Local people -- critters in need!

[qatarperegrine]

The Qatar Animal Welfare Socity, where Justin and I used to volunteer as dog-walkers, burned down to the ground yesterday. Most of the cats and a couple dogs died, but around 50 dogs, 15 cats, and the farm animals survived.

The surviving dogs and cats are being housed at Qatar Veterinary Centre, the Veterinary Surgery, and Pampered Pets, but they need blankets and bedding, dog and cat food, cat litter, collars and leads, toys, crates and litter trays (cheap at Daiso). At least as importantly, they need dog-walkers and foster homes.

QAWS itself needs cat food, bales of hay and massive quantities of water for the farm animals.

Cash donations can't be accepted because QAWS, despite years of efforts, is not a registered charity. Good work, arcane Qatari charity laws.

Pictures, news and updated info can be found on Qatar Living.

Comments

Re: Not Region-Suitable

[(Anonymous)]

(Continued)

Now we talk religion and refute the assumption we made earlier. Pet ownership is actually not acceptable in the predominant religious view of this region. The cat example you cite is an exception to the rule on pets, not a base for it. Cats aren't considered "pets" in Islam. They're considered "common dwellers"; that is, they live with, around, or within close proximity of people whether people actually want it or not. The "common dwellers" status does not apply to dogs or any other animal besides cats (Yes, Islam IS indeed biased in favor of cats). So, using cats as an example of approving of pet ownership (or just feeding) doesn't constitute a valid sample since the status cannot be extrapolated to other animals.

Still, even in the special case of cats, the rules for dealing with the animal are very different from what you're used to. In fact, they're different enough for the pet industry to fail here. For instance, the animal cannot be spayed, neutered, or "fixed". It can't be denatured in any way. It can't be made dependent on humans for food or shelter. It may be allowed to eat the dinner table scraps or rummage through the dumpster if it chooses to, but it cannot be fed Pedigree Petfoods, 9Lives, Friskies, Meow Mix, Sheba, or Whiskas. Why? Because that's wasteful to human resources and denaturing and endangering to the animal itself. Think of the countless breeds of pet dogs that were bred entirely by humans and in captivity. All living beings are supposed to be able to forage and fend for themselves, but such unnaturally bred pets don't have that basic ability. Think of the French Poodle and its inherent inability to survive on its own. That's the kind of danger per ownership poses to the life of a living being that's meant to be out in the wild.

To make a long story short, despite its special "common dweller" status, the rules for the dwelling/treatment must respect the wild nature of the cat, and the animal cannot stripped from its wild or semi-wild nature.

All these restrictions are put on an animal that is allowed to be owned. Can you imagine what restrictions there are for the rest of animals the ownership of which is not allowed?

Here is a brief list:

1- Did you know a Muslim is not allowed to buy/sell a dog and that such a financial transaction is forbidden in Islam?

2- Did you know that particularly black dogs are supposed to be killed on the spot?

3- Did you know that snakes are considered vessels for evil spirits and must be killed?

4- Did you know dogs are considered Satan magnets and are supposed to be kicked out of the house?

5- Did you know that owning and caring for Homing pigeons makes a man lose his credibility in an Islamic court?

6- Did you know there is a whole other category of animals that are considered "low-lives", whose lives are not always respected and whose purchase is illegal? (this applies to toads, hamsters, gerbils, and most rodents, insects, and reptiles).

I can go on and on with the list of restrictions that make dealing with animals in Islam far from anything you're used to with pet ownership, which makes the stories you cite an invalid argument for legitimizing the pet industry in Islam. It's because of these restrictions that Abu Hurraira had 11-14 kittens at any given point but never had a single puppy. Also, the Prophet himself didn't have a pet cat of his own, but there are stories of him interacting with cats that are not his.

Right or wrong, this is the predominant religious view in this region in regard to pet ownership, which brings me to my original point about this form of excess being very foreign to this region.

I'm glad the charitable organization status isn't granted to QAWS. Animals should either fend for themselves or nature should just take its course, and the weaker animals become fodder for the healthier ones.

I know it sounds harsh, but it's much less harsh than importing another industry of excess into a society that has many of its own, wasting money and resources on foreign forms of "benevolence" we could careless for, and feeling bogusly "humane" for feeding weak and needy animals while neighboring nations have armies of weak and needy human children begging for food.