Starting Over

Starting Over is a non-profit association committed to animal rescue and rehabilitation. Our sanctuary is the largest rescue and rehabilitation shelter in Israel (over 50 Durhams) and one of the largest in the world. With a broader social perspective, the association operates many community programs for people with post-trauma, populations with intellectual or physical disabilities, youth at risk, and more. Our goals are to rescue and rehabilitate animals in distress and to provide a safe and protected shelter for the rest of their lives. The animals in the sanctuary were severely abused and neglected, primarily horses and donkeys rescued from a miserable life of carrying carts and living a life of slavery. The association exists solely on donations. All its animals (donkeys, horses, sheep, dogs, cats, and more) have been rescued and rehabilitated thanks to public support. The shelter treats and rehabilitates animals rescued as it is home to animals that have come from all over the country and its borders after suffering cruel abuse, severe neglect, or abandonment from the streets or animal industries. They can live a life of freedom, love, and peace in the sanctuary and start over. Our shelter is a haven for the animals that come to it, but it is also one for those who visit it. The shelter works with the Herut Education Center to promote knowledge and information about the love of animals, seeing one another, and raising public awareness about the protection of animals, the environment, and their rights to build a solid, healthy, and tolerant society. In addition, the sanctuary maintains a mutual rehabilitation connection between the animals staying there and the special-needs population. We work to educate youth at risk and disadvantaged populations on values and empowerment by integrating them into the care and support of animals while encouraging and developing qualities of responsibility, giving, capability, teamwork, and leadership. Today, more than 1500 animals live in the shelter: • Donkeys: Nearly 900 donkeys currently live on the rehabilitation farm. Most donkeys came from a slave life of carrying freight carts until their legs broke or collapsed in exhaustion. Some arrive after severe and deliberate abuse and suffer severe injuries that require long rehabilitation. Merchants collected those that did not collapse to sell and transport them to Gaza for strenuous labor or to Egypt for the Chinese leather industry (slaughter and export of skins to China). Our goal is to rescue and rehabilitate all of Israel's donkeys, set them free, and give them the life they deserve with the help of our one-of-a-kind and unique Flight Project! • Cats: More than 250 cats live on the farm in a unique rehabilitation complex adapted for them; some are blind and disabled, some are orphaned kittens, and some just went through difficult street life, were thrown out of their homes, or whose owners died and had nowhere to go. • Horses: Over 80 horses, some disabled and/or blind, live in adapted compounds. Some of the horses also came from carrying carts and riding farms that abandoned them to their fate when they reached old age or were injured, so there was no way to exploit them anymore. • Goats and Sheep: Over 80 goats and sheep were rescued after being abandoned or confiscated due to injury or neglect. The farm includes livestock, cows, pigs, rodents, chickens, and other birds. The association also sponsors dogs looking for an adoptive or foster home. Our dogs live in private pensions that help their rehabilitation as they prepare for their adoptive forever home in the best way possible. The organization has a certificate of proper management, article/section 46 of the tax credit, and is recognized as a protected facility by the Ministry of Agriculture