Animals in Qatar

I am not an ardent fan of animals in Qatar.  It seems that no matter which animals you talk about, most of them have hardship lives.  The exception is probably the Arabian horse - at the top of the pyramid in more ways than one.  Firstly, only the wealthy can really afford them, and therefore, they are pampered and cossetted as the fine race horses that they are.  The stables are probably better equipped and better looking than most of the compounds for the unskilled labourers who live in this country.

Falcons are also at the top of the ladder - revered and admired by Qataris and seen as prized possessions of the few.  They are very, very expensive - ranging from about US$10,000 to well over $100,000 each so I am told.   The awful thing, in my opinion, is that the ones that are on sale at the souq have hoods over their heads for nearly every minute of the day.  Why do they do that??  I have been there at feeding time and the hoods are not even removed then.  I was a bit surprised that they were fed chicken!  My goodness, if only the falcons knew.  But then I think they are trained in the desert to attack pigeons etc, so maybe it is quite normal.  Did you know that only falcons are allowed in the flight cabins of Qatar Airways? - no other animals allowed as they are seen as unclean.

Camels are of two classes mainly - the racing kind that are well-looked after, almost at the same status as the horse.  And then the other kind - food on the menu kind - never did get my head around this one though - always feel a little squeamish, and for inexplicable reasons, moved on to choose beef or lamb...go figure?  Of course, there is also the poor "beast of burden" camel - it is still used by the Bedouin as a pack animal, but more typically today, the unfortunate soul plods wearily along behind a rope held by barefooted, thobