To be honest I don't think the inspections actually care about animal welfare. From what I can gather, they go and have a look at the cleanliness of the Souq in general, and note the smell, but nothing is done about individual animals.
There are CITES protected animals there with no paperwork, dead animals lying in cages and buckets, animals wearing clothes and dyed multi-colours, cats with eye infections, dogs with ringworm, animals in cramped cages with no food or water, and nothing gets done about it.
QAWS would love to sit with the inspection people to help put together requirements for the welfare of the animals and help the authorities get on top of this.
We're not un-realistic, we know we'll never get the souq shut down, but if we can limit the animals allowed to be sold (no wild or illegal animals, dogs or cats), and help get better living arrangements for the animals that can be sold, it will improve the whole atmosphere and there will be a lot less complaints and sick animals.
To be honest I don't think the inspections actually care about animal welfare. From what I can gather, they go and have a look at the cleanliness of the Souq in general, and note the smell, but nothing is done about individual animals.
There are CITES protected animals there with no paperwork, dead animals lying in cages and buckets, animals wearing clothes and dyed multi-colours, cats with eye infections, dogs with ringworm, animals in cramped cages with no food or water, and nothing gets done about it.
QAWS would love to sit with the inspection people to help put together requirements for the welfare of the animals and help the authorities get on top of this.
We're not un-realistic, we know we'll never get the souq shut down, but if we can limit the animals allowed to be sold (no wild or illegal animals, dogs or cats), and help get better living arrangements for the animals that can be sold, it will improve the whole atmosphere and there will be a lot less complaints and sick animals.