Dubai expat’s billboard campaign to raise awareness of animal rights

German expatriate hopes giant billboards will help raise awareness of animal cruelty and show people that there are alternatives to abandoning pets.

Evelyn Priess adopted her Saluki, Charlie, after he had been abandoned twice. The German expat is working to raise awareness about animal cruelty in the UAE. Sarah Dea / The National

DUBAI // An animal lover has launched a campaign to erect the world’s biggest billboards to promote animal rights in the UAE.

Evelyn Priess, 42, from Germany, is appealing for help to raise awareness of the welfare of animals. “I have four dogs and have just adopted one in January who had been abandoned twice and the second time he was found wandering Al Raha beach [in Abu Dhabi],” said the Dubai resident.

The saluki, named Charlie, has been taken in by Ms Priess but she said his plight was a symptom of a wider issue that needed to be addressed in the UAE.

“A lot of people are guilty of not looking after animals, or of mistreating them,” she said. “In Mussaffah there are many strays but people perhaps don’t notice them. We are not just talking about one big group of up to 25 dogs, there could be up to 150 dogs in this industrial area.”

She said the billboard campaign would be a wise investment, as a lack of education was at the heart of the problem.

“People have been telling me that we could do better spending money on a new shelter for abandoned pets. But the problem is that people need to be educated about animal welfare and animal rights,” she said.

“We could build five new shelters and they would get filled up very quickly because we aren’t dealing with the root cause of why animals are abandoned.

“It is essential to educate people about what options they have if they don’t want to keep their pets anymore or if they can’t afford treatment costs.”

She has already contacted Guinness World Records to see if it could list the billboards as a record. “It will be a world record, the first of its kind for animal awareness, and I think that will help greatly to get the message out to the public,” Ms Priess said.

She is not running a charity fundraiser but plans to operate it as a volunteering enterprise.

“I can’t accept money like a charity would so, in a sense, I’m appealing for individuals and businesses to donate their time or services to help,” she said.

“I have already got a marketing company that has agreed to help me for free, as well as an artist who has agreed to do the design for the billboard.

“If perhaps we can find a tower owner or developer who would be willing to have our billboard put up on their building for a period without rental charges, that would be wonderful.”

She was hoping that the link – www.pet-awareness-uae.com – would be visible on the billboards so that people could get more information.

“People dump or abandon their pets because, in most cases, they don’t think they have any option. But that isn’t true and this is one of the things I hope the billboard will help with,” Ms Priess added. Emirati artist Mohammed Al Astad, who has painted a portrait of the late Princess Diana, has agreed to take part, as have Ali Al Saloom from “Ask Ali” and the “Green Sheikh”, Sheikh Abdulazziz Al Nuaimi. The campaign has also been backed by vets.

“It’s something that the public do need to be educated about and this kind of thing will certainly help,” said Sarah Ward, a veterinary nurse at the British Veterinary Hospital in Dubai.

Cat owner Samantha Poole, from the UK, backed the campaign. “I think if the billboards can be placed where a lot of people can see them every day then the message will sink in,” she said. “Most people don’t know that there are charities that can help with abandoned animals, so this will really help.”

An Indiegogo funding appeal has been launched with a target set of Dh1.8m to be raised in 120 days. There are 91 days of fundraising still to go.

To support the campaign click here.

Dh20,000 fine for animal cruelty

The UAE has some of the toughest animal protection laws in the world – but they are not always known about.

Under UAE Federal Law 16 of 2007, animals are protected from negligence and abuse.

If animals are given a poor diet or are undernourished, endure unsafe transport as well as mistreatment that includes scientific experiments, cruelty and sexual abuse, then their owners are punishable by law.

The law requires that animals must get medical treatment when needed, and that abandoning them is illegal.

The penalties for breaching animal rights include imprisonment of up to a year and/or a fine of up to Dh20,000.

Sarah Bartlett, the spokeswoman for Animal Action UAE, however, said: “Unfortunately, no law can protect anyone or anything unless crimes are reported in the first place.

“Animal Action UAE is working hard to educate and to encourage people to report to the authorities any animal abuse they see.

“Too often people either walk on by thinking that the life of that animal doesn’t matter, or they are too scared to report it because of perceived consequences on them personally. We urge everyone who witnesses animal abuse to report it.”

Sabrina Walle, a nurse at the British Veterinary Hospital in Dubai, said: “I think vets do report cases of animal neglect, but it’s perhaps something the wider public aren’t aware of.

“People should know that there is a law that protects animals, and that the authorities take action against those who break the rules.”

To report animal cruelty, contact your local municipality.

* The article has been amended since it was first published.