This October, cat lovers from around the world will celebrate the Mau, a breed native to the Arabian Peninsula with a pedigree stretching back thousands of years.
Recognised last year by the World Cat Federation (WCF) as a distinct breed, the Arabian Mau will appear at the WCF's first Supreme Show in Berlin.
But for all the adoration it is receiving on the world stage, back home in the UAE the Mau is the victim of an official programme of extermination, animal lovers claim.
Here, the Mau is widely considered a stray or a feral desert cat, and activists say both Abu Dhabi and Dubai municipalities have aggressive campaigns to hunt and cull not only those living on city streets but also those roaming the desert.
Officials in neither emirate will confirm the extent of the cull, but one activist in Dubai fears that at least one variety of the breed is in danger of disappearing altogether from the UAE.
"I used to see them everywhere, but now I never see the orange cats anymore," said Petra Mueller, founder and president of the Middle East Cat Society (Mecats), who has lived in Dubai for 14 years. "Nowhere in the world does this happen."
Ms Mueller looks after more than 80 cats that she has rescued from the streets of Dubai.
After spending four years championing the Mau to qualify it for recognition by the WCF as a distinct breed, she is now fighting to raise awareness of the animal's plight in its own backyard.
"With such a high budget to kill, imagine what we can do with that money to preserve the species," Ms Mueller said. "This is part of the country's heritage, and unless we act soon it will be too late to save it."
The cats are killed by lethal injection.
"One veterinarian told me the cats from the desert are sometimes so big and so beautiful, so strong, that they keep screaming and fighting after they're captured," she said. "It's very difficult to kill them. They just don't want to die."
Dubai Municipality would not disclose the number of cats it puts down every month. Abu Dhabi Municipality, which in February said it had transferred all contracts dealing with cats to the Department of Waste Management, failed to respond to repeated requests to interview the head of the department.
Both municipalities, however, have sought the advice of international humane societies which advocate the world standard for feline population management, called TNR, or trap, neuter and return.
Endorsed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), TNR involves trapping the cats, sterilising them and screening them for disease then, if they are deemed healthy, returning them to the place of capture to allow them to rejoin their colony. This programme has been adopted by cities in the US including New York and San Francisco, both of which have "no kill" policies.
Societies such as the ASPCA and the World Society for the Protection of Animals, an international alliance of animal welfare organisations, support humane methods of putting down cats deemed unhealthy or otherwise unsuitable to keep alive.
Trevor Wheeler, who is affiliated with the World Society and has worked as an adviser to Dubai for seven years and Abu Dhabi for the past year, said he had advised both municipalities to follow the TNR approach.
Most municipalities with which he had worked in the developing world preferred the faster and easier approach of capture and kill, but the quick reduction in cat population created its own problems, he said.
"The ideal way for population control is to sterilise and return the cats to their original turf," said Mr Wheeler.
"When you catch and kill cats, you create a drastic reduction in population, but that backfires. Rats move in, then new cats from other turfs that are probably not sterilised also move in, and the cycle continues. Qatar learned from this in the 1990s before they embraced TNR."
Dubai officially adopted TNR seven years ago, and a spokesman for the municipality said it followed the advice of international consultants. But critics say both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been too heavy-handed, culling too many healthy cats instead of releasing them after treatment.
"Out of every 30 cats I received, I was under orders to destroy at least 20, even if they were all healthy," said Dr Katrin Jahn, founder of the German Veterinary Clinic in Abu Dhabi.
The approach caused her staff a "great deal of distress" so she stopped the work last summer.
Part of the problem in the capital, she said, was that TNR was not implemented efficiently.
Left to its own devices, a population of city cats will grow by about 25 per cent every year, creating what Dr Jahn called an unmanageable situation. "We need to be sterilising at least six or seven cats every day to make a difference in the population," said Dr Jahn. "The number of cats brought to us by the city contractors is very erratic, and that's too bad."
Since the beginning of the year, she said, her clinic had worked for the municipality only under the TNR programme and so far had sterilised 138 males and females, and had put down 47 cats.
One activist in Abu Dhabi showed The National photographs that appeared to be of dozens of barrels filled with dead cats which, he said, had been recently killed by the city's sanctioned vets.
The man, who declined to be named, claimed that the city paid Dh500 (US$136) for each cat put down, but only Dh80 for each one sterilised. Another source said the cost of putting down a cat was closer to Dh200, but The National was unable to verify these figures.
Campaigners say TNR is being undermined by campaigns run by the municipalities. Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have run telephone hotlines where the public can call to have a colony of cats permanently removed, even if, the activists say, the animals have the V-shaped cut in their ears that marks them as sterilised and released back into the community, in keeping with the TNR protocol.
In Dubai, the city periodically runs campaigns that offer rewards to anyone who reports the location of a cat colony. According to an unnamed official and one of the companies contracted to capture cats, the animals are quickly rounded up and destroyed.
relass@thenational.ae
Schedule:
Friday, January 12: Six fourball matches
Saturday, January 13: Six foursome (alternate shot) matches
Sunday, January 14: 12 singles
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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.”
DC%20League%20of%20Super-Pets
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Six tips to secure your smart home
Most smart home devices are controlled via the owner's smartphone. Therefore, if you are using public wi-fi on your phone, always use a VPN (virtual private network) that offers strong security features and anonymises your internet connection.
Keep your smart home devices’ software up-to-date. Device makers often send regular updates - follow them without fail as they could provide protection from a new security risk.
Use two-factor authentication so that in addition to a password, your identity is authenticated by a second sign-in step like a code sent to your mobile number.
Set up a separate guest network for acquaintances and visitors to ensure the privacy of your IoT devices’ network.
Change the default privacy and security settings of your IoT devices to take extra steps to secure yourself and your home.
Always give your router a unique name, replacing the one generated by the manufacturer, to ensure a hacker cannot ascertain its make or model number.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
Fixtures
Wednesday
4.15pm: Japan v Spain (Group A)
5.30pm: UAE v Italy (Group A)
6.45pm: Russia v Mexico (Group B)
8pm: Iran v Egypt (Group B)
Tips on buying property during a pandemic
Islay Robinson, group chief executive of mortgage broker Enness Global, offers his advice on buying property in today's market.
While many have been quick to call a market collapse, this simply isn’t what we’re seeing on the ground. Many pockets of the global property market, including London and the UAE, continue to be compelling locations to invest in real estate.
While an air of uncertainty remains, the outlook is far better than anyone could have predicted. However, it is still important to consider the wider threat posed by Covid-19 when buying bricks and mortar.
Anything with outside space, gardens and private entrances is a must and these property features will see your investment keep its value should the pandemic drag on. In contrast, flats and particularly high-rise developments are falling in popularity and investors should avoid them at all costs.
Attractive investment property can be hard to find amid strong demand and heightened buyer activity. When you do find one, be prepared to move hard and fast to secure it. If you have your finances in order, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Lenders continue to lend and rates remain at an all-time low, so utilise this. There is no point in tying up cash when you can keep this liquidity to maximise other opportunities.
Keep your head and, as always when investing, take the long-term view. External factors such as coronavirus or Brexit will present challenges in the short-term, but the long-term outlook remains strong.
Finally, keep an eye on your currency. Whenever currency fluctuations favour foreign buyers, you can bet that demand will increase, as they act to secure what is essentially a discounted property.
Simran
Director Hansal Mehta
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tiwari Pandey
Three stars
