W

Metro Detroiters put their Jewish principles to work helping animals.

il hat should you do if you see an
overburdened donkey, suffering
under too much weight? The
Torah demands that even if the
donkey belongs to your enemy,
"you should certainly help him"
(Exodus 23:5). That verse may
serve as the source for the Talmud's
principle that we must help suffering animals.
Many people in Metro Detroit's Jewish com-
munity put that principle into practice by rescuing
abandoned animals. These animals, perhaps once-
pampered house pets now on the street, usually
lack the skills to survive.
If you come across one of these animals — shiv-
ering, feverish, underfed and dehydrated — and
call animal control, it would probably wind up at
the pound and, if not adopted, would be eutha-
nized — but not if some organizations can help it.
No-kill rescue organizations rescue cats and
dogs, provide medical attention and foster care,
recruit permanent placements, and educate the
public about abandoned animals. These organiza-
tions chronically suffer from shortages of volun-
teers, supplies and funding.

By Louis Finkelman

then assigns them to foster homes. Folks who want
to adopt a golden retriever connect with the non-
profit and visit dogs in foster care until they find
a match to adopt. Oak Park resident Sherrill Platt
first provided a foster home for golden retrievers in
1994; since then she has cared for 18 or 19 of these
beautiful animals.
Carol Shapiro volunteers at an animal rescue ser-
vice called Cat's Cradle. She got started in animal
rescue in 1997, shortly after she got her first dog,
at the Critter Connection. Shapiro also works with
animals professionally at Plaza Veterinary Hospital
in Farmington. She lives in West Bloomfield with
her husband, Fred, two cats and two dogs.
Shapiro feels pleased that Jewish people, in her
experience, generally do not hunt.
Only two years ago, Sheri Aaron-Miller began
working with SAFARI, Special Animal Friends and
Rescue Inc., a local affiliate of Guardians for Ani-
mals, which, she says, has transformed her life.
"It became a huge passion for me once I real-
ized what happens to dogs that run the streets of
Detroit," says Aaron-Miller, who belongs to Temple
Emanu-El in Oak Park and lives in Huntington
Woods with her husband and two teenagers.
When SAFARI members hear about a dog at a
Humane Society shelter here or in Ohio, get a call
from a vet about an abandoned pet or hear from
police who picked up a stray dog on the street,
SAFARI sends a team to pick up the animal. They
provide medical care, rehabilitation, foster care
and adoption services. If they cannot provide foster
care, the animal goes into a kennel at SAFARI's
expense — no animal gets euthanized for being

while, the dog found a permanent home with one
of his friends.
On other occasions, Deutsch has done "trans-
porting." When the network of animal rescue
groups vibrates with news of a hard-to-adopt
animal at a conventional shelter, activists find a
temporary home for the animal, no matter how far
away, and then organize a relay team of drivers to
move the animal from one state to another, until it
reaches its new home.
"None of these animals," Aaron-Miller says,
"chose this life. They did not ask to be abused or
put out on the street. They do not deserve this
treatment. All of God's creatures deserve to be
loved."
These fostered animals need to be adopted.
Retailers Petco and Petsmart cooperate with vari-
ous pet rescue operations to try to find permanent
homes for rescued animals. The Humane Society
has a major pet adoption event scheduled for May
18-19 at the Detroit Zoo called "Meet Your Best
Friend at the Zoo."
Aaron-Miller advises potential pet owners to
consider getting a rescued animal.

SAFEGUARDS IN THE LAB

When Dr. David Loeffler worked as a medical re-
After years of volunteering for the Humane
searcher at Sinai Hospital in Detroit in the 1980s,
he served on the Animal Care Committee, where he
Society, Linda Kahn Gale of West Bloomfield has
volunteered with the Michigan Animal Rescue
sought to protect animals used for medical rea-
League for the past four years. A few years ago,
sons. At that time, obstetricians and gynecologists
Gale and her family provided foster care to a sick
in training would use laparoscopic techniques on
dog who had survived Hurricane Katrina. That
dogs as practice patients before trying the proce-
dog accompanied the
dures on humans
Gales to Tashlich at the
Loeffler argued that
Franklin Cider Mill on
pigs would serve bet-
ter in that role.
Rosh Hashanah. When
Eventually, the
the cantor announced
the dog needed to get
hospital did switch to
pigs, keeping them in
adopted, a fellow wor-
shiper stepped forward
a dedicated facility on
to adopt her. Now
the top floor, but the
Gale gets to visit with
pigs seemed unhappy
her former foster dog
and bored. Loeffler's
at least once a year at
solution: Get the
Tashlich.
pigs bowling balls,
Not every foster
which they delighted
in hitting with their
animal gets adopted by
others. Gale says that
snouts, flinging the
she has a few she kept
balls against the walls
of their room.
herself; these are "foster
failures," the humorous
Sometimes people
From right to left: Evan Deutsch and one of his rescue dogs. Linda Kahn Gale and foster dog, Daisy, from the Michigan
name for animals that
would
ask Loeffler,
Animal Rescue League no-kill animal shelter in Pontiac. Carol Shapiro at Plaza Veterinary Ho spital in Farmington.
"What is that noise?
get adopted by their
The whole building is
foster caregivers. One
shaking!"
He
would
calmly
reply,
"The pigs on the
was a 10-year-old dog who arrived sick and terri-
hard to adopt.
fied. Once recovered, he was the sweetest, gentlest
top
floor
are
bowling."
People
usually
thought he
In his 15 years of activity as an animal rescuer,
companion.
was
joking,
until
he
took
them
upstairs
to visit the
Evan Deutsch, a copywriter from Oak Park, has
"Senior dogs make the best dogs," says Gale, who played almost every role in the process. Sometimes, pigs.
The problem with pigs as experimental animals,
has facilitated adoptions for more than 20 dogs
he just buys a dog that has been mistreated by its
and more than a dozen cats with help from her two owner. Deutsch remembers seeing a skinny young
Loeffler explains, is that you get to like the pigs,
children Alyssa and Eric, and husband, Allan, who
and they get to like you.
Labrador retriever staked to a backyard fence, able
"Pigs have personalities. The pigs make happy
serves as associate director of the Jewish Commu-
to reach only a tiny food bowl and an empty water
nity Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
noises
to greet you when you come into their space,
bowl. The owner seemed satisfied with the dog's
Invoking an old rabbinic phrase, Gale says, "We
and
they
greet you by rubbing up against you."
condition, but Deutsch was not. He offered $100
repair the world, one dog at a time."
Loeffler
has the experience for his role as advoca-
for the dog on the spot, which the owner glee-
Golden Retriever Rescue of Michigan takes
tor
for
animals.
He earned his veterinary degree at
fully accepted. After living in Deutsch's home for a
abandoned dogs, nurses them back to health and
All Creatures on page 36

ANIMAL HEROES

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