Abandoned animals check into pet hotel
AFRA TURNS HER PASSION INTO SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS VENTURE
Sarve Geranpayeh
For someone who was “too scared to even look at dogs” as a child, Afra Al Daheri has come a long way to set up Abu Dhabi’s first pet hotel that takes care of abandoned animals and even rehomes them.
The 28-year-old Emirati got over her fear with the help of a friend and went on to develop a passion for rescuing animals in distress.
While other children spent their pocket money on toys and entertainment, Afra spent hers on saving animals.
In 2006, she started working for organisations that rescued, fostered and rehomed animals in Abu Dhabi. “I would drive around and, if I saw a stray dog or a sick animal, I would pick them up and take them to animal shelters,” she said.
By 2008, Afra had set up a Facebook group called UAE Pet Lovers that helped rescue and rehome animals by involving the community. The group today has more than 6,000 members.
In the course of her work at the shelters and her group, Afra noticed that many of the rescued animals were microchipped, a fact that baffled her. To her horror, she realised that these animals had been abandoned by their owners.
Afra was also unhappy with the services available in Abu Dhabi for stray or sick animals. “Especially the high vet bills,” she said. “So I started to think that if I had my own venue, I could control the cost.”
A hitch
By 2009, she put a business plan together for Cloud 9 Pet Hotel, a place that could shelter animals and offer competitively priced veterinary services. But there was just one hitch — her concept needed funding. It is a challenge she counts among the biggest she has faced so far. “I couldn’t ask my family and I couldn’t take a loan because I was a student.”
So Afra approached
the Khalifa Fund with a business plan. Her project, however, was so novel that Khalifa Fund requested her to present a stronger business case.
Though disappointed, the Fund’s response fuelled Afra’s determination. After extensive market research — which included surveying around 800 people — she presented her case again.
“I demanded that they hear me. I wanted to convince them that there was a requirement for a boarding facility for animals here in the UAE,” she said.
Persistence
She made several presentations before the Fund was satisfied. Her persistence is still remembered by some of the Fund’s decision-makers.
“Afra is a hardworking, passionate and persistent Emirati entrepreneur,” said Qusay Abdul Wahab, manager, entrepreneurship development department for the Khalifa Fund.
Explaining why Afra’s case took longer than usual, Wahab said: “She wanted to start a business in a field we don’t normally see Emiratis venturing into. Afra is a pioneer in the field [and] ...we weren’t very knowledgeable on the details of the market she wanted to tap into.”
When the Khalifa Fund was satisfied that the project was feasible, they approved the funding.
“It took about a year to get the approval. It was the happiest day of my life,” Afra recalls.
Funding was not the end of the challenge, though. Now she had to get a licence for her business from Abu Dhabi Municipality.
She wanted to convert a villa in the Khalifa area into her pet hotel venture, but once again she met with resistance due to the novel concept.
It took about another 12 months to get the approvals from the municipality.
Finally, in February 2012, Afra opened the doors to Cloud 9 Pet Hotel — the firstof-its-kind facility in Abu Dhabi that caters to a diversity of animals including cats, dogs, birds and fish.
But there is a road bump — the issue of abandoned animals at the facility.
“A lot of animals that are brought here for boarding end up being dumped by their owners,” says Afra. This leads to increased expense for her and also takes up space that ought to be for paying customers.
The extra cost is currently being borne by her and through public donations as she tries to rehome the animals. Beyond the problem of the needless expense, what also deeply disturbs her is the callous attitude of people who keep animals as pets only to abandon them.