Santa Fe woman rescues animals stuck in war zone.
Six am, July 26. The phone rings and a voice on the other line asks Michele Rokke if she'll undertake a mission. The details? To help rescue dogs and cats caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah.
"Are you kidding me?" Rokke, a Santa Fe hair stylist, remembers thinking.
But then, reality kicked in. Rokke may be an expert on hair, but she also spent four years as an undercover
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investigator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), tasked with, among other activities, monitoring the treatment of animals in circuses, factory farms and laboratories. (Rokke also previously worked for Animal Protection of New Mexico.)
Last fall, PETA sent Rokke to New Orleans to rescue dogs and cats left behind by their owners during Hurricane Katrina. This time, the group wanted to drop her into the middle of a war zone. True to her past work for PETA, Rokke agreed.
Fewer than two days later, she was in Beirut, having commandeered a car and a driver in Jordan and snaked her way into a country most people were leaving.
From Beirut, Rokke and another PETA workers trekked around different neighborhoods and took day trips to other cities like Sidon and Tyre. They fed stray cats and dogs and
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handed out food to hungry locals, as bombs rocked the roads and regions around them. Some of the cats she encountered were crying with hunger. Dogs, Rokke says, were so terrified of the fighting, they'd only wander the streets early in the morning.
"It was hard to get close to them. They would see us and run," she says.
One day, Rokke even ventured into an area of southern Beirut controlled by Hezbollah. Rokke says she got permission from two Hezbollah fighters to search for strays and distribute dog and cat food. Rokke says she wasn't scared, just intent on doing what she could amidst a desperate situation.
"People told me that I was either brave or crazy," Rokke says. "I'm not sure which one I am."
Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, says that part of the problem in Lebanon is that governments like the US did not allow its citizens to bring animals with them during mass evacuations last month.
"We had people being put on ferries and planes but told to leave their animals behind," Newkirk says. "Animals have no politics. They have no religion. But they bear the brunt of all that we
don't in any sort of disaster-natural or manmade. We needed to do
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something."
According to Nancy Beck, a press officer for the US State Department, 15,000 Americans have been rescued from Lebanon since the fighting started. Those Americans were told they could not bring pets with them, Beck says.
Laura Tischler, spokeswoman for the US Bureau of Consular Affairs, adds that there was limited space on the helicopters and boats that ferried Americans to Cyprus or Turkey.
"We were trying to get as many people out as possible," she says.
As such, PETA says its mission in Lebanon and elsewhere in the world is all the more important. Newkirk says that Rokke's work was intended to help assess the situation on the ground in Lebanon and that PETA subsequently has been in contact with animal advocacy groups from both Lebanon and Israel.
For Rokke, returning home has been a mixed blessing. Rokke finally left Lebanon Aug. 6 and took two cats with her, which she left with a shelter in Jordan. She still wonders if she could have done more.
"I'm happy to be home," Rokke says. "The worst part about being back is knowing that there are still so many animals to save."