The shelter feeds 700 dogs a day in the middle of a war zone, but the one thing keeping them alive is also the thing about to disappear

War Paws, a British animal charity operating in Erbil in northern Iraq, is facing the possible euthanasia of more than 700 dogs after the local government issued a relocation order in January. The charity has been clear that abandoning the animals is not an option. As first highlighted by LADbible, the situation has grown significantly more complicated since the US-Israel war against Iran escalated, which paused initial relocation discussions and shifted priorities across the region.

With forced relocation again a live threat, War Paws is now trying to raise $300,000 to rebuild its entire operation from scratch. The charity’s most pressing problem is that it does not know how much time remains before it is ordered to leave. If development in the current area proceeds, the stray animals War Paws cares for will lose their only reliable source of food, water, and shelter.

Louise Hastie, who regularly travels to work at the shelter, is currently stranded there due to closed airspace. She has stated she will not leave, saying she will not abandon her team or the animals and that if the shelter goes down, they all go down with it. The area is not a direct target, but the danger of stray drone strikes is constant. Two drones recently hit a large oil installation roughly five kilometers from the shelter, and fighter jets are a regular presence overhead. Hastie says the dogs are severely stressed, and all the team can do is offer comfort.

The land situation is what makes this so difficult to solve

The shelter was semi-formally offered land 300 meters away, but a 25-year contract could not be secured, and negotiations stalled ahead of Eid before being halted entirely when the war broke out. Hastie says the charity is using delay tactics where possible, but expects to be given very little notice when the order to move finally comes.

Around 130 dogs currently live inside the shelter’s walls, but hundreds more outside depend on War Paws for daily meals and medical care. Hastie has said that if forced to leave without a viable alternative, the charity may have to euthanize up to 700 dogs, as they cannot survive as strays in the area and euthanasia would be a kinder outcome than starvation.

Until recently, the surrounding area functioned as a dumping ground for dead livestock, providing a natural food source for strays. New development is ending that practice. There is also no natural water access, and War Paws has built 13 pools on its property that serve dogs, local farmers’ sheep, birds, and other wildlife.

The immediate relocation threat sits alongside a broader conflict with the local government over its approach to stray dogs. Amid the ongoing fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran, the Erbil government has announced plans to spend 450 million IQD, roughly $300,000, on a large government shelter to house the city’s stray dog population, following a rise in dog bite incidents. War Paws has described this as a knee-jerk reaction and has spent years advocating instead for mass-scale Trap, Neuter, and Release programs as the more effective and humane long-term solution.

The charity points to a near-identical situation in Sulaymaniyah the previous year, where a government shelter quickly became overcrowded and poorly managed, with hundreds of dogs dying within a month of opening. Local animal rights groups faced public backlash over that outcome, and War Paws expects a repeat in Erbil. The charity has stated it will not support any initiative that, in its assessment, creates inhumane conditions for captured dogs without a viable plan for spaying, neutering, vaccinating, and long-term population management.

War Paws has also put a series of direct questions to the local government, including how captured dogs will be fed, what humane catching protocols are in place, how the city’s waste problem that attracts strays will be addressed, and how rabies cases will be confirmed and managed. The questions extend to staff vaccination, public access to post-bite treatment, and engagement with organizations such as the WHO and OIE on mass rabies vaccination. Pete Hegseth’s upcoming congressional testimony on the Iran war is expected to touch on the regional situation that has complicated humanitarian and relief operations across northern Iraq, including the closure of airspace that has left Hastie unable to leave.

War Paws has set up a GoFundMe to secure land, rebuild the shelter if relocation is forced, and continue providing daily care for the animals that depend on it.