California Woman Rescues Iraqi Pups

By ANC Staff

A California woman has rescued and adopted four Iraqi puppies, along with their mother, who were facing starvation in the Iraqi desert.

Marcy Christmas, 51, of Camarillo, spotted the destitute canine family during an April 10 television news report from the Iraqi village of Al Amanieh. A hungry, miserable-looking mother with six puppies could be seen sitting in the background behind the reporter.

Distressed by their plight, Christmas attempted to contact the reporter she had seen in the broadcast, and then got in touch with the Jordan-based Humane Center for Animal Welfare, which had launched a mission to save gazelles in Iraq.

Director Margaret Ledger promised Christmas she would try to find the dogs - and she succeeded. At the time of the rescue, which was carried out by a veterinarian with U.S. military escorts, the puppies’ mother was already so weak that she had difficulty standing.

A local Iraqi family offered a home to one of the puppies, and U.S. military personnel adopted another. Christmas then paid $1,000 to have the remaining four puppies and their mother flown to Paris, checked by a veterinarian, and then flown to Los Angeles, where they were delivered into her care.

"I’m as amazed as you are that this happened," she said with a broad smile, as the puppies emerged, excited and apparently none the worse for wear, from their travel crates.

Christmas, an experienced dog-rescuer who volunteers with the Doris Day Animal League, already shares her home with five rescued Chihuihuas.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.