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.”
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.”
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