Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel is known as the ‘Cat Man of Aleppo’ because of his efforts to save cats in war torn Aleppo. He was a ambulance driver and paramedic who worked daily to save lives of Syrian people but his another work was to save desperate animals.
His work started with 7 pets and within few months he was taking care of more than 150 pets in the heavily bombarded city of Aleppo which was under siege from Syrian regime.
He build a safe sanctuary Ernesto’s House’ for pets which he named after his first cat but in November 2015 it was attacked by regime bombardment which killed most of the cats and turned the sanctuary in to rubble.
He was forced to leave Aleppo along with the remaining residents after it fall to Syrian regime but now he has a new sanctuary in Aleppo countryside. He is once again saving the pets from Aleppo country side, he has become so famous that people fleeing their homes usually drop their pets to him.