Couldn’t leave my pet behind
I refer to the news report It does not take much to ease the suffering of stray animals (June 30). I left Dubai about 18 months ago. I took my rescue cat with me. There is no way I could ever leave her behind.
I went to pet relocation services that were very expensive, so I decided to do it all by myself. Pets are part of the family and if people can’t think that way, they shouldn’t have one in the first place.
Daniel Ashley Yantin, UK
The responsibility rests with the owner who should be held liable for abandonment, possibly fined.
Randall Mohammed, Dubai
There should be a state-run veterinary clinic. Most people can’t afford vet bills. Perhaps that will solve the problem.
Gisela Sagar, Abu Dhabi
Ban any kind of pet trade. As long as there is a single homeless dog or cat nobody should be allowed to sell pets. That is the same for licensed shops as well as private sales online, backyard breeders, or direct imports from puppy mills.
Owners need to be registered centrally with pet ownership locked in their identity card and on visa cancellation they need to give proof of either export or registered transfer of ownership to another resident.
Failure of giving proof should result in fines that are a multiple of the average export costs.
Wiltrud Matthes, Abu Dhabi
I commend the efforts to control the population of strays by engaging in TNR programmes.
However, the work doesn’t stop there. Effective colony management requires feeding, health monitoring and treatment of injured and sick cats, rehoming cats that cannot be returned to the streets and much more.
The biggest part of those efforts is shouldered by members of the public, animal lovers who dedicate a lot of their personal time and endure financial and emotional stress for the good cause.
Whether they work alone, in small initiatives or as part of a volunteer organisation, they are the ones cleaning up the mess that an indifferent and inconsiderate society creates.
I hope that through education, support, collaboration and engagement of the authorities a sustainable change to the better is possible for the strays of the UAE.
Andreas Rosener, Germany
Hard to destroy a garden you have nurtured
My wife and I have spent the past few weeks preparing for our departure from the UAE after an enjoyable and enriching stay of some seven years – two in Dubai and the last five in Abu Dhabi.
We have hosted farewell parties and taken our leave of the many favourite places and people we have encountered in our stay in the Emirates. It is sad to report that our final days have been made much more unpleasant and stressful than necessary by the attitude and behaviour of our landlord’s agents.
Like many people we have spent a considerable amount of time and money on home and garden improvements installing small trees, decorative fencing and paved patios. Imagine our horror when our landlord told us that everything we had done to improve our surroundings had to be ripped out and destroyed and that we would have to pay for the destruction.
The house and garden had to be returned in exactly the same condition in which we had found it and all the effort and expense we had incurred was completely wasted.
So beware of the risks and the costs connected with DIY in the UAE.
Rob Edwards, Abu Dhabi
Beware of traffickers
One should discourage prospective migrants from using human traffickers, as they are usually more expensive than the legal routes seems to send them into slavery (Refugee Tales: Can a new book challenge stereotypes over immigration? July 1). Transport by smugglers is substandard and dangerous.
Robert JM Barrett, UK