Amir Khalil

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Amir Khalil (born 21 November 1964 in El Fayoum) is an Egyptian veterinarian and Director of Project Development at the animal welfare organisation Four Paws International. He is most known as the war vet, saving animals from disaster areas and war zones. [1]

Contents

Life

Khalil was born on 21 November 1964 in El Fayoum, Egypt, where his father worked for the Ministry of Interior as a pharmacist and his mother was a housewife. In 1989, Khalil moved to Vienna, Austria where he resides with his three daughters. [2] He speaks six languages, including Coptic Egyptian. [3]

After studying veterinary medicine at Cairo University, Amir Khalil received a scholarship to study wild animals in Pretoria, South Africa. When he was 25, he won a scholarship to Edinburgh University but chose to move to Vienna to start working for the international animal welfare organisation Four Paws. [4]

Work

In 1994, Amir Khalil began volunteering with Four Paws International’s dog castration projects in Romania. [5] He was appointed Four Paws’ Director of Project Development and Director of the Disaster Relief Unit in 1997. [6]

Khalil conducts aid missions for animals in conflict zones. He provided aid for animals in Iraq’s Baghdad Zoo in 2003, [7] in Libya’s Tripoli Zoo [8] and in Cairo during the Arab Spring of 2011. [9] In 2014, he ran four rescue missions in the Gaza Strip, [10] and removed two lion cubs from the Rafah Camp in 2015. [11] The following year in the Gaza Strip he closed down the Al-Bisan Zoo [12] and the Khan Younis Zoo. [13] In April 2017, he evacuated a bear and a lion, the two last survivors of the Montazah Al-Morour Zoo in Mosul, Iraq. [14] In July 2017, he rescued 13 animals from the abandoned Magic World Recreational Park near Aleppo, Syria. [15]

Amir Khalil has established animal sanctuaries in Bulgaria, Jordan, Myanmar, South Africa and Ukraine. He spearheaded the movement to rescue performing bears in the Balkans, where he saved 27 bears. In 2001, he founded the Dancing Bears Park Belitsa, with the support of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. [16]

In 2006, he established the Lionsrock Big Cat Sanctuary in Bethlehem, South Africa. [17] Together with the Princess Alia Foundation, he founded the Al Ma’wa Sanctuary for Nature and Wildlife. [18] In 2018, he founded Elephants Lake, a 17,000-hectare reserve and rehabilitation centre for former logging elephants in Myanmar’s Bago region. [19]

In January 2020, Amir Khalil rescued sick lions at a zoo in Khartoum together with Four Paws, after worldwide outrage following concerning reports of the animals’ condition. [20] From September to November 2020, Amir Khalil from the animal welfare organisation Four Paws International with the support of journalist and businessman Eric Margolis, singer Cher [21] and Frank Goeritz from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) examined and approved "the world’s loneliest elephant" Kaavan for travel to an elephant sanctuary. [22]

Trivia

Amir Khalil is featured in Ai Weiwei’s documentary film Human Flow (2017) [23] and the non-fiction books Father of Lions: One Man’s Remarkable Quest to Save the Mosul Zoo (2019) [24] by Louise Callaghan, Paarden Vliegen Businessclass (2019) [25] by Olaf Koens, Magic World: Rescuing the Last Animals from the Aleppo Zoo (forthcoming 2021) by Sharon Guynup, and Dancing Bears: True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny (2014) by Witold Szablowski. Amir Khalil’s missions have been featured on TV programmes including CNN’s Great Big Story, [26] Animal Planet and National Geographic. [27]

Amir Khalil has been a Member of the Society of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology in Austria since 1999.

Since 2001, he has been Honorary Doctor at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria.

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References

  1. ↑ How Syrian Zoo Animals Escaped a War-Ravaged City, from 5 Oct. 2017 in Nationalgeographic.com.
  2. ↑ The man who risks his life to rescue zoo animals from war zones, from 8 Dec. 2017 in Telegraph.co.uk
  3. ↑ The man who risks his life to rescue zoo animals from war zones, from 8. Dec. 2017 in Telegraph.co.uk.
  4. ↑ PICS: Doctor ducks bullets for animal welfare, from 21 Apr. 2019 in Iol.co.za.
  5. ↑ Romania Faces Problem of Too Many Stray Dogs, from 27 Aug. 2000 in Edition.cnn.com.
  6. ↑ FOUR PAWS is providing assistance in crisis situations all over the world, from 10 Oct. 2018 in Four-paws.org.
  7. ↑ Animals rescued from Mosul's abandoned zoo arrive safely in Jordan, from 13 Apr. 2017 in Abcnews.go.com.
  8. ↑ Nine starving animals rescued from abandoned zoo in war-torn Aleppo, more remain, from 27 Jul. 2017 in Kynt1450.com.
  9. ↑ Mosul zoo lion and bear flown out of Iraq, from 11 Apr. 2017 in Straitstimes.com
  10. ↑ 'I'm Just For Animals': The Veterinarian Who Rescues Animals From Conflict Zones, from 2 Sep. 2019 in Npr.org
  11. ↑ I'm Just For Animals: The Veterinarian Who Rescues Animals From Conflict Zones, from 22 Jun. 2015 in Silni-lapi.bg
  12. ↑ Caught In In The Crossfire: Traumatized Zoo Animals Face Crisis In Gaza, from 15 Sep. 2014 in Thedodo.com
  13. ↑ Animals Rescued From the 'Worst Zoo in the World' in Gaza, from 25 Aug. 2016 in Theatlantic.com
  14. ↑ Lula and Simba, Last Surviving Animals at Mosul Zoo, Have Been Rescued, from 12 Apr. 2017 in Nytimes.com
  15. ↑ 13 animals finally rescued from a destroyed zoo close to Aleppo, from 13 Jun. 2018 in Four-paws.org
  16. ↑ The Dance of Fear, from 27 Nov. 2019 in Aubgdaily.com
  17. ↑ A lifelong home for big cats, retrieved 10 Mar. 2020 in Lionsrock.org
  18. ↑ Middle East network for Animal Welfare (MENAW) Conference, retrieved 10 Mar. 2020 in Princessaliafoundation.org
  19. ↑ Former logging elephants, orphaned and injured animals, will be rehabilitated at new FOUR PAWS sanctuary, from 9 May. 2018 in Globenewswire.com
  20. ↑ Starving lions left to rot in filthy zoo conditions saved after worldwide outrage, from 13 Feb. 2020 in Mirror.co.uk
  21. ↑ Cher — yes, Cher — helps a captive elephant find a new home in Cambodiae vom 26. November 2020 in Latimes.com
  22. ↑ The ‘world’s loneliest elephant’ is finally cleared to find a new home retrieved on 10. September 2020 in Washingtonpost.com
  23. ↑ Human Flow, retrieved 10 Mar. 2020 in Imdb.com
  24. ↑ Father of Lions: One Man's Remarkable Quest to Save the Mosul Zoo, retrieved 10 Mar. 2020 in Amazon.com
  25. ↑ Paarden vliegen businessclass, retrieved 10 Mar. 2020 in Bol.com
  26. ↑ Brave Veterinarian From Jordan Rescues Animals Living in the Terrifying Reality of Combat Zones, from 15 May. 2019 in Laughingsquid.com
  27. ↑ How Syrian Zoo Animals Escaped a War-Ravaged City, from 5 Oct. 2017 in Nationalgeographic.com.
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