Al Ain animal shelter Six Hounds may shut down, seeks help for 224 rescues: 'My heart is breaking'

A community-run animal shelter in Al Ain that has cared for hundreds of rescued dogs and cats since 2022 may have to close its doors by the end of the year unless it finds new sponsors.

Six Hounds & Co currently looks after 224 animals, mostly dogs and cats, along with one rather unexpected resident: a sheep. Founder Anso Stander told Gulf News that the shelter is now working to find homes for as many of its animals as possible while it seeks the financial backing it needs to keep going.

"It has been tough," she said, explaining that the past year has brought challenges the shelter had not faced before. With so many animals in her care, she added, she does not yet know where they would all go if the shelter were unable to continue.

Since it opened in 2022, Six Hounds & Co has relied almost entirely on the generosity of the local community. Donations, volunteer time and support from residents have covered food, veterinary care and the daily running costs of looking after a large number of animals.

That support has been the shelter’s backbone, but Stander said this year has been especially difficult. Keeping up with the costs of care has become a constant effort, and the shelter now needs steady sponsorship to plan beyond the coming months.

The scale of the shelter’s running costs is significant. The founder said it has seven rooms, with between 15 and 43 cats in each, including animals recovering or receiving medication.

“Our expenses alone is very, very difficult and very expensive,” she said.

The shelter is also facing an accommodation challenge. The founder said its lease on the current villa expired six months ago, although the shelter can remain there for now. “We either have to pay the rent or we have to leave,” she said, adding that the team has identified other properties it could potentially move to.

In the meantime, the team’s priority is the animals themselves. The shelter is encouraging families and individuals across the UAE to consider adopting or fostering, whether that means giving a permanent home to a dog or cat, or offering temporary care while longer-term arrangements are found.

Stander said the shelter has also worked with rescuers outside Al Ain to help animals find homes. After rescuing 14 puppies from a farm site in Al Ain, she said she took them to a friend in Ras Al Khaimah who could help with adoptions because “it’s easier for them to go to adoption days in Dubai than Al Ain”.

Six puppies are still in Ras Al Khaimah, she said, along with two older dogs she did not have space for at the shelter.

At Six Hounds & Co, she said, many of the animals are older or have come from difficult circumstances.

“I’ve got a lot of old dogs, dogs that’s really badly abused,” she said. “There were just two small puppies dumped on me last week as well.”

She also takes in cats requiring significant care. “I take very bad cases of abuse cases for the cats, neglect cases,” she said, adding that many of the shelter’s dogs have already been adopted by families in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The founder said the shelter is also caring for animals that were originally placed in foster care but later remained at the shelter.

“Some of these are foster cats as well that I’ve been looking after, rehabilitating them, and the fosters ended up leaving the animals with me, not paying their foster fees,” she said.

The financial pressure has now spread across several areas of the shelter’s operations.

“A lot of times we’re behind on our utilities,” she said. “Now we’ve been behind for two months on utilities. We’re behind on food bills. We’re behind on our medical bills. It’s reaching Dh100,000.”

With limited staffing, the founder said even smaller donations have to be carefully allocated.

“If you get like Dh1,000 to Dh2,000, you have to juggle where you’re going to put your money,” she said. “You’re going to buy food, you’re going to give the animal medical attention or what you’re going to pay.”

She said the shelter currently has only one other staff member.

“It’s every month. You have to sit with bills and see which you’re going to pay and which you’re not going to pay,” she said.

How to help

The shelter is looking for support in several forms:

“Some people actually suggested that I just release the animals back on the streets, which is defeating the object of what we have been doing,” she said. "So I cannot do that. I cannot release these animals on the street. It’s just I can’t do it. My heart’s breaking. I cannot. I can’t do it.”

Despite the uncertainty, the founder remains hopeful that the community that helped build Six Hounds & Co will come together once more. For her, the idea is clear: Making sure every one of the 224 animals in her care, the sheep included, ends up somewhere safe and loved.