Selma Roth

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH – Skinny cats in dumpsters scavenging for food is a common scenario in the Kingdom. Big cities and small towns alike suffer from cat overpopulation. Some of them are stray cats, abandoned by families who did not want or could not take care of them anymore; the majority are feral cats, which are too poorly socialized to be handled and cannot be placed into a typical pet home.



When Umm Asma came to Saudi Arabia two years ago from the United States, she noticed all those street cats and felt deeply sorry for them.  She was not used to seeing so many. One day in Makkah, she found a red kitten outside the hotel she stayed at.



Determined to rescue the little cat, she carried it under her abaya to the hotel room, washed it, fed it, and brought it back with her to Jeddah.  Sickly as it was, Umm Asma was afraid it would die on her, but nevertheless took the cat, which she named Gus, to a vet to neuter him.



To her surprise, Gus did not die, but grew to be a strong, beautiful tomcat, which now lives with her, her husband, and her daughter here. Soon after, her charity group "Gus’s Hope" was born.



Umm Asma said: "Since Gus I’ve started trapping cats and taking them to the vet to neuter or spay them. Once I took nine kittens in a week.”



She is appalled by the way some people in the Kingdom treat cats and other animals. “Islam demands that we treat animals with kindness, but animal rights are something almost unheard of here.”



Umm Asma is not the only woman who tries to help distressed animals in a country with hardly any laws to protect them.



Her American friend Farah established "Tender Loving Care" and currently has about 50 cats in her home.



Together they started a Trap-Neuter-Return (T.N.R.) program to catch street cats, spay or neuter them, and return them to the streets or place them in foster homes until someone adopts them.



Sonja Svensek is another woman who fights for the rights of animals in the country. In 2008, the German/Italian woman, who was born and lived most of her life in Jeddah, founded ‘Pets in Need’, or simply P.I.N.



“I come from a family who is very passionate about animals,” she said. “It was a normal part of our lives to save animals off the street and always give water and food to the ones who were starving. It is normal practice for us to always have some cat and dog food in the car as well as bowls for water in case we ever come across a pet that needs help, which, sadly, occurs quite often.”



It is from this that her love for animals grew stronger, and the absence of any official animal charity organization in the Kingdom urged her to create a group and do something with like-minded people to help the animals. “To be the change we want to see in others, we have to be productive and active and not expect that someone else will do it,” Svensek said.



While P.I.N started as a small group on Facebook and is based in Jeddah, it grew out to more than 2,000 members from all over the country who give each other tips and advice, go out to rescue animals off the street, and spread the word.



Like Umm Asma, Svensek believes education on how to treat animals correctly and on the responsibility it takes to care for a pet plays a major role in changing the situation.



But there is more people need to be aware of to improve the state of stray animals. “Many people don’t know that they can adopt cats, dogs, and a variety of different animals from vet clinics, which is where a lot of pets are left when they are not wanted,” she said.



Rather than buying animals from a pet store, she advises people to adopt animals in need. “Every time a pet is bought from a pet store you eliminate the chance of a current homeless one from finding a new family to take it,” not to speak about the dire situations pets are held in those stores.It is no exception to find six cats or 50 chicks in one small cage, and buying them will encourage pet shop owners to continue their practices.



The list of animal charities is long, although the word “charity” is misleading.  This is one of the major difficulties these women face, because the consequence is that they are not allowed to ask for donations. Instead, Umm Asma takes the cats to a vet, posts pictures of them there, and waits until people offer to finance the surgery to neuter the cats — and so does.



Svensek. "We do not accept monetary donations, but there are many homeless cats and dogs that need treatment, food and supplies, which people can donate for."



Rescued animals are often kept at volunteers’ homes until they find permanent families for them.



The list of initiatives is long. In Riyadh, there is Er7amni and Open Paws. Most of these groups organize visits to compounds or neighborhoods to catch street animals, neuter/spay them, and return them to their territory.



Umm Asma and Svensek are also strong advocates of these so-called Trap-Neuter-Return (T.N.R.) programs.



"People sometimes think it is against Islam to sterilize an animal, but several scholars have given a fatwa that it is ok," says Umm Asma, alleging that unneutered cats get annoying when they are about eight months old – they spray the house and meow a lot – which results in people dumping them on the streets.



Both women stress that trying to get rid of the cat epidemic by pest control or poisoning them is both cruel and useless.



Once the cats are gone, other cats will quickly discover the new territory. Neutered cats, on the other hand, will stay in the area but will not reproduce, diminishing the number of stray cats in the area.



T.N.R. programs are a useful way to improve the situation, but there are more things people can do to help animals, Svensek said. "Encourage adoption, spread animal awareness at schools and in your neighborhood, join groups such as P.I.N., Open Paws or any other animal awareness group that doesn't sell pets and offers help when required.”



She also recommends people to seek advice from like-minded people and veterinarians, report any animal abuse, and always neuter their pets.



One animal activist working with Open Paws, who requests to remain anonymous, however, alleges that as long as the government does not organize or at least support programs to sterilize the animals, overpopulation will likely remain a problem.



Therefore, it is very important as well that people keep pressuring the authorities to change the current situation.



The Kingdom, she continues, lags far behind other countries in the region. “Look at Qatar or the United Arab Emirates. In both countries, the government has set up programs.”



In the former, anyone can catch a cat and have it neutered for free, while Abu Dhabi since 1999 is home to the world’s largest Falcon Hospital. “Even countries like Iraq and Palestine have animal charities. Then why are there no facilities in the Kingdom?” she said.



A comment these women often hear is that we should first address more important issues on human rights in and outside the Kingdom before looking at animal rights, but according to several Hadiths, acts of charity to animals equal those to humans to the extent that when people asked Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) if there was a reward for them in serving the animals, the prophet replied: “There is a reward for serving any animate (living being)” (Sahih Al-Bukhari). “A good deed done to a beast is as good as doing good to a human being; while an act of cruelty to a beast is as bad as an act of cruelty to human beings." (Mishkat Al-Masabih; Book 6; Chapter 7, 8:178).



The underlying issue, these Good Samaritans feel, is that while the pet industry is rapidly growing, the sector’s organization is lagging far behind.



Pet shops are not being inspected, and there are hardly any qualified Saudi vets.



Vet clinics in the country often operate without a license to obtain medications or anesthetics, and there is no awareness among the population on how to treat animals.



This lack of infrastructure leads to horrifying stories on pet abuse. The only way thousands of distressed animals in the country can have a better future is by enhancing awareness, enacting regulations concerning animal treatment, including punishment for those breaching the laws, according to the women.