Pictures of pets rescued by BETA as it announced closure. (Credit: BETA facebook page)
BEIRUT — Animal rights NGO and shelter BETA announced Monday that it will be "officially closed" for several months for "non-life threatening intakes."
"2023 has been off to a rough start, with the Canadian and US ban on the import of commercial dogs still in effect — two of our major adoption countries, that is — our animals' ever after has been put on hold. As a result, we have been taking in more animals than we are managing to find homes for," BETA said in a Facebook post.
"The economy and its fluctuations are affecting everyone, adoptions and donations haven’t been happening like they used to anymore," the post continued. "It is truly such a bad time to be doing this, we are aware of that, as many animals continue to need saving daily, but we are officially closing all non-life threatening intakes."
Lebanon has been struggling with an unprecedented economic crisis for more than three years, which affects people's ability to take care of their pets.
In 2021, two years after the onset of the crisis, a member of BETA denounced the rising number of domestic animal abandonments, as people could no longer feed and take proper care of their pets anymore.
"We literally tried everything to keep on going," BETA said on Facebook. "We have been outsourcing our rescues in the past few months. Taking care of the medical [cases], rehabilitating them, and then placing them in boarding facilities around the country and, when in luck, finding them a foster home just to try and make due. The extra cost of doing so has literally drowned us and we simply cannot continue on that path."
The post added that BETA remains hopeful that "one day very soon, our doors will open once more."