The cat man of Aleppo
Mohammad has devoted his life to looking after cats abandoned in the conflict that has ripped Aleppo apart COMPILED BY NICI DE WET
THERE’S a saying that those who have little give the most – which would perfectly describe Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel. The 43-year-old former ambulance driver has dedicated his life to saving the lives of stray and abandoned cats in east Aleppo in war-torn Syria. Since civil war broke out in the country in 2012 thousands of families have been forced to flee. In the ensuing chaos many pets were left behind, often abandoned at the last minute.
Unable to fend for themselves many of them died – but some of the lucky ones found their way to the guy dubbed the Cat Man of Aleppo.
Mohammad, an electrician by trade, downed his tools to work as an ambulance driver to help the wounded after war broke out. But being a cat-lover since childhood he always made time to stop by the butcher every day to pick up scraps to feed the stray kitties in his neighbourhood.
Soon what turned into a goodwill gesture became an almost full-time job as more and more animals were left destitute.
“When people fled, the cats started coming to me because I was already feeding some. I started with about 20 or 30 but a year later I had more than a hundred,” he told NBC News.
Despite living in fear for his life he refused to leave the city, devoting his days to caring for his feline friends.
In 2015 he decided to go a step further and created a sanctuary called Ernesto’s House, named after the first cat he cared for.
“One little girl and her parents were going to Turkey. She brought me their cat, which she’d had since a kitten. She cried as she gave it to me and begged me to send her photos,” he told the BBC in 2016.
“So many people have left the country but the cats have become my friends. I’ll stay with them no matter what happens. Someone who has mercy in their heart for humans, has mercy for every living thing.”
AS NEWS of Mohammad’s shelter spread, families who were planning to flee the conflict would drop their animals with him. The Cat Man of Aleppo was regarded as a symbol of kindness and resilience in a region beset by death and horror.
He didn’t only welcome cats with open arms – children flocked to this haven of love too where they could forget the ravages of war and find joy playing with animals.
Mohammad even built a playground for the kids. “All the children from the nearby schools came here,” he recalls. “They’d want to spend time with the huge number of cats left behind by their owners.”
He could also never say no to the occasional stray dog and would offer food or medical help, always taking care to keep them away from his beloved felines.
But in late 2016 tragedy struck: the
sanctuary was bombed and what was once a refuse was reduced to rubble.
“I’m so sorry to tell you that today our shelter was bombed,” wrote Alessandra Abidin, who runs the private Facebook group for II Gattaro d’Aleppo (the Cat Man of Aleppo) from her home in Italy. “Some cats and our beautiful dog Hope are dead.”
Mohammad reportedly stayed until the last moment before finally fleeing with his family and some cats he managed to save along with his cherished Ernesto.
But he refused to give up. In early 2017 he returned to Syria, this time to the countryside west of Aleppo where he rebuilt his shelter, now called Ernesto’s Paradise, which was financed largely by online crowd-funding campaigns.
Many of his friends also stepped in, he says. “They saw I suffered a lot from this loss. They wanted to help me in any way.”
In the new shelter cats sleep in marble cubes, engraved with names like Pouncer and Rose, while nearby a grinder churns out pink mincemeat which is scooped onto plates and spread out on the ground twice a day.
But it’s not just a haven: it also serves as an animal clinic with its own in-house vet. “We treat all sorts of animals here for free: horses, cows and even chickens,” he says.
Yet perhaps most satisfying for this reallife hero is when he sees children getting involved with taking care of the cats. “It seeks to erase war from their minds. Caring for the cats is a gateway to bringing goodwill to the country and to make it more merciful.”
Sadly his unwavering passion has divided his family. His wife and two children live in Turkey and he tries to visit them as often as possible.
“I hope my children one day will understand what their father was doing. And that the world will repay them with the same kindness and mercy I’ve given to these animals and humans in need.
“If you want to show mercy to people, start by showing mercy to everything else.”