Animal rescuers in the UAE are struggling to keep up with the number of animals being abandoned as the country fights the Covid-19 pandemic.
Shelters have reported a surge in surrendered pets since the start of the outbreak.
Some owners erroneously fear they could catch the virus from their cats or dogs, and others cannot afford to keep pets due to job losses and salary cuts.
Many residents who foster stray and abandoned animals cannot take in any more furry friends due to financial hardships.
“We used to use our extra for rescuing, whereas now there is no extra,” said Rachael Ryder, an Abu Dhabi rescuer, who is surviving on a 50 per cent salary cut.
Ms Ryder estimates she has spent around Dh60,000 on veterinary bills to treat rescued animals she has picked from the street near Mina Port over the last two years.
She is still trying to do her best but pets are being “tossed out right, left and centre”.
Abandoned animals are the most difficult to deal with, because they often come with significant health issues.
“Most of them are in a really bad condition, with parvo, ringworm, eye infections, ear mites, injuries because they don’t know how to live on the streets, malnourished, dehydrated and with worm infestations,” she said.
We used to use our extra for rescuing, whereas now there is no extra
“And those with long hair have to be shaved. And these bills can go into the thousands. And then at the end of it, what do you do with a Persian or a Turkish angora? You can’t put it back on the streets.”
If Ms Ryder cannot find homes for abandoned pets in the UAE, she tries to send them abroad to new families.
Rehoming them in foreign countries is not possible at the moment due to travel restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic.
Simone Bester, of the Mangrove Beach Cats rescue group, said she can continue with her work as a salary cut has not come her way.
But some in her group have faced a reduction in incomes, which has impacted their ability to help.
They rescue cats in a small stretch of Reem Island and have noticed an upswing in dumped pets since the start of the pandemic.
“Just before the restrictions came in, my husband and I picked up two Persian mums with eight kittens that somebody had dumped just like that,” said the South African.
“Between my husband and I we have 23 cats in different foster homes that need to find homes in the next few months. We normally average between five and seven.”
She said the financial responsibility of foster cats lay with the rescuer, who was expected to shoulder the entire cost of any treatment until a new home is found for the animal.
But that has also become harder as a result of the pandemic.
“There are less resources and less people to adopt, because people are not sure about the future or their jobs,” she said.
Ms Bester fears for the future, but tries to help in ways she can afford to.
“You have to realise you can’t help them all. There are hundreds of thousands of strays in Abu Dhabi and we try and do what we can, with what we have, where we are,” she said.
“If I don’t tell myself that mantra, I would go nuts.”
Tributes from the UAE's personal finance community
• Sebastien Aguilar, who heads SimplyFI.org, a non-profit community where people learn to invest Bogleheads’ style
“It is thanks to Jack Bogle’s work that this community exists and thanks to his work that many investors now get the full benefits of long term, buy and hold stock market investing.
Compared to the industry, investing using the common sense approach of a Boglehead saves a lot in costs and guarantees higher returns than the average actively managed fund over the long term.
From a personal perspective, learning how to invest using Bogle’s approach was a turning point in my life. I quickly realised there was no point chasing returns and paying expensive advisers or platforms. Once money is taken care off, you can work on what truly matters, such as family, relationships or other projects. I owe Jack Bogle for that.”
• Sam Instone, director of financial advisory firm AES International
"Thought to have saved investors over a trillion dollars, Jack Bogle’s ideas truly changed the way the world invests. Shaped by his own personal experiences, his philosophy and basic rules for investors challenged the status quo of a self-interested global industry and eventually prevailed. Loathed by many big companies and commission-driven salespeople, he has transformed the way well-informed investors and professional advisers make decisions."
• Demos Kyprianou, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"Jack Bogle for me was a rebel, a revolutionary who changed the industry and gave the little guy like me, a chance. He was also a mentor who inspired me to take the leap and take control of my own finances."
• Steve Cronin, founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com
"Obsessed with reducing fees, Jack Bogle structured Vanguard to be owned by its clients – that way the priority would be fee minimisation for clients rather than profit maximisation for the company.
His real gift to us has been the ability to invest in the stock market (buy and hold for the long term) rather than be forced to speculate (try to make profits in the shorter term) or even worse have others speculate on our behalf.
Bogle has given countless investors the ability to get on with their life while growing their wealth in the background as fast as possible. The Financial Independence movement would barely exist without this."
• Zach Holz, who blogs about financial independence at The Happiest Teacher
"Jack Bogle was one of the greatest forces for wealth democratisation the world has ever seen. He allowed people a way to be free from the parasitical "financial advisers" whose only real concern are the fat fees they get from selling you over-complicated "products" that have caused millions of people all around the world real harm.”
• Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"In an industry that’s synonymous with greed, Jack Bogle was a lone wolf, swimming against the tide. When others were incentivised to enrich themselves, he stood by the ‘fiduciary’ standard – something that is badly needed in the financial industry of the UAE."
