Definitely a Haven

Our world is a messy place although in many parts people tend to be able to hide the messiness better than in others. North America or Europe with its leash laws, humane societies, and animal rights activists almost makes one think that everything is more or less under control. It isn't, of course, since the very nature of life is change, but when North Americans and Europeans come to Egypt where normality is simply more chaotic than normality elsewhere, they are often rather shocked at the stray animals and working horses and donkeys. In some respects, Egypt is still living in the 19th century. The only working horses in New York City are the police horses or the carriage horses in Central Park, and there are plenty of interest groups that feel that it is inhumane to make horses work in any way and would like to see them abolished. My personal experience is that horses like working with people when the work is reasonable and the care is good, so that is not a great solution.

When I moved here in the late 80's finding a veterinarian to treat a cat in Alexandria was a major feat of detective work, and to be honest the first vet I ever found was pretty awful. Twenty years on things have changed quite a bit and we have a fairly good sampling of decent veterinary clinics in Cairo and Alexandria. Another change that I've seen has been an increase in the number of animal relief associations and animal shelters. Since these are a relatively new idea here, most of the population of Egypt is still trying to understand how they work. Keeping dogs and cats as pets is not that common in the general population, although it's often the case that a doorman will have a local cat or dog who knows where it can get a free meal in exchange for some guard work or ratcatching. These animals are not "pets" in the usual sense, but are more free-roaming partners who live without benefit of vaccinations or neutering and are subject to the stresses of random breeding. This is also the case for the farm dogs out here in the countryside. While this seems tough to people raised in orderly cities abroad, it is in fact the way of the world in less controlled environments.

I've visited quite a few animal shelters over the years and to be honest, most of them give me the willies. Quite a few end up housing large numbers of randomly "rescued" dogs and cats who have no hope of ever being placed in a comfortable environment and who are left to live in pens and cages that are often overcrowded, noisy, dirty and stressful. The low levels of funding for shelters have something to do with these conditions as do the wishes of the keepers to "save" these animals from life on the streets. I understand the problems of keeping large numbers of animals, having fifteen dogs myself (not by choice, believe me) and just visiting some of these places is enough to send me running for a calm place to collect my thoughts.

I have a group of high school students coming to stay at the farm for two weeks in June and was looking for some opportunities for volunteer work in the area, so I went to visit a few of the local shelters. One of them was eliminated immediately as I had some very real concerns for the safety of the students with the way that the dogs were kept. The tension level in the pens were quite sufficient that I could see fights breaking out quite easily. I went on to a new shelter primarily for cats and was quite delighted to find Animal Haven's new spaces. Noura el Daly had been working with her cats in Maadi for years but recently her sister offered her space out near our farms. A compound was built consisting of a series of rooms built around courtyards that afforded cats their choices of rooms in which to sleep and sunny spots for relaxation. The cats, and there are quite a lot of them, are not necessarily confined to one room and courtyard, but if they are sufficiently well-socialised, they can move among a choice of rooms, including one that has a ramp leading to a space on the roof.

There were more cats than I've seen in one place in a long, long time. Every possible colour and hair length was represented. Many of these cats are adult but rather than being frightened of humans and trying to escape attention, they sauntered over to purr against legs and offer heads for scratches and stroking. Dishes of food, rice with chicken, stood around for the cats to be able to eat at their leisure, and wooden benches covered in toweling, baskets, shelves and other interesting structures provided places for the cats to curl, sprawl, groom, and cuddle. The entire area was spotless and the attendants made a point of introducing us to their favourite inmates. The cats are neutered, vaccinated and available for adoption, but all too often people are wanting the cute factor of kittens and not interested in adult cats. I've had a lot of cats in my life and have had no problems adopting sympathetic adult cats. In fact, not having to put up with the crazy running around of kittens that almost inevitably leads to broken objects and torn curtains has been a real plus. One of our cats when we lived in Maadi was a totally blind female who wound herself around my daughter's legs just outside our doctor's office one afternoon. We called her Amelia and she presented us with four kittens as well in fairly short order. We were fortunate in being able to find homes for all the kittens and for Amelia as well, since we didn't think that it was fair to a blind cat for her to have to deal with a household with dogs as well.

Animal Haven isn't a dog shelter but they have a few dogs who have been left at the doorstep, so to speak. The dogs are baladi dogs, the street/desert/farm mutts that are ubiquitous here. They are also the smartest, most loyal, healthiest dogs that anyone could find and make the best possible watchdogs. I have two who patrol the farm every evening while my terriers find the best spots on the bed. The dogs are also given enough room, cleanliness, food and attention to make them delightful companions. I spoke to Noura after my visit suggesting that the students could come to help care for the animals, repair benches and baskets, and perhaps to do some rudimentary dog training to help make the dogs more adoptable. We'll see how things work out, but this is really a wonderful effort and hopefully more people will find their way out to adopt cats and the odd dog from Animal Haven.

copyright 2009 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

Watching out for Influenza A (H1N1)

