By The iCare Family

We reached out to Bazaar to get this article letter for the sole purpose of raising awareness on animal welfare in Kuwait, because unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, you have witnessed the amount of dogs and cats roaming around in the streets. Finding a solution to this problem requires all of our collective efforts. So I hope that after reading this, you’ll take off your rose colored glasses, roll up your sleeves and join the cause.

Apart from the strays that seem to be increasing on a daily basis, a lot of pets are being neglected and thrown out to the streets by irresponsible individuals who are never held accountable. Throw in the unlicensed breeders that over breed and interbreed to the mix, the dog thieves that roam around different areas stealing other people’s pets (not making this up!), pet stores and entities like the Friday market whose workers lack the essential skills to take care of animals. Sick animals are being sold and left to die. It’s a never ending cycle and we are sick of it.

There are several local rescue groups and individuals that pour their heart, soul and personal income to feed stray and/or injured animals, rescue them, get them hospitalized, and hopefully re-home them. One of them is Elika Mansouri, the lady behind icareq8, who recently, along with a small group of people rescued over 80 stray dogs from being poisoned from a single location.

It was emotionally, physically and financially draining but luckily, all the dogs were placed either in temporary shelters and boarding facilities, some are at different vets receiving treatments and a few were even adopted. It’s been a full time job trying to collect donations to essentially provide shelter for these dogs, have them checked, neutered/spayed, and try to get them adopted or fostered, and nothing would make us happier than seeing each one of them end up in permanent loving homes.

But you know how this all came to be, right?! Because someone purchased a dog a few years ago, couldn’t handle the hassle and responsibility of taking care of it, gave it away to someone else who couldn’t either, so that dog ended up on the street and found a feral group and eventually reproduced, several times, and here we are. Him and many people alike who think “What’s the big deal? It’s just a dog!”. And you’re just a statistic!

So the next time you’re bored and decide to purchase an animal, don’t. Many irresponsible pet sellers import animals into the country while making the puppies and kittens face trauma after separating them from their mothers and putting them through a stressful long journey. Aside from demanding strict laws against animal abuse in Kuwait, we can spread the message across and try to educate everyone on the following:

Do NOT buy pets. The more you buy, the more you enable the breeders and stores to stay in business. Instead, please consider adoption. If you’re not sure if you can handle the huge responsibility, then please try fostering to test it out.

Microchip your pets and get the microchip number registered with your name to your passport, at all local veterinary hospitals and more importantly online for free on souls. care website. Please neuter and spay them to avoid reproduction, combat overpopulation and vaccinate to stop the spread of infectious diseases among animals.

In hope of better days,

iCare Kuwait

For more information and to find out how you can help follow @icareq8 on Instagram.