The moment you step closer to these beautiful creatures, they appear to be
pleading with you to buy and put them out of their misery, writes Umer Nangiana
Did it just say, help? It sounded so. The cute little white Persian kitten instantly stood up and stretched its paw forward as I moved closer to its cage. And then I heard it repeatedly let out mawkish ‘meows’. It was desperate to get out.
A 4x2 foot cage having limited access to water and food — placed in hot and humid environment — is definitely not the place for this furry beauty. At just four months old, it is having a hard time. There is no telling how long the ordeal would last before the poor thing finds a permanent home.
And the ‘white furry’ is not the only one suffering. There were a whole lot of them, many of whom have already lost hope of any ‘help’ coming their way or so it seems.
The moment you step closer to these beautiful creatures, they appear to be pleading with you to buy and put them out of their misery.
But then, how many one can bail out? There are hundreds of them. The huge collection of different animals and birds at the animal market in Doha’s famous Souq Waqif might form a lovely sight from a distance but not so pleasant when visited up-close.
Mostly confined in overcrowded cages of inadequate sizes and kept under poor hygienic conditions, these animals endure temperatures soaring well above 40 degrees and high humidity levels with minimum respite in the form of air-conditioning, a necessity in the summer heat.
The animals’ worst time begins when they are put outdoors on exhibition by vendors in the afternoon and late evening to attract buyers. The more sensitive ones like cats, rabbits, squirrels and hamsters find it simply unbearable. Far from lively, they struggle to even stay alive.
“Oh, is this dude dead? Perhaps, moving but it is dying for sure,” a visitor attracts a vendor’s attention towards a hamster lying upside down in its cubicle, hardly moving its limbs and not responding at all to its mates’ pokes, who were continuously trying to wake it up.
It is apparent this guy’s time is up. “No,” replies the vendor, however, and walked away.
“It is very sad. These animals are being kept under horrible conditions,” says the visitor and moves on with his son, who just a while ago seemed eagerly looking at the hamsters — probably trying to find a suitable childhood companion for himself.
Moving around, one can find many such cubicles and cages where hamsters, kittens and rabbits are lying bundled up, some of them dozing off in their dry water bowls. In one of the shops, the rabbits are seen making futile efforts to drink from a dried up water nozzle fixed to their cage.
“We fill the tubes with water on regular intervals but sometimes they just drink too much,” says the vendor after filling the small tube with water when pointed out. He says the animals do not stay in cages for too long and are bought away soon. However, he admits rabbits have been in the cage for more than a week now.
In some cases, the vendors in a needless display put the rabbits out in the open on an elevated circular platform from where they are at a risk of falling down and having their sensitive bones cracked.
Not all but some shops sell dogs. They are mostly imported breeds that are not used to living in high temperatures in such humid and unhygienic conditions. In the shops they are kept in the cages in which they cannot properly stretch or stand up with ease.
“No, we cannot let them out of the shop for walks. It is not allowed. We only let them out of the cage for five minutes every morning and then have to put them back in,” says one of the vendors. He has a one-year-old Husky that he says he had bought from a local.
As these breeds were expensive and not everybody can afford to keep them at home, these dogs are in for a long haul in their cages. In the next cage, another dog is continuously squealing and biting its cage door in an effort to get out but the vendor pays no attention to its wailing.
An adult Shih Tzu, a Chinese breed, in another shop is enduring similar conditions. This thick-coated dog smells like it has not been cleaned for days. A pup in the next cage is defecating inside the cage. The foul smell inside the shop is unbearable.
Moving on to the section where some vendors are exclusively selling birds, perhaps Macaws, African Greys and some other exotic species of parrots are a little better off than their smaller kinds.
However, they, too, have their wings clipped in many instances; still others are made to sit inside narrow cages.
The smaller breeds like budgies, cockatiels and canaries are however, being kept in over-crowded conditions with direct exposure to extreme heat. Some of the bird shops do not have air-conditioning and most vendors put the cages outdoors even before the sunset.
“I have no other option. I do not have enough space to put all cages inside with other animals and aquariums. If I did so there won’t be enough space left for customers to enter and have a look at them,” argues a vendor. He admits many bird die from heat, if not from parasites they catch from unhygienic conditions.
In one big shop containing dozens of cages full of parrots and cockatiels, the vendor has installed a small cramped fan which however, is not sufficient to provide the birds a reprieve from the searing heat, especially when they are locked indoors at night.
On closer look, one would find many inactive and diseased birds with their heads down in the cages or out on the display platforms.
However, a vendor insists they cannot sell diseased animals as there is a permanent vet available at the souq and buyers could get the animals checked for any diseases before purchasing them.
If that is the case, where do the diseased animals end up?
Dozens of expats and locals visit the animal market every day; however, not all of them end up purchasing animals. Majority of animals have to bear the poor conditions for a long time before they find a buyer.
Over time, many locals and members of the expatriate communities have expressed concerns over the conditions under which these animals are kept.
A group called ‘Help Our Animal Souq’ has, in fact, initiated an online petition to the authorities to take action and enforce animal welfare laws in the market.
Signed by 6,800 supporters, the petition urges the authorities to “urgently improve the conditions at the Animal Souq” which, they say, is “distressing and an ill-effect on the education of our future generation.”
“All animals have the ability to suffer in the same way and to the same degree that humans do. They feel pain, pleasure, fear, frustration, loneliness, and motherly love,” says the petition, adding that “whenever we consider doing something that would interfere with their needs, we are morally obligated to take them into account.”
Giving eyewitness accounts of maltreatment of animals at the untrained hands of vendors and their dilapidated living conditions, the group urges regular checks by authorities and imposition of fines and penalties for violation of animal rights.
While there have been some improvements over the last few months, the conditions at the Animal Souq are still far from satisfactory.