Dubai: Animal rights activists have called for urgent regulations to crack down on what they call an “adoption sham” in the UAE.
Lesley Muncey, Chairperson of the 23-year-old Feline Friends, one of the oldest animal rights groups in the UAE, said: “Adoption and fostering of cats have been reduced to a sham in the UAE. You find hundreds of cats being randomly advertised everywhere – on social media, online community forums, even street corners and shops. There are perhaps two adoption days, if not more, held every week at different venues.”
She said animal lovers who remove cats from the streets mean well but their good intentions could be misplaced.
“Often, people pick them up at a whim, only to toss them out when they get bored.
“Some residents thought it fit to give cats to their loved ones on Valentine’s Day without any long-term planning. This is encouraging more abandonments and the situation could spiral out of control.”
Pedra Mueller, President of the Middle East Cats Society, said: “I am horrified by what is happening around us. Cats are being treated as toys, not pets. So people easily tire of them and get rid of them. There are some sadists who take kittens only to feed them to snakes, use them in dog fights or throw them on the streets. And then there are those who want good kittens only to breed them and make money.”
Regulatory body needed
Muncey said: “We urgently need a regulatory body to streamline the homing process.”
Raghad Auttabashi of Abu Dhabi’s Al Rahma Society of the UAE, said the only way out of the adoption mess is to create greater public awareness and the introduction of legal deterrents. “The government has to step in and introduce well-defined laws governing pet adoption and hefty fines against violators.”
Muncey advocates the ‘trap neuter return’ method to control the spiralling population of cats. “Street cats are better off neutered and left in their natural environs. Why are we trying to domesticate them? Once they get used to a home environment, they find it difficult to fend for themselves. We could be denying a chance to cats that genuinely need homes. Everyone wants a kitten, so cats as young as four and five weeks are being given away even before they can be vaccinated at eight weeks. We are compromising on the animals’ welfare.”
Mueller said: “Stray cats are in constant danger of going without food and being run over by vehicles. And in the absence of defined regulations, homing them has also become a huge challenge.”