Having watched the drop in trade in pork (a perfectly reasonable meat when prepared properly) and the slaughter of many innocent pigs, the WHO has changed the name of this version of influenza to the slightly less inflammatory Influenza A (H1N1). Probably a case of closing the barn door after inviting the butcher in, however. My condolences to the pigs who really have nothing at all to do with anything. No pigs have been ill from the erstwhile "swine flu" and forcing the slaughter of them is a serious hardship for the zebaleen of Mokattam who are one of the best recycling services in the world.

copyright 2009 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

Issuing The Pigs Their Wings

It was announced on international news that the Egyptian government would force farmers to slaughter all their pigs to prevent swine flu. This is almost as intelligent as Paris Hilton telling people that she wasn't worried about it because she doesn't eat pork. The pigs are irrelevant at this stage. The flu is transmitted from human contact and according to some WHO officials isn't nearly the threat that the bird flu is. I suspect the combination of the word "swine", the cultural taboo on pork, and the almost universal ignorance among bureuacrats of how disease is spread is almost irresistible. There are quite a number of modern, properly run pig farms in Egypt...just as we have quite a few properly run examples of almost anything here...except maybe government officials.

copyright 2009 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

It's A Dog's Life...or Death

I have a regular set of news alerts for stories that mention Cairo, Giza, and Egypt. It's always interesting to see what people are saying about us. This morning my alert included the news story from Al Ahram that can be read by clicking the title which links to it. Al Ahram is the primary government newspaper, and it publishes a weekly English summary as well as an online version. I was actually rather surprised to read about the petitions that have been collected online to try to get the government of Giza and Cairo to stop killing street dogs and to use a more humane and ultimately useful means of control. No one in Egypt questions the need to control the stray and feral animals in Egypt, but there is considerable debate on the way that it should be done.

The Al Ahram article provides a good discussion of the issue. There is no question that something must be done for these animals, but at this point there are a number of groups who are trying to provide neutering and vaccinations for them. This is a vast improvement over the way things were when we first moved to Egypt. In the late 80's it was hard to even find a vet, much less animal rights organisations...and in Egypt animal rights does not mean the sort of strangeness one finds with PETA or some of the other extreme groups. In Egypt, people who talk about animal rights are really talking about the chance for a halfway decent life. The fact that we do kill and eat animals is not subject to debate. Life and death are more immediate and accepted here.

Unfortunately, there is less understanding of the needs of animals to lead good lives. One of the things that the article doesn't mention is the need for education of the general population about how the environment consists of humans AND everything else. The dogs, cats, weasels, rats, mice, foxes, bats, owls, lizards, snakes and geckos, to name a few species, inhabit our cities and villages with us....and without them, our lives would be very different. During my first years in Alexandria I was horrified to find our staff killing geckos whenever they found them and I asked why on earth they would do something like that. I was told that the folk wisdom is that geckos spit poison into salt dishes so they must be dispatched. People who work with me now get constant lessons about the need for animals such as geckos and garden snakes to help control insects and other pests. There truly isn't a basic understanding that the other creatures inhabiting our space have to be considered as well.

As deplorable as this massive lack is, I can understand a lot of it. Until very recently, a huge proportion of Egypt's population was rural and they were subsistence farmers who struggled to make ends meet. There isn't much time to think about the quality of life for donkeys, dogs, and cats when you are simply scrambling to feed your family. Medical care for animals was sketchy at best even when I moved here in the 80's. Most vets took care of dairy cows or chickens and there was perhaps one small animal vet in Alexandria...and even he knew more about chickens or rabbits than cats. I knew more than he did. Most farmers rarely see a vet and know almost nothing about the animals that they use. When George, our donkey, was born I had some fairly knowledgeable grooms tell me that we should tie strings around his legs above the knees and tie his ears together over his head. After I picked myself up off the ground from laughing at them, I absolutely refused, pointing out that we never tie a foal's legs to strenthen them, nor do we tie their ears to ensure that they are upright. They were rather amazed to see that a donkey who goes without these essential steps not only grew up strong and straight, but that worming and trimming him from an early age gave us a donkey that is generally admired greatly for his size and strength. As he still isn't four years old, no one has ridden him either, so his back is still intact and very strong from his pulling work. Most donkeys are ridden far too young, destroying their spine early and leading to an early death. A ten year old donkey is old in Egypt. I expect George and Daisy to outlive me.

The missing link, of course, in all of this is education. We can hope that some of the television shows that people see will help a bit, but I'm not holding my breath. In school systems that rely on memorization and rote learning, there isn't much hope for teaching either. Perhaps the various animal rescue/rights groups will be able to make some inroads on education. For myself, I just do what I can with the resources available to me. Anyone who admires George gets a lecture on the need to let a donkey or horse grow up before being ridden. My neighbour, Am Ramadan, however, continues to have a heartbreaking string of two and under two year old horses going through his "training" program prior to selling them. We wormed everyone on the farm yesterday...horses, donkeys, mules, goats, sheep, and gamoosa. When I insisted on doing the babies as well, the boys were shocked but I pointed out that they will grow much better if they aren't carrying a parasite load. Hmmm, novel idea. And the goat and donkey pen does good business as a petting zoo/instructional setting for both visiting city kids and some of the village kids who come to play. This way, I figure that I'm reaching some of the children with a different idea about how we live in this world. If everyone does one small thing, we can actually make a difference.

copyright 2007 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani