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April 29, 2005
Canines making aliyah
Canadian retriever pups will help the blind in Israel.
PAUL LUNGEN CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
Golden retrievers are an adaptable, friendly and gentle breed of
dog, recognized as very people-oriented. Labrador retrievers are
affectionate, lovable and patient, known for their intelligence,
loyalty and good-natured reliability. Bring them together under
the right circumstances, ply them with drinks and puppy chow, and
a few months later you have a mixed breed that is ideal for training
as a guide dog for the blind.
Currently in Toronto, two mixed-breed puppies are being cared for
by Jewish families as the animals prepare to make aliyah to Israel.
The two puppies are destined for the Israel Guide Dog Centre for
the Blind (www.israelguidedog.org)
where, beginning at age one, they will undergo extensive training
in Hebrew to develop them into reliable seeing eye dogs.
Unfortunately, Israel has more than its fair share of sight-impaired
individuals. In addition to people who have lost their vision through
disease or accident, or who were born blind, there are many who
have lost their sight in terrorist attacks or while on military
duty.
Noach Braun is director and one of the founders of the Israel Guide
Dog Centre for the Blind, a nonprofit organization that is Israel's
main supplier of seeing eye dogs. Since only eight per cent of the
agency's $1 million US budget comes from the Israeli government,
finding voluntary support from abroad is an important part of the
organization's work. In this case, both of the puppies waiting in
Toronto were donated by the Ottawa-based Canadian Guide Dogs for
the Blind.
The Israel Guide Dog Centre for the Blind, located in Beit Oved,
a 20-minute drive south of Tel-Aviv, near Rishon LeZion, has provided
guide dogs to more than 230 people since its inception in 1991,
said Braun, by phone from Israel.
Currently, 20 to 24 dogs are trained annually, but with the completion
of new facilities expected soon, that number could jump to 60 a
year. The Guide Dog Centre includes a health and reproduction centre,
funded by Charles and Andrea Bronfman, in which dogs are bred domestically,
thereby reducing the need to import them from places like Canada,
Braun said.
Canada is a new supporter of the Beit Oved centre. Most of its foreign
support originates in the United States and Britain. The centre
employs a staff of 16 but relies in large part on the efforts of
volunteers to raise public awareness for the need for guide dogs,
Braun said.
Morris Samson, a Toronto-based veterinarian and a frequent visitor
to Israel, is largely responsible for forging the link between Braun's
facility and Canada.
Following a visit to Israel, he returned to Canada determined to
establish a charitable foundation that could issue tax-deductible
receipts for donations to the Israeli centre. It took him a year-and-a-half
to do this, but recently the Foundation for Canine Companions to
the Blind was registered in Ottawa.
The foundation is still in its early stages, Samson said, and "we're
in desperate need of help, of networking and getting the name out
there."
Samson believes Canadians will back the support group with relish.
Working and companion dogs "become people's lives. They become
people's eyes," he said.
Braun told the story of one of the people whose life was changed
by a guide dog. Benjamin Kapag, a widower who lost his eyes to disease
around the same time his wife died, was bereft until he received
his dog.
Kapag now says, "When I walk with my dog, not only does he
give me a pair of eyes, but a pair of wings, and I fly from street
to street. Sometimes I don't feel I'm blind," Braun related.
Eli Rubenstein, who is instrumental in aiding the guide dog project
in Canada, used his contacts in Toronto to find the two puppies
temporary homes prior to their trip to Israel. Hundreds of families
volunteered to help, he said.
Rubenstein, a United Israel Appeal staffer who arranges March of
the Living trips to Europe and Israel, suggests the origin of the
Hebrew name for dog, kelev, may come from two words, kol
lev, all heart. "That indicates the character of the dog,"
he said.
Rubenstein said guide dogs can be taught 40 to 50 commands in Hebrew.
What's more, a fully trained guide dog makes its user feel independent,
which is the highest form of tzedakah (charity).
"When you combine love of dogs with love of Israel and helping
blind people, the [satisfaction] you get from that gives no better
feeling," Samson added.
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