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| Beirut dog owners at the BETA Dog Show |
The annual BETA Dog Show was on again at the Beirut Hippodrome. After last year’s success – where our blind, deaf and geriatric bearded collie won first prize in the ‘Best Senior’ Category’ – I had promised my daughter we’d do it again if the dog were still alive. Well, he still is! So I had to go.
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| Dragging the dog onto the field |
He’s one year older now, 17, and still able to walk, albeit slower and slower. The field of competitors didn’t stand a chance. The poor dog had no idea what was going on, it’s bordering on the abuse (and that in a dog show organized by the Beirut for the Ethical Treatment for Animals), being dragged into the field, and out again, while he’s clueless, but heck, it was for a good cause. BETA was fund-raising.
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| The competitors join |
And fund raising is necessary as I think they’re the only organization in Lebanon that tries to fight animal abuse, which is quite rampant here. Of course, animals are not the only creatures being abused here; I could make a long list. There’s women, housemaids, migrant workers (dare I say Palestinians? Better not) and children. But animals would be definitely on the bottom of that list.
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| And he wins again! |
Dog ownership seems to be on the rise in my neighborhood, Hamra, judging from the amount of poop that decorates the sidewalks each morning as I walk to work. But with a rise in dog ownership, you get neglected and abandoned animals too.
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| Happiest girl in the world |
Once the old bearded collie dies, we (actually, my daughter) have decided that the next dog will come from the dog pond of BETA. I pray he makes it another 20 years.
