Puppies are Starving to Death by the Thousands

3,500 puppies face imminent death by starvation. In the last hours of life, they do not have the strength to cry out in pain. Their bellies fill with fluid, and then they breathe their last. Very young animals have less body weight, less reserves in time of stress, so they are often the first to die in a famine.

The United States oversees this intentional mass starvation. My country, the U.S., supports the blockage of what the puppies need: nutrients, clean water, and medicine. Media channels self-censor and suppresses all news about this crime–you might notice the lack of coverage. Some U.S. congresspersons threaten to put any American in prison for 20 years who might speak of this horror. (See U.S. Senate Bill 558).

In fact, 290,000 puppies are on the brink of starvation, one step away from the diagnosis of “imminent death.”

Did I say “puppies”? Oops, I meant “human beings.” Children five and under are the most vulnerable, and they are dying.

Now that you know children are the actual victims (and not canines), perhaps you will stop reading. No? Okay then, continue. And know that I respect you for being alarmed at the headline of this blog. I am not trying to make fun of you.

After breaking the ceasefire in late March 2025, Israel enacted a complete blockade on all humanitarian aid, including food, water, medicine, and fuel into Gaza. Now, in early May, after more than two months of the current blockade, 70,000 children are being hospitalized due to severe malnutrition, and 3,500 children under five face imminent death. As you recall, Israel has also destroyed or attacked all the hospitals in Gaza.

We are witnessing the intentional mass starvation of over 2 million men, women, and children by Israel and the United States. As Israel’s strongest ally, the United States is complicit in this holocaust, this war crime that the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, publicly supports. Biden, Trump; it does not matter. They are all genocide enablers. The United States government is on a genocidal rampage.

Here’s an online petition you can sign: “Tell Congress: Stop the Humanitarian Blockade of Gaza.”

Here’s a quote to chew on:

One has to ask, and this is an honest-to-God question: Had Israel killed 14,500 puppies or kittens, this world would have been outraged. By virtue of the fact that there are 14,500 either Palestinian children, or brown children, or Muslim children, or Arab children (you can pick whichever you feel more comfortable with) there is no outrage. And there is no outrage because the axis of genocide ensures political protection. The genocide enablers ensure the silencing of the narrative that is against the war and against the genocide. And most importantly, the genocide enablers ensure that these 14,500 Palestinian children are "ungrievable," the way 14,500 kittens could have been grieved. So, what we need to understand is, we need to be able to dismantle the system that, in the 21st century, is able to first instigate and then continue undeterred, unhindered, and fully supported and fully funded, a genocidal project.

– Ghassan Abu-Sittah, clinical lead for the Operational Trauma Initiative at the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean; Rector, Glasgow University, speaking at the Voices From the Holy Land Online Film Salon on 21 April, 2024.

Dr. Jane Goodall reminds us that, within living memory, the scientific establishment of the Western world actually believed that dogs had no emotions. Terrible experiments are still performed on dogs, but the practice is becoming rare and forbidden by many laws. (In fact, there is a bill in Congress to strengthen these prohibitions.)

Today we might be on the verge of a similar revolution in human empathy. It has happened, and can happen again. Our empathy might stretch to include … human beings. Think of it!

Dogs teach us what total trust, total faith, and unconditional love look like. When Palestinian children, or brown children, or Muslim children, or Arab children, or Dinê children suffer, let us now feel outrage. Let us awaken to our own humanity. Then let us take immediate, urgent, fierce, nonviolent action to do something to ease the pain we feel in our chest. As Jane has written, “Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right.”

Steven Sellers Lapham lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

Sources:

"Oppose Senate Bill 588," ACLU, April 7, 2025, and a video of the debate.

https://www.ochaopt.org/conten..., UN Weekly Report on Gaza, May 7, 2025

"Nearly 290,000 Gaza children on ‘the brink of death’ amid Israeli blockade. Gaza Media Office says some 3,500 children below five ‘face imminent death by starvation’ amid Israel’s total blockade," May 4, 2025.

“Tell Congress: Stop the Blockade,” Action Network, May 6, 2025,

“UN official calls Israel’s Gaza aid blockade ‘cruel collective punishment’,” PBS, May 1, 2025.

“Nearly 290,000 Gaza children on ‘the brink of death’ amid Israeli blockade,” Al Jazeera, May 4, 2025.

“Huckabee justifies food blockade to people he once said don’t exist,” Responsible Statecraft, April 22, 2025.

“Starvation looms as Israel's total blockade on Gaza enters its third month, ”NBC News, May 4, 2025.

“Netanyahu’s Plan to Expand Israel’s Fight in Gaza Is Met With Skepticism,” The New York Times, May 5, 2025.

“Gaza Hospitals,” (collection), Mondoweiss.