kibbutz

But Zait drew the line when it came to hundreds of strays.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"We know and we think it is too much. And Jeanette knows it's too much and we have to reduce this number, this huge number, and we are trying to solve the problem with Jeanette, together."
SUPER CAPTION: Shimon Zait, secretary of the kibbutz

For Jeanette, the committee's decision poses a difficult problem.

The project has required huge sacrifice.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I think if I had a family I would not have the amount of time to give to the dogs that I do give to them. It would be a problem and a dilemma, someone would suffer."
SUPER CAPTION: Jeanette Hansen, dog rescuer

But if the dogs go, she feels so must she.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I could live very well without them. They couldn't live without me."
SUPER CAPTION: Jeanette Hansen, dog rescuer


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