Our Story - Starting Over Association (NPO)

Start Over is a non-profit organization that works to prevent suffering by rescuing and saving animals, and spaying and neutering to prevent overpopulation and suffering.

The shelter rescues, sterilizes, treats and rehabilitates animals rescued from the streets, from working lives, from petting zoos, and from animal industries. The shelter is home to animals that have come from all over the country after suffering abuse, severe neglect or abandonment. Here they are given the opportunity for a life of freedom, a caressing hand, love, and essentially a fresh start.

We search for and find warm homes for some of the animals where they will receive more personal attention in even better conditions.

Our shelter is a haven for the animals that come to it, but it is also a haven for the people who visit it, the volunteers, and more…

We work to promote education and outreach for the love and care of animals, seeing others, and raising public awareness for the protection of animals and their rights in order to build a solidary, healthy, and tolerant society.

In addition, the shelter has a mutually rehabilitative relationship between the animals that stay there and special populations. We work to educate at-risk youth and disadvantaged populations in values and empowerment, by integrating them in the care and support of the animals, while encouraging and developing qualities of responsibility, giving, competence, teamwork, and leadership.

How it all started…

Sharon Cohen - Founder of the NPO

I was born in Bnei Brak until the age of 4 and grew up in Givatayim, neither on a kibbutz nor on a moshav, a completely urban girl.

Despite this, my story with animals began long before the organization was founded. I was born like this, with this love for animals, from childhood I was unable to ignore their suffering, helping them was an integral part of my life as a child, even then they came before everything else, preventing their suffering governed my life and saved their lives.

At the age of 14 I began to make a personal commitment to the SOS Animals organization, where I was exposed to the great suffering of animals, I was exposed to the existence of urban kennels and the bitter fate, mainly of dogs and cats, where I was also exposed to other good people who dedicate their entire lives to the fight for animals and in fact I grew up into a society that fights for animals and promotes their rights.

I was exposed to evil, and at the same time to the good side of humanity
After the army, I started working as a call center operator at the Let Animals Live NGO, where I was even more exposed to the bitter situation of animals in Israel and to dozens of other people who sacrifice their lives every day for animals. There I learned that in the face of all evil, there are many good people who care, who fight for them and who do not give up on any animal, even if it is difficult. I worked closely with Eti Altman, (founder of the Let Animals Live NGO) from whom I learned to bang on the table when necessary, in front of the authorities, the police, to stand on my hind legs and fight tooth and nail even when it seemed there was no chance - I learned not to give up!

There I grew up and learned to make the voices of animals heard.

At the age of 33, I moved to live in the Morasha neighborhood of Ramat Hasharon, a very old private house, and a charming one-dunam yard. I established a small, private rescue farm, where I was sure there would be room for everyone, that I and the animals would have peace for many years, and that I had essentially fulfilled a dream, until one phone call that changed my life, and the lives of thousands of animals.

Almost midnight on a Friday, I received a call from a girl who begged for the life of a small town (a baby donkey), who had been tied up in the open air in the rain for 5 days. That night when I arrived at the place revealed to me a harsh reality that I had not known - the bitter situation and the lack of a solution for the donkeys in Israel. On the first day that the small town, Tinkerbell, was rescued, I tried to find a solution that was much more appropriate and suitable for her than a private yard in Ramat Hasharon.

I did not know that the task I was facing was so difficult, discouraging, and almost impossible. I quickly realized that Tinkerbell would stay with me forever, but I never imagined that from that day on, my life would change and that thanks to this innocent little baby, thousands more animals would be saved.

The lives saved thanks to Tinkerbell
Following the publicity and the attempt to find her a home, I began to receive inquiries from people who thought I was running a donkey shelter, even though until that day I had had nothing to do with donkeys. I could not ignore the inquiries and began to privately rescue donkeys in horrific situations. I was exposed to the fact that even in Israel, donkeys and horses still pull carts and are condemned to a life of suffering and hard labor until death.
At each rescue, I turned to the general public for help in covering the costs of the donkeys' medical treatment and rehabilitation.
I quickly realized that there were many people who cared and wanted just like me to save this unfortunate animal from the difficult reality it was in.

I was amazed to discover the great commitment of the public, and I realized that I could help many more animals and that I was not alone, thanks to the public's support, I had the confidence and courage! I decided to establish an association and move to a much larger place that was also suitable for donkeys.

Very quickly we became the largest rescue shelter in Israel, and one of the largest in the world!

Starting Over - The Animal Rehabilitation Sanctuary

The rehabilitation shelter of the Start Over Association was founded in 2017 by Sharon Cohen with the aim of rescuing and rehabilitating animals in distress and providing a safe and protected space for them to continue their lives. The animals in the shelter have been abused and/or severely neglected, most of them horses and donkeys rescued from carting and slavery.

Today, the shelter is home to over 1,700 animals, almost 1200 of which are donkeys!

The shelter is divided into enclosures according to the condition of the animals, an enclosure for blind and disabled, elderly, rehabilitated animals, a maternity home for donkeys that arrived pregnant (of course, there is no overpopulation in the shelter).

And so are its cats, which are home to over 250 cats, some blind and disabled, some orphaned kittens, and some who simply lived a difficult street life, or house cats that were harmed, or those whose owners simply passed away and had nowhere to go. to arrive....

The vast majority of the donkeys came from a life of slavery, pulling carts until their legs broke or they collapsed from exhaustion. Some arrived after severe and deliberate abuse and suffer from severe injuries that require a long rehabilitation.

Those that did not collapse were collected by traders with the aim of selling them and transporting them to Gaza for hard labor, or to Egypt for the Chinese ajayu industry (slaughtering and exporting the hides to China, where ajayu is produced from their skin).

These transfers were stopped by the association and the donkeys were transferred to its care for rehabilitation and a new life where no one would harm them.

Over 60 horses, some disabled and/or blind, also live in adapted enclosures. Some of the horses also came from pulling carts and some from riding farms that abandoned them to their fate when they reached old age or were injured so that there was no way to use them anymore.

Over 200 cats, some of whom are disabled and/or blind and live in a special rehabilitation complex adapted for them.

Dogs rescued from difficult places, dozens of goats and sheep rescued after being abandoned or confiscated following injury or neglect. Cows, 2 pigs rescued from an experimental laboratory, chickens and other birds.

Help us for them

The association is supported solely by donations. With your support, we can change their reality, allow the animals to be someone and not something, and allow them to start over.

Thank you on behalf of the shelter's residents, those who need us outside its walls, and the younger generation that is undergoing a change in consciousness in their perception and attitude towards animals and towards themselves.