Stray cats in Dubai

Gulf News

Gulf News takes a look into the methods being used to control the growing population of stray cats in Dubai.

Transcript

00:00With the population of stray cats growing in Dubai, people have mixed views about how

00:10to deal with these animals.

00:15The municipality is taking steps to control the rising numbers of strays but has met with

00:20criticism over some of its methods.

00:28There are also reports of civilians trying to eliminate suspected strays.

00:33As far as the Dubai municipality campaign is concerned, I think that they're doing the

00:41right thing in some ways but they're going about it in the wrong way.

00:44I understand how they're feeling.

00:47We have got far too many street cats but I feel that there are other options to deal

00:52with it.

00:53And the way it's been going about is saying that there's rabies and they're causing diseases.

00:56It's actually causing a bit of a panic.

00:59We're getting lots of phone calls about people saying they don't want their cats anymore.

01:03It's actually inciting people to be vicious and cruel to animals because they're frightened

01:07of them.

01:08So you're going to have kids beating them with sticks.

01:09We've had a few dead kittens turn up with broken legs and things like that.

01:14So I think that's what worries us.

01:17It needs to be dealt with in a different way and education is the first way.

01:25Our programme has been approved by WESPA.

01:29WESPA is the World Society for Animal Protection.

01:32The healthiest and youngest cats will be subjected to the neutralisation and spaying programme

01:42and then after spaying and neutralisation we return them back to the same area.

01:48Because we know that scientifically every area, every residential area should be occupied

01:55by cats.

01:56For the diseased and aged cats we will euthanise them.

02:01Poisoning, bad treating, mistreating, everything, all these practices will go under the umbrella

02:11of the animal welfare or bad treatment of the animal.

02:19Some members of the community have come together to reach out to these animals, providing them

02:24with food and helping them to get medical attention.

02:27I'm feeding the cats for more than six, seven years and we hold them and we literally hug

02:34them but what municipality is saying is not true because they don't give us any disease.

02:40By now I would have got the disease and they are not vaccinated but still we have not got

02:45anything.

02:46But I think what municipality is trying to do is scare the people, which is not true.

02:52They should give the right picture to the people that they are harmless and if you don't

02:58want to touch it's okay but just leave them by themselves.

03:01To think that they will kill them or euthanise them, I think that is being unfair.

03:08They should just leave them.

03:10These poor animals are not dangerous for the people and they're not doing anything harm

03:18for us.

03:19I'm doing this feeding of cats for almost a year now and until now I'm still, I didn't

03:25get anything.

03:26Dubai's stray cats do play a part in city life, so finding a humane way to control their

03:32numbers will only benefit us.

03:34Sunita Menon, Gulf News.

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