Khalaf Al-Harbi

Okaz

The Cooperative Society for Animal Wealth has asked the ministries of health and agriculture to constitute a team of researchers specializing in viruses and the common diseases between man and animal to monitor camel dens, markets, breeders and shepherds to verify if the coronavirus has been transmitted from camels to man or vice versa.



The society did not dismiss the possibility that the virus might not have been transmitted from camels to human beings exactly as it happened in the US, when cats were found not to be responsible for transmitting diseases to human beings.



The society’s defense of the camel and its insistence that the camels should have the same rights of the American cat is an indication of the benefits that we may gain from the spread of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).



Within its preventive measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health has been warning against mixing with camels, eating their meat or drinking their milk. The municipalities were quick to remove all camel dens from around the towns and cities.



However, the deadly virus continued to spread unabated. The epidemic must have probably come from the ministry’s hospitals, not from the camel dens.



There was no chance to listen to the views of the camel owners or coordinate with them. This is probably for two main reasons: Firstly, when faced with the concern over man’s health the importance of any animal decreases to zero point. Secondly, there are no organizations to represent camel owners, traders or breeders.



The lack of organizations to represent camel owners has driven them to take pictures while kissing their camels right on their mouths. These pictures were widely circulated on the Internet. The Washington Post was puzzled by this phenomenon. It published a photo of a Saudi man kissing his camel and captioned it: Why do Saudis kiss their camels?



There is a wrong notion about the false wealth of camel owners. They are accused of being immensely rich because they organize camel beauty contests on which millions of riyals are spent. In fact the majority of camel owners are poor people who are struggling to make a living.



However, the claim that camels may cause coronavirus is a scientific one that will not be dispelled just by a kiss on a camel’s mouth. It needs medical researchers to prove or deny this. This cannot be achieved haphazardly, but through the cooperation of the NGOs.



Only this week, Dr. Ibtissam Al-Tamimi, director of the health unit at a school in Riyadh, has revealed that a team from the Health Ministry and the US University of Columbia found out that the first case of coronavirus discovered in Bisha was caused by bats. This means that camels are innocent until proven guilty.