Sulala

An animal shelter in the Gaza Strip uses parts of toys and kids’ bicycles to build mobility devices for disabled cats and dogs amid a lack of access to specialized prosthetics. Employees at the Sulala Society for Animal Care in the Palestinian enclave are working to fit some 32 animals with makeshift wheelchairs or artificial limbs from recycled wood and metal. “They get exhausted when they are paralyzed, so we give them something that allows them to walk so they would feel normal,” Said Al-Aer, who helps run the shelter, said. The shelter is supported by donations from charities in Australia and Britain. A paralyzed dog, Lucy, was given a wheelchair built using rubber wheels from a discarded bike. Lucy slips her body through a harness and lays her hind legs comfortably above the back of a metal frame connected to the wheels. “It is adjustable to the dog’s size, said Ismail Al-Aer, who designed the device. Ismail creates similar rigs for cats using smaller wheels from smaller toys. In Gaza, which is run by the Palestinian militant faction Hamas, there are no specialized medical centers for animals, Reuters reported. While the enclave does have two prosthesis centers, they are focused on providing artificial limbs to some 1,600 amputees in the Strip, including many who were shot during border clashes with Israeli troops. The centers do not offer services to animals, making the shelter’s initiative all the more important, veterinarian Bashar Shehada said. "Amputations drop, as well as ulcers and wounds that result from animals crawling," Shehada said.