Animal Shelter vs Pet Shop: Factoids

The Man's kids have been going to walk the dogs at the RAH pretty regularly. AFL has needed dog-walkers to help with the animals moved up from their shelter. I'm very proud of these kids, who were previously afraid of dogs, but wanted to do something good. I stopped by yesterday to play with some doggies and to see how the Man-Children were doing.

Just the week before the fire, they called John to rescue a mother dog they had been feeding (Dusty now "Veronica") and her 5 puppies. It was a success. From what I've heard from his son, even The Man has chipped in and has walked Dusty, who is tagged as "aggressive" because she is very protective of her pups. After being beaten by people in their neighborhood, damn right she's aggressive. I would be too. I still can't believe The Man walked her. That's great. (Hmmm.... he never liked being bitten before, and yet he risked it for that bitch.)

So anyhoooo, I had a chat with some of the AFL volunteers as they waited for people going to adopt animals. I learned some things that I didn't know; like how there needs to be some public education hereabouts on the difference between a pet shop and a shelter. Why? Because people go to AFL to adopt cats or dogs and ask the animal's gender. Why? Because they want to breed them to sell them at places like the Friday market; creating even more creatures that AFL needs to rescue later. Or, folks go in and ask why AFL doesn't have Siamese or Persian cats. One guy last night even had the nerve to say, "Why do you just have these street cats?" Duuuuh.

Firstoff, AFL spays and neuters all their animals before they re-home them. That means, dumbasses, that they can't make babies. Get it? It doesn't matter if the dog is a male or a female: they won't procreate. Get it. So.... You can't sell puppies as products.

Next, AFL rescues STREET ANIMALS. That's what they do. They help all animals.

Something else I have learned about the Friday market is that there is a guy (or several guys) who sell puppies out of their vans. If anyone can catch a photo of a license plate, send it to me and I'll forward it to the appropriate people.

What many people in Kuwait don't know is that there is a high rate of distemper here; meaning that if you buy a puppy out of a van or from the Friday market and the seller does not have vet papers showing that the dog has been vaccinated at an early age (8 weeks), then you might take it home and it might die right away. You have no recourse. Also, if the animal does not have registration papers, then it is NOT a purebred. "Yes yes. Pure German..." And, a puppy should not be taken away from its mother earlier than 8 weeks to make sure that it is healthy. It should not be weaned off the mother until around that age.

The other news is that I hope, I hope, I pray, I hope, that my friend, Maria, has found her dog, Spike. Someone found a dog resembling Spike in Mishref several months ago, when Spike went missing in Kabd (previous post). They surrendered the dog to AFL and sent a notification also to PAWS. PAWS posted the notification on their website. AFL posted the dog's photo on their site (re-named "Macho"). Maria's kids have been tourmented by his loss and I hope (and please pray with me) that it is indeed the same dog and that they can be re-united. I can't think of anything worse than losing my dog here (if I had kids, that would be worse).