Desperate escape for Canada’s last Afghan rescue dog

A Pearson Airport warehouse reunion Saturday welcomed Alex, Canada’s newest Afghan refugee, and one of the last of his kind to be allowed to enter.

The four-year-old German Shepherd made it just under the wire before new anti-rabies rules came into effect Wednesday. Earlier this year, nearly 300 rescued dogs and cats from Afghanistan arrived on a SPCA international chartered flight to Vancouver, “Mission Possible.” They were just some of the unknown number of rescued animals who are brought to Canada each year by rescue organizations.

One year ago to the day, Khaled, an interpreter from Kabul, fled Afghanistan on an emergency evacuation flight. No pets were allowed on the plane and he was forced to leave Alex with a friend.

“Alex is part of my family,” said Khaled (who fears Taliban retribution to his family and asked to keep his late name private). “With the circumstance I left Afghanistan, I never imagined to be able to see him again.”

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Still, Khaled had to try. When his friend ran out of supplies and could not provide for Alex, he asked Charlotte Maxwell-Jones, founder of Kabul Small Animal Rescue, for help. Alex wasn’t eligible for last January’s “Mission Possible” flight due to restrictions.

Khaled then turned to Meredith Festa, president of an American animal rescue organization called Paws Unite People, for help with fundraising while Maxwell-Jones worked over the next eight months to coordinate with customs brokers, transit companies, airlines and veterinarians to come up with an alternate plan through Islamabad in Pakistan.

The situation became urgent in June, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced a ban on the commercial importation of dogs from countries with high risk of rabies, including Afghanistan, which takes effect on World Rabies Day.

A Sept. 15 flight from Kabul to Islamabad was cancelled, so Maxwell-Jones decided to drive Alex across the border, only to discover that the Taliban had banned the export of animals just a few days before.

“As it was a new rule, the process was very difficult and we could not get permission in time,” Maxwell-Jones explains. Alex missed his connecting flight to Toronto before Maxwell-Jones was able to obtain an exemption, and rebooked him on the last flight to Toronto before the deadline.

Last week’s U.S.-Taliban prisoner exchange led to further delays, but Alex made it to Islamabad just in time. One last challenge arose: the airline decided that that Alex’s crate was too small, leading to a last-minute scramble to purchase a new crate and cover extra freight charges.

After months of setbacks, and with only a few days to spare, Alex finally arrived in Toronto to the delight of his family. “It is fate that I will be meeting Alex again exactly after one year,” Khaled says. “I count myself extremely lucky.”

And so was one other Kabul canine who did make it onto that Mission Possible last winter.

A temporary holding facility for the animals was set up at the airport, where Owen Laukkanen, the shelter manager, met and fell in love with Lucky, an unclaimed three-year old dog with gold and white spotted fur. Through social media, Laukkanen was able to connect with Freshta Siddiqui, Lucky’s owner, who worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Afghanistan.

Siddiqui saved Lucky as a puppy from being stoned in the street, and last year, when the Taliban came for her, Lucky returned the favour.

“Lucky was barking and barking and acting so weird,” she says from Pakistan, where she is awaiting Canadian security clearance. “He knew that strangers are inside the house…. They had two guns, one of which they put on my mom’s head. He was the one who let us know, and I got the chance to escape.”

Siddiqui and her mother went into hiding, but could not bring Lucky or their cat, Leo. “I was praying to God, please do a miracle, because I knew that I had to escape from the country but I could not leave my pets behind,” Siddiqui says. “Then I woke up one morning and miraculously, I read that KSAR was taking almost 300 animals out of Afghanistan.”

“It was very hard as well because I never thought to send them far from us,” she says. “At the same time, I was very happy that at least, they’ll be safe.” Still, she and her mom cried non-stop after they put Lucky and Leo onto Mission Possible, until they heard that Lucky and Leo had made it safely.

“I was able to send her pictures of Lucky and how loved he became at the shelter,” Laukkanen says. “She was going through this horrible situation over there, and it just made her want to go on because she saw that Lucky was being so well taken care of.”

Midway through the shelter operations, the shelter volunteers raised the money to sponsor Siddiqui and her mother to come to Canada. They cried tears of joy when they found out. “My father used to tell me, never forget that whatever good you’re doing in this world will come back to you in different forms,” Siddiqui says. “So I rescued (Leo and Lucky) and now they are rescuing me.”

“In the meantime, Lucky’s just patiently, patiently waiting to be reunited,” Laukkanen says. “Lucky has a huge fan base here of people who know the story of his mom and when she finally does come to Vancouver, there will be a huge lineup of people at the airport with Lucky waiting to welcome her.”

Under the new CFIA ban, dogs like Lucky and Alex from countries ranging from Afghanistan to Ukraine would not be permitted. The ban applies to dogs entering Canada for resale, adoption, fostering, research and other commercial purposes.

“I think it makes sense not to allow dogs to be brought into the country for sale,” says Camille Labchuk, a lawyer and the executive director of Animal Justice, an animal rights legal group. “But when we’re talking about rescue, it’s a humanitarian effort, to save lives, so it should be treated quite differently.

“Not only is the ban so complete and unforgiving, it was implemented without any consultation with the dog rescue community or animal advocacy groups,” Labchuk says. She notes that the United States implemented a similar, temporary ban that has recently been eased to allow importation of animals with microchips, valid vaccination certificates, rabies titers and quarantine. “So for us to be going through a complete ban when our largest trading partner is looking at something quite different… it’s really surprising.”

Louis Kwantes, immediate past-president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, supports the CFIA ban, noting that rabies kills 60,000 people each year. Canada’s ban was prompted by two cases of canine variant rabies in dogs arriving from Iran, the first cases in more than 60 years. In one instance, 14 people were exposed and needed prophylaxis, although none developed rabies.

Kwantes acknowledges that there are many responsible rescue organizations that take appropriate precautions, but that it is largely an “unregulated industry with no tracking, no numbers.”

“It’s wonderful to be rescuing animals,” he said, “but the people that are adopting them need to be very aware of the potential risks.”

The CFIA was invited to respond, but no comment was received at the time of publication.

A petition calling for the ban to be rescinded has been sponsored by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner, and with more than 11,000 signatures, it is currently the most signed House of Commons petition. Additionally, on Sept. 27, Animal Justice filed a formal complaint with the CFIA’s Complaints and Appeals Office on behalf of animal rescue organizations.

“People are outraged,” Labchuk says. “We’ve received more emails and contacts from the public about this than almost any other campaign I’ve ever worked on. I don’t think it’s an issue where the government can just dig itself into the sand and hide from it, because it’s really resonating with people.”

National Post

(Liana Hwang is a Canmore, Alta., physician and fellow in global journalism at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.)