Alberta School Teacher Rescues 7 Dogs From Afghanistan.

Spencer Sekyer came across a street dog and her puppies in the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, and he immediately fell in love with the dog and her off spring. The puppies were born in a ditch and Sekyer witnessed their mother enduring the brutal hardships of a street dogs life in the war torn nation. Soon the Mom and the puppies looked to Sekyer for safety and support. Sekyer is an Alberta teacher who spends his vacations teaching in conflict zones and developing nations around the world.

Sekyer began feeding the dogs; he got vaccinations and flea medicine for them, and soon realized that he couldn’t leave the pups to fend for themselves after he left Afghanistan.  After securing them for a year and a half at an animal shelter outside Kabul, seven of the now adolescent dogs arrived in Calgary with Mom in tow, thanks to Sekyer’s endeavors to get the dogs adopted to great forever homes in Canada.

After an arduous journey from Kabul through Frankfurt, Germany, Sekyer and the dogs were united at the Calgary International Airport cargo hanger. ”I felt it was the compassionate thing to do,” Sekyer said ”I saw how stray dogs were treated there and it didn’t take a lot of imagination to guess how their lives would end up if I just left them there in the gutter.”  “After all, since I started this process I felt as though I should be the one to see it through to its completion” he said after being joined the puppies and Mom after so long.

Saving the dogs and flying them to Canada was a difficult mission. Before he left Afghanistan, Sekyer got a couple puppies adopted to ex-pat families living in compounds in Kabul before he found a shelter to house the remaining dogs. Upon his return home, he was told that it would take $4,000 per dog to transport them back to Canada and that was a daunting proposition.  Sekyer and his wife began fundraising efforts including summiting Mount Kilimanjaro to get the dogs back to safety. Air Canada was instrumental in the task and donated the $28,000 fee to fly the dogs back to Canada.

When the dogs arrived they had to get checked by a veterinarian before clearing customs ensuring that they were healthy, spayed, vaccinated and micro chipped upon the promise that this was a one-time endeavor. When the dogs were finally let out of their cages it was a heart-warming reunion. The dogs nuzzled next to Sekyer some of them crying as Sekyer saw them for the first time since that summer in Kabul in 2010.

“There has been so much involved in this and so many people helped make this happen I don’t know where to begin to give thanks… just to see these girls here safe and happy makes this entire effort worthwhile.” Sekyer said.