{"id":41431,"date":"2023-05-26T01:47:48","date_gmt":"2023-05-26T08:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=41431"},"modified":"2023-05-25T19:34:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T02:34:11","slug":"helping-animals-and-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2023\/05\/26\/helping-animals-and-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping animals and people"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pets & Pickers producer Tyson Hepburn confers with Regional Animal Protection Society chief executive officer Eyal Lichtmann during the film shoot.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Regional Animal Protection Society (RAPS) in Richmond operates a cat sanctuary, a fostering network, thrift stores and a full-service animal hospital, along with an adoption and education centre. RAPS has grown into one of Canada\u2019s largest and most innovative nonprofit animal-serving organizations \u2013 and it will be featured in the TV show Pets & Pickers<\/em>, the second season of which airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. Pacific on Animal Planet.<\/p>\n

RAPS began in the 1980s as the Richmond Homeless Cats Society. Driven by a small team of volunteers, it housed countless feral, abandoned and surrendered cats. In 2005, the organization pivoted to become the Richmond Animal Protection Society, extending its standard of care and no-kill animal policy to all of Richmond\u2019s animals. In 2017, it became the Regional Animal Protection Society to better reflect the geographic diversity of its patient base.<\/p>\n

For Jewish community member Eyal Lichtmann, executive director and chief executive officer of RAPS, \u201cpets are part of the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lichtmann joined RAPS in 2016. His resum\u00e9 before RAPS included a stint as executive director of the Vancouver Hillel Foundation, where he helped raise $10 million to build the University of British Columbia\u2019s current Hillel House. With proven capabilities in fundraising, he was asked to lead a fundraiser with RAPS, and eventually became their CEO.<\/p>\n

Lichtmann is passionate about \u201ctaking nonprofit organizations to the next level.\u201d At RAPS, he created a new mission and vision for the organization, centred around helping both animals and their owners. He contends that saving more animal lives can be accomplished by helping individuals overcome any financial obstacles they may encounter in caring for their pets.<\/p>\n

Recognizing that many pet owners cannot afford quality animal care, Lichtmann has made affordability a core focus of RAPS: \u201cwe are the only clinic we know of that offers interest-free payment plans based on the person\u2019s ability to pay,\u201d he said. In addition to giving annual community subsidies amounting to $1 million, he said, RAPS still generates profits, directing them towards the cat sanctuary, which houses more than 500 cats at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is entitled to have a pet as part of the family,\u201d said Dr. Joseph Martinez, one of RAPS\u2019s veterinary staff. Martinez has been with RAPS since Lichtmann joined in 2016. His passion lies in treating exotic animals, such as reptiles and small mammals, an area not many veterinarians are knowledgeable about.<\/p>\n

Having grown up on a farm in the Negev Desert in Israel and being the son of a farmer from Sicily, Martinez developed a deep love for animals. He even became a vegetarian at the age of 10, despite his family\u2019s meat-loving Italian culture. Animal care is second nature to him, he said, noting that \u201canimal welfare started in the Bible,\u201d and has only been enhanced by modern-day science and technology. When he moved to Vancouver 30 years ago, Martinez was drawn to RAPS by a drive to help the less fortunate \u2013 \u201cthe idea is to not leave anybody behind in terms of funding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJewish values are definitely ingrained in all of us,\u201d said Lichtmann about his staff, many of whom followed his transition from Hillel to RAPS. Lichtmann said he is \u201cprogrammed\u201d by tikkun olam and views himself as part of a \u201cJewish family\u201d at RAPS \u2013 even though not all the staff are Jewish, they are growing familiar with Jewish values and culture, he said. Last year, for example, 60 staff members attended a Passover seder with the organization. Lichtmann added, \u201cmy mother is cooking for the staff all the time,\u201d treating the team to home-made matzah ball soup, hamantashen, challah and more.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Ayala Dafni is assistant manager at RAPS. (photo from RAPS)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to its subsidy programs, RAPS partners with organizations such as Jewish Family Services Vancouver, Tikva Housing Society, women\u2019s shelters, homeless shelters, and senior care facilities. Martinez said veterinarians \u201cshould be open to different cultures,\u201d to build positive relationships with pet-owning families.<\/p>\n

Ayala Dafni, an Israeli animal technician and assistant manager at RAPS, has been \u201cworking with animals since forever,\u201d aspiring to be a vet since the age of 4 \u2013 \u201ceverything that was legal to keep as a pet, I had growing up.\u201d After getting her bachelor in animal science at Hebrew University, she went on to study animal assistant therapy, and manage a chain of pet stores in Israel.<\/p>\n

Dafni is driven by \u201cmitzvot,\u201d she said, especially helping the community and donating to certain causes. At RAPS, she said, this translates to being compassionate and committed to understanding different perspectives. Dafni emphasized that \u201cempathy is most important in this job\u201d and, despite years of experience in the veterinary field, she still finds herself emotionally invested in difficult cases.<\/p>\n

Lichtmann attributed RAPS\u2019s corporate culture as part of the reason that Pets & Pickers<\/em> was attracted to feature them. The unscripted series follows animals, their owners and the veterinarians who care for them.<\/p>\n

To learn more about RAPS, visit rapsbc.com and tune into Season 2 of Pets & Pickers<\/em>, which is also on Animal Planet in the United States. Season 1 can be streamed on Crave.<\/p>\n

Alisa Bressler <\/strong>is a fourth-year student at Queen\u2019s University in Kingston, Ont. She is an avid reader and writer, and the online director of the arts and culture publication <\/em>MUSE Magazine. Bressler is a member of the Vancouver Jewish community, and the inaugural Baila Lazarus Jewish Journalism Intern.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pets & Pickers producer Tyson Hepburn confers with Regional Animal Protection Society chief executive officer Eyal Lichtmann during the film shoot. The Regional Animal Protection Society (RAPS) in Richmond operates a cat sanctuary, a fostering network, thrift stores and a full-service animal hospital, along with an adoption and education centre. RAPS has grown into one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[22350,2723,22352,22349,22353,22351,22348,22354,5178],"class_list":["post-41431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-animal-planet","tag-animals","tag-ayala-dafni","tag-eyal-lichtmann","tag-joseph-martinez","tag-pets-pickers","tag-raps","tag-regional-animal-protection-society","tag-richmond"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}