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The Last Animals In This Zoo Are About To Die And No One Is Talking About It

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The Aalim al-Sahar Zoo, located in Aleppo, Syria, is only a shadow of what it once was. Known as"The Magic World," a few years ago, now it is just an abandoned ruin, with only a handful of starving animals.

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 Source: Il Gattaro D'Aleppo

The director of the zoo, heartbroken to not be able to care for his animals in this city ravaged by years of civil war, contacted Mohammad Alaa Jaleel, nicknamed"Alaa," a former ambulance driver who opened a sanctuary for lost and abandoned animals during the war.Last week, Alaa came to Aleppo to determine the state of the zoo which now only contains two tigers, two bears and a few monkeys. When he passed in front of the cages to say hello to the animals, they instinctively got closer, as if they understood that Alaa was there to help them.

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Source: Il Gattaro D'Aleppo

Over the last month, Alaa has been able to bring fresh food to the animals thanks to donations from the community he created around his first sanctuary. However, his resources are quickly emptying and it's getting more and more difficult to find regular incomes to care for the animals.Alessandra Abidin, a friend of Alaa who runs his Facebook page, Il Gattaro d'Aleppo,dedicated to the cat and dog sanctuary, explained toThe Dodo:

They are undernourished and are dying of hunger. We want to find them an association or some person that can bear the cost of their food. It costs 100 € per day to feed these animals..
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Source : Il Gattaro D'Aleppo

The members of the Facebook page Il Gattaro d'Aleppo ("Cat Man of Aleppo"), the sanctuary's official page, have tried to contact rescue associations to ask for help, but they rarely are able to come to a war zone to save animals.Jayne Reed, one of the page's 22,000 members, explained:

It breaks my heart that these beings have survived the horrors and noise of over six years of terrible war and now face the very real and agonizing possibility of slow starvation.
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Source: Il Gattaro D'Aleppo

Despite the best intentions of Alaa and his friends, the zoo's animals won't survive long if he doesn't get help and food quickly. If you would like to support them, you can access their Facebook page by clicking here.Alaa has given his life to others during his work asan emergency medical technician and then at the sanctuary. Hiscommunityof supporters on Facebook, argue that he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

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