In pictures: UAE students’ first-hand experience with an animal shelter

Beverley Guy, the education officer at the RAK Animal Welfare Center walks a dog. It is an unfortunate reality that some dogs in RAK are kept for the lucrative, but illegal, sport of dog fighting.

While households in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are no strangers to well-loved, well-kept pets, it can be a different story in the Northern Emirates, where people may feed strays, but their involvement with animals seldom extends to naming them or even taking them to a vet.

A class of 10th grade students from the Al Hamham School listen to Tracey Arseneault (unseen). Stray cats are routinely tortured, or sometimes deliberately run over by drivers. These are problems not unique to the Northern Emirates, but they are much more likely to be prevalent when people are not raised with animals and find it difficult to appreciate their suffering.

Aisha Mohammad, 15, pets a Rottweiler puppy. “A lot of Emiratis don’t accept the idea of having pets, mainly dogs, because in Islam we believe that dogs are not clean,” said Mahra Al Shamsi, 27, the teacher.

Jawaher Rashid, and Asma Omar, hold puppies. Dogs are taboo, particularly because they are often considered to be ritually unclean.

The only custom-built shelter in RAK, Fujairah and Umm Al Qaiwain, the centre has found homes for about 700 dogs and cats since it opened in 2010.

The centre arranges for large dogs at risk of being used for fighting to be adopted by owners abroad. It also liaises with the Arabian Saluki Centre of Canada to find new homes for Saluki crosses, unwanted in the UAE because they are not pedigree, but coveted overseas. Dogs have also been sent to Germany, the Netherlands, Oman, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America through fund-raising.

A dog plays on the grass at The RAK Animal Welfare Center. Section: Focus. Reporter: Anna Zacharias. (Razan Alzayani / The National)

Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates — January 28 2014 — Dr. Chenjerai Sigauke, Head Veterinary Surgeon at the RAK Animal Welfare Center talks to a class of 10th graders from Al Hamham School on x-raying animals. Section: Focus. Reporter: Anna Zacharias. (Razan Alzayani / The National

Ellen Quanjer, the centre’s manager.

The class interacts with a young litter of puppies brought into the room.

The class are apprehensive to pet dogs.

When the clinic first opened, workers found people had an aggressive attitude to animals, boasting that they liked to kick cats. Now the volunteers are known and greeted by all, from low-income workers surrounded by semi-feral street cats to curious quad-biking teenagers.

Asma Omar, 15, pets a young Rottweiler puppy called Kira.

A school trip to an animal shelter in Ras Al Khaimah was an eye-opener for a group of teenage girls and, for many, a first hands-on encounter with dogs and cats. So what did the girls learn? That ‘cats don’t like to be lonely, they’re friendly, they need friends’. All photos by Razan Alzayani / The National