An Abu Dhabi hotel has cancelled a raffle to give away live rabbits as prizes on Friday, after objections from an animal rescue group.
Dino's Bistro Italiano, in Pearl Rotana Capital Centre, had planned to display a rabbit hutch with three bunnies during its Easter Brunch.
Children were to be allowed to handle the rabbits, animals traditionally associated with Easter. The rabbits would be raffled off to guests attending the event.
But an animal rescue group got in touch to complain, saying it objected to a rabbit being "a toy to be given away”.
We greatly support everyone's feedback and apologise as this was not intended at all to be disrespectful
"I rang the hotel and asked to speak to the food and beverage manager," said Tracey Hughes, who runs Rescue of Abu Dhabi .
“They very kindly called me back and explained their reasoning behind it.
"She said they thought it was a nice idea. They said they had three rabbits theywere potentially going to give to good families.
"I said: 'How do you know they are good families and they are not going to dump them in a week or two? Or they're not going to be allergic?'"
A Rotana spokeswoman said it was not the hotel’s intention to offend.
"We greatly support everyone's feedback and apologise, as this was not intended at all to be disrespectful in any way." Amal Harb, corporate vice president, told The National.
"It was simply just to have kids experience the living bunnies while visiting Pearl Rotana for Easter Brunch."
She said the hotel has discussed the possibility of working with the rescue group to raise awareness and encourage the community to learn more about responsible pet ownership.
Ms Hughes said there is a surge in sales of pet rabbits around Easter, followed by large numbers being dumped in the weeks afterwards, as some families tire of their new pet.
“They have to understand that small bunnies grow into big bunnies. They are very destructive,” she said.
“And they can live 10 years plus, if they are well looked after. They are the same commitment as a cat and a dog.”
But few people are aware of the hard work involved in looking after them, so dump them when they lose interest.
“I went to one of the pet shops yesterday, down at Mina, and there must have been 40 bunny rabbits, all babies. Literally, the size of your hand.
“And you know, that’s why they are there. They are there for Easter. Two, three or four weeks down the line they are going to be on the streets," Ms Hughes said.
She said there are already many bunnies popping up around the Corniche and in Abu Dhabi city.
Kate Lindley, a manager at Paw Pals animal rescue centre in Dubai, said it sees the same predictable surge in requests to adopt rabbits.
"We are seeing an increasing amount of rabbits for adoption, as people do not think through their decisions,” she said.
"Any family needs to carefully consider the needs of any animal that they consider getting.
"Rabbits have very special needs and are quite delicate, they also can live up to 12 years, so they are a long term commitment.”
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Honeymoonish
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
McIlroy's struggles in 2016/17
European Tour: 6 events, 16 rounds, 5 cuts, 0 wins, 3 top-10s, 4 top-25s, 72,5567 points, ranked 16th
PGA Tour: 8 events, 26 rounds, 6 cuts, 0 wins, 4 top-10s, 5 top-25s, 526 points, ranked 71st
Federer's 19 grand slam titles
Australian Open (5 titles) - 2004 bt Marat Safin; 2006 bt Marcos Baghdatis; 2007 bt Fernando Gonzalez; 2010 bt Andy Murray; 2017 bt Rafael Nadal
French Open (1 title) - 2009 bt Robin Soderling
Wimbledon (8 titles) - 2003 bt Mark Philippoussis; 2004 bt Andy Roddick; 2005 bt Andy Roddick; 2006 bt Rafael Nadal; 2007 bt Rafael Nadal; 2009 bt Andy Roddick; 2012 bt Andy Murray; 2017 bt Marin Cilic
US Open (5 titles) - 2004 bt Lleyton Hewitt; 2005 bt Andre Agassi; 2006 bt Andy Roddick; 2007 bt Novak Djokovic; 2008 bt Andy Murray
The specs: 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor
Price, base / as tested Dh220,000 / Dh320,000
Engine 3.5L V6
Transmission 10-speed automatic
Power 421hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 678Nm @ 3,750rpm
Fuel economy, combined 14.1L / 100km
RESULT
Arsenal 0 Chelsea 3
Chelsea: Willian (40'), Batshuayi (42', 49')
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Sreesanth's India bowling career
Tests 27, Wickets 87, Average 37.59, Best 5-40
ODIs 53, Wickets 75, Average 33.44, Best 6-55
T20Is 10, Wickets 7, Average 41.14, Best 2-12
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Huddersfield Town permanent signings:
- Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
- Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
- Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
- Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
- Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
- Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
- Elias Kachunga (winger): signed for Ingolstadt for £1.1m
- Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer
