Rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming wadi dogs in Oman

Muscat: The kind souls at the Muscat Dog Adoption - a voluntary organization set up in 2012 by a group of dog lovers - continue to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome injured and abandoned Wadi dogs in Oman. Their Instagram page will make any dog-lover smile what with countless photos and videos of the dogs they have rehomed now chasing rabbits in the lush green meadows in the Czech Republic or burying a bone around the ranches in Texas or for that matter, just happy to be sitting with their new human foster parents on the couch.

“We don’t have the precise number of dogs rescued since the beginning but since January 2018, we have rescued and rehomed 164 dogs. We mainly rescue, rehabilitate and rehome Wadi dogs in Muscat. From time to time we receive requests from people who need to rehome their breed dogs. We’ve more recently started rescuing Wadi dogs in other areas of Oman as well such as Sohar and Ibra,” says one of the volunteers of Muscat Dog Adoption.

“Many of our Wadi dogs go to adoption groups in the USA where they usually find homes quickly. In the last two years, we’ve also rehomed dogs to Scotland, England, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany. It’s usually very difficult for us to find foster homes for the dogs. We however currently have 32 dogs in foster which is more than ever before. More so now the COVID-19 situation has helped us with foster homes for the dogs because a lot of people are at home.”

While most are expats, there are some local volunteers as well. Some only like to deal with hands on work with the dogs while others prefer to focus on fundraising. Needless to say, their priority is the welfare of the dogs and the group is always looking to welcome new foster families.

The pandemic saw many expatriates leave the country as they lost their jobs but Muscat Dog Adoption informs that most of the responsible expats have taken their dogs with them or found a place somewhere to keep them until they can fly them back to their countries. “We are always looking for people flying to the USA, Canada, Paris or Amsterdam to accompany our dogs. They just need to add them onto their ticket as additional baggage. It doesn’t cost them anything and all they have to do is carry the original paperwork on the plane and collect the dog from oversized baggage at the destination airport. During the last couple of weeks, we have taken in one owner surrendered dog and four that were definitely dumped. The dogs have no idea how to survive on the streets, let alone with the summer temperatures,” says one of the volunteers.