A reader calls on pet owners to show compassion for animals. Christopher Pike / The National
A reader calls on pet owners to show compassion for animals. Christopher Pike / The National
A reader calls on pet owners to show compassion for animals. Christopher Pike / The National
A reader calls on pet owners to show compassion for animals. Christopher Pike / The National

Abandoning pets is never a good solution


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In reference to your editorial Ensuring the welfare of cats (June 9), a shelter would be the best decision, and for cats that are ill and suffering, they should be put to sleep humanely.

Shame on the people that abandon their pets, and on those that have no compassion for an animal that is suffering.

Michelle Hyam, UK

Here’s a word for the people who think making cats go away is a reasonable solution: it’s not. You’re just making your own irresponsibility someone else’s problem.

Put on your big-boy or big-girl trousers and start looking for real solutions. There are lots of neuter and vaccine clinics. If shelters are lacking, don’t just ditch your cats at the end of someone’s driveway or on an island. Grow up and do the right thing.

Name withheld by request

Zoo is no place for wild animals

An endangered gorilla was killed in an Ohio zoo to save a boy who had fallen into its enclosure (US zoo defends killing gorilla that grabbed boy, June 1). The news attracted public attention for a few reasons.

First, the protection measure is not safe enough to prevent people from slipping into the fence.

Second, the boy’s mother didn’t do her duty to take care of her child.

Third, the gorilla didn’t do anything to give the impression that it could hurt the boy. The news fuelled anger among animal lovers. People started to boycott the zoo.

Jane Goodall, considered to be the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, said that the gorilla might have protected the boy. I agree with her comment and am angry with the director of the zoo and the mother’ attitude.

I am against keeping wild animals in captivity and then killing them at will. We need to have strong laws to protect animals.

Alice Su, US

Action on Brexit will take years

Do people really think that the day after the Brexit vote, the decision would come into effect (Gulf airlines keeping close watch on Brexit scenario, June 9)?

It would take several years. That gives plenty of time for renegotiations.

Tom Plant, Dubai

What does tolerance entail?

It's good to know that the Cabinet has approved a national programme for tolerance (UAE Cabinet approves national tolerance programme, June 9).

Yet, it’s strange that there is absolutely no mention in the article of what “tolerance” actually entails.

Sohan Dsouza, Dubai

Religion and faith are different

Faith and religion are two very contradictory words (Even the non-believers must understand faith, June 1). One is dealing with reliance and belief while the other focuses primarily on behavioural observance. A man may rely on God and have deep faith, but he may not focus on ritual practices.

Steven Paul O'Brien, Abu Dhabi

There isn’t just a decline in religious faith but a decline in faith of all rigid institutions.

Chris Reid, Dubai

What does it mean to say the world is becoming more religious? That more people are doing what?

Jeffrey Martin, Dubai

I don’t agree with the author’s views that the importance of religion is declining in the West. Moreover, the article does not substantiate the argument with facts and figures. Meticulous research is needed to analyse issues such as this one, lest it sounds ignorant.

A Jackson, US

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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

Name: Peter Dicce

Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics

Favourite sport: soccer

Favourite team: Bayern Munich

Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer

Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates 

 

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Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

AndhaDhun

Director: Sriram Raghavan

Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan

Rating: 3.5/5

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The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

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Electoral College Victory

Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate. 

 

Popular Vote Tally

The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.

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Profile

Name: Carzaty

Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar

Launched: 2017

Employees: 22

Based: Dubai and Muscat

Sector: Automobile retail

Funding to date: $5.5 million

A new relationship with the old country

Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates

The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:

ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.

ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.

ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.

DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.

Signed

Geoffrey Arthur  Sheikh Zayed

'Outclassed in Kuwait'
Taleb Alrefai, 
HBKU Press