Animal lover: Emma-zing grace

 Dubai: An Indian expatriate's love for animals has inspired her to take in many stray and abandoned animals and shelter them.

Emma Jairam has transformed the garden in her villa at Dubai Media City into an animal sanctuary, where she looks after two dogs, 14 cats and 100 birds.

‘Can't see them suffer'

A medical secretary who moved to Dubai from her native Mumbai 30 years ago, Jairam says she cannot bear the thought of animals suffering through neglect. "They may be stray dogs or birds with injured wings, but I'd rather take them in than see them put down," she said.

Her family, including husband Jay and daughter Manjula, share the kitchen with a variety of small and colourful birds kept in half a dozen wired cages.

While her two rescued border collie cross dogs, Bozo, aged 14, and Paula, who is now 17, have the run of the house, the back garden has been turned into an aviary with four custom-made cages.

"I spent Dh4,000 on the cage, where we keep pigeons," she said.

Her kitchen is filled with bags of bird seed, cat and dog food and the family spends more than Dh4,000 a month on animal food alone. "Money is not for us. Seeing the reaction of cats, dogs and the birds when we get back from work makes us so happy."

Every day Emma and her daughter get up at 4am to clean the bird cages and put out food before they head to work at 6.30am. Jay walks the dogs and looks after the animals until Emma returns at around 3.30pm.

The villa, at Desert Spring Village, is now so crowded that Emma is planning on moving the creatures to a Dh400,000 specially built house near Mumbai.