DUBAI // Classifieds website dubizzle and an animal welfare organisation have joined forces to stop the illegal advertising of animals for sale and to educate the public about pets.
Meaf, the Middle East Animal Foundation, a non-profit organisation, held a workshop with dubizzle to help moderators identify adverts that did not comply with the policy of free adoption and that promoted the sale of endangered species.
Dubizzle already has a policy against selling animals in the UAE and allows only for free adoption on the site.
“The biggest barrier to improving animal welfare is education,” said Barry Judge, the general manager of dubizzle in the UAE.
“With a 46 per cent increase in the number of ads placed on the dubizzle pets section during the summer months, it’s obvious that some people are not aware of what they are getting into when taking ownership of a pet,” he said.
“We really want to change this. With 3.8 million unique visitors to our platform every month, dubizzle believes it can amplify and accentuate the voice of this campaign and increase awareness of responsible pet ownership in the UAE.”
The training focused on animals that are protected by the Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species.
These include tigers, cheetahs, marmoset monkeys, chameleons, monitor lizards and animal products such as ivory and skins.
Also at the workshop to share their expertise were representatives from Emirates Wildlife Society, in association with World Wildlife Fund.
Meaf and dubizzle will be launching a campaign on the pets section of its website, with information on the benefits of adopting rather than buying, and links to local resources that can help animal owners wanting to rehome their pets and ensure the long-term well-being of their pets.
“As we start the summer season, an increased number of animals are abandoned by owners, and support groups are overwhelmed by the number of cats and dogs to care for,” said Meaf co-founder Mahin Bahrami.
“Dubizzle has been extremely receptive to our upcoming education campaign to help us get our message out to the thousands of residents who use the platform on a daily basis.”
Meaf, the first registered animal foundation in the UAE, also said that it would this month be launching the Trap, Neuter and Release (TNR) scheme for cats, covering The Villa and Al Waha communities in Dubai. The scheme is designed to control the local cat population in a humane manner.
“Every year around this time, people leave and don’t know what to do with their pets. They take them in but then have no place to put them and just abandon them,” Ms Bahrami said. “Pet owners must plan in advance and they have to be responsible for their pets, and this is why we’re trying to raise awareness.
“Some people buy pets and then get tired of them after a while. People need to understand that pets are not disposable, like cars or mobile phones.”
Ms Bahrami said Meaf was working closely with other organisations in the UAE, including Bin Kitty Collective, whose members would be on the ground to implement the TNR scheme.
“When we do this, it is to control animal population,” she said. “We make sure to trap the cat in a humane manner, take it to the vet where it is neutered, after which the ear is slightly chipped to mark it as being fixed, and then we bring it back to the exact location we found it.”
She said that many UAE residents already neutered street cats, but Meaf and other organisations were trying to make it more systematic and official, saying that they hoped to implement a post-TNR programme.
dmoukhallati@thenational.ae
