BIGGER FINES AGAINST PET MARKET URGED AFTER VIDEO OF ‘DYING’ CAT
▶ Film of overheated and distressed animals at Sharjah bird and animal market angers activists
Animal welfare activists are urging stronger penalties against a Sharjah bird and animal market where animals are kept in “deplorable conditions”.
Their calls come just days after a video of an overheated cat was widely shared online, shocking residents and activists who filed complaints with Sharjah Municipality.
While human beings can sweat to reduce body temperature, cats cannot. Instead, they pant and lick their fur, which is not an efficient way to stay cool.
The treatment of animals at the market is a long-standing issue for activists, who have been calling for its closure for years because of the animals’ poor living conditions.
“Fines need to be higher,” said Gaelin Gray, a committee member for Bin Kitty Collective, the largest animal welfare group in the UAE. “It is just about profit. People do not know that animals are suffering from poor health and they are not treated right.”
Last Saturday, Sharjah residents Steven Stejlles and his wife Khadijah Alamoradi visited the market and saw animals kept in crowded cages in rooms with no air conditioning.
“The animals at the market are distressed,” said Mr Stejlles, 29. “Some we spotted were suffocating in cages.”
Ms Alamoradi filmed a longhaired cat lying on its side, heat-stricken and panting heavily, and posted the video on the Bin Kitty Collective’s Facebook page. The post attracted hundreds of comments, with many saying they would complain to Sharjah Municipality.
The following day, Mr Stejlles and his wife returned to the market where they found municipality workers inspecting shops.
“Air conditioners were turned on in all shops,” he said. “The situation was strange because the market was not the same way it was the day before.”
The couple searched for the cat they had filmed the day before and saw it had been moved to its own cage. The shop owner offered them the cat for Dh500.
“I told him that a member of the Bin Kitty group had complained and we saw that the cat was dying,” Mr Stejlles said.
The shop owner told him that municipality inspectors had visited his shop and fined him Dh3,000. He said the fine must have been in response to the complaints, although the municipality did not confirm this.
“The shop owner said he is feeding the animals, providing them with water and the only thing he did wrong was to not turn on the air conditioner,” Mr Stejlles said.
In December 2016 a law was issued with fines of up to Dh200,000 for anyone found guilty of abusing, illegally hunting, buying or selling animals.
The law also penalises offenders with up to a year in prison. It was issued after animal welfare abuses were exposed on social media.
Mr Stejlles said the shop owner told him his colleagues were worried and that many of the animals were inspected by municipality vets.
He and his wife adopted the long-haired cat, which he says had been abused.
“The cat’s whiskers were cut. Its hair was matted because it had not been brushed or cut for two or three months,” Mr Stejlles said. “The cat smelt so bad. It must have been sleeping in its urine. This is the state of animals in all of the market.
“Animals are not being treated like animals. They are being treated as a product to be sold. At the end of the day, the pet market is a business for many. Shop owners at the market mistreat animals because of financial reasons.
“They think that they make money by switching off the air conditioner and cutting costs on food. When the municipality fines them, it makes them think of the consequences should they mistreat those animals. I suggest municipality inspectors carry out unexpected visits.”
Ms Gray praised the municipality’s efforts to clamp down on the cruelty but said the market needed to be monitored more frequently.
An official from Sharjah Municipality said an investigation into the video was under way to determine the shop at fault.
“Inspections are being conducted regularly and vets hired by the municipality are constantly checking the conditions of animals,” she said.