In Moshav Megadim in northern Israel, a modest dog kennel houses one of the most inspiring animal welfare organizations in the country.
Gilboa Loves Animals was founded in 2006 with the goal of rescuing abandoned and abused dogs in distress, rehabilitating them and finding them adoptive homes.
Its founder and director, Anna Mostkov, set up the organization to service the area of Mount Gilboa where she lived at the time. Since then, she has expanded her work to other parts of the country.
The focus of Gilboa Loves Animals are dog breeds considered dangerous, such as bull terriers, pit bulls, rottweilers, AmStaffs (American Staffordshire terriers), Dobermans and “generally large dogs.�
Mostkov tells ISRAEL21c that these breeds often prove to be a lot of work due to their high energy, prompting some owners to abandon them.
“These dogs are dangerous only because they are so full of love, but people don’t know how to take care of them and throw them away,â€� Mostkov says.
She adds that people abandon dogs for all sorts of reasons. “A family has a baby, they throw away the dog; they relocate, they throw away the dog; they move house, they throw away the dog.�
No laws in the wildÂ
Although abandoning dogs is illegal, irresponsible owners often ignore the laws, while authorities struggle to enforce them. Mostkov is quite distraught about this issue.
“People throw them away even when the dogs are microchipped, which is against the law. When I call these owners, they claim they gave the dog away and simply forgot to transfer ownership in the microchip registry,� she says.
According to the law, owners of dog breeds considered dangerous cannot give the pets to other people, but only transfer them to a dog shelter or to law enforcement services.
Mostkov says the situation is most dire in Arab communities, where there is even less adherence to animal protection laws. Additionally, Arab communities often fail to check instances of abuse due to Muslim stigmas associated with dogs.
“This morning, a Dogo Argentino arrived here from Kfar Yasif [an Arab town near Acre]; yesterday, a pit bull arrived from Kiryat Motzkin, meaning we cannot always know who is abandoning the dogs,� she adds.
Running a charity is hard work
Mostkov, 68, a semiretired piano instructor, founded Giboa Loves Animals 19 years ago after agreeing to foster several dogs from her son’s army base.
“I was born into loving dogs because I was born the day my grandmother’s Pinscher gave birth,� she explains. “When I immigrated to Israel in 1990 [from Ukraine], I immigrated with my dog because it was part of my family.�
For the first four years, while still working full time teaching piano, Mostkov self-funded and ran the shelter herself due to the deep sense of responsibility she feels toward the animals.
“There were 20 to 30 dogs at my house; it was very, very difficult,� she recalls.
Once Mostkov discovered that she could ask for donations, she raised enough money to rent a kennel and expand operations.
Gilboa Loves Animals now boasts 30 volunteers as well as several dog trainers and handlers, who get paid a salary because “they work 18 hours a day.� It operates every day (“even on Yom Kippur�) from 7am to 9pm and generally houses around 70 dogs.
The shelter never puts down the dogs, allowing them to live out their lives in an environment of love and care.
Adoptions happen “once or twice a week,� says Mostkov, adding that she prefers dogs not to be adopted at all rather than go to people who may not care for them properly.
“Some of the dogs are old, some chronically ill. There is a paralyzed, 60-kilogram Caucasian shepherd that only lets me bathe him. It’s a lot of responsibility,� she says.
One paw in front of the other
A few months before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Gilboa Loves Animals launched a project connecting its dogs with soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The need has only increased due to the ongoing war.
Participation is free and entails a weekly meeting between the soldier and the dog for three months. Each meeting is accompanied by a professional dog trainer and a clinical psychologist.
“I had a dream to utilize pit bulls as therapy dogs because the stigma that they’re dangerous is… nothing,� Mostkov recalls.
She pitched the idea for the initiative to the Sheinberg Independence Association, which eventually became the cofounders of the project, said to be the first of its kind in Israel.
Mostkov says the program enables “mutual rehabilitation,� with dogs receiving as much “warmth and love� from the meetings as the soldiers.
Over the past 19 years, has her job running the charity gotten any easier?
“There has been a bit of improvement, because I finally have phone numbers of people who I can call if I need help,� she tells ISRAEL21c.
For more information, click here.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
