Serve the animals for cruelty shown to them

Serves them right for feeding a cat to the hounds. The punishment has been swift and just from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai. It was an open-and-shut case the moment bloody visuals were uploaded on social media. Initial reports said there was one man involved, but a rapid probe revealed there were two other culprits who goaded their friend on and shot videos of the act.

There will be no tolerance for any form of violence to beast of human in the country. That’s the message the leadership is sending out to those fanning the flames of hate. The three men will not spend time in jail, but will visit and work at Dubai Zoo daily for 90 days, cleaning out the enclosures and cages in which beasts and birds are being housed. It will be a learning (and humbling) experience taking in the stench of animal excreta and bird droppings, and cleaning up after them. The media should be commended for bringing the gory deed to the notice of Sheikh Mohammed, who handed out novel punishment to the trio. Ordinary folks were outraged by the actions of the men, and social media erupted in anger. This order by Sheikh Mohammed follows the community service punishment handed out to three men for stunt-driving in February. Sheikh Mohammed’s intervention ensured the guilty didn’t get away. He’s done it again today. Abu Dhabi followed suit and set up a special branch to hand out ‘community service verdicts’ for small or petty crimes for which prison terms are not more than six months. Community restitution has a two-fold impact. First, it serves as a lesson for would-be offenders. Two, it takes the strain off prisons and the criminal justice system. As mentioned earlier, such decisions are swift and effective, more so because it comes from the top. A legal loop is discarded and there will be no more cat-and-mouse games for petty criminals in the UAE. Small-time offenders will be hounded and taught to serve society — and animals, too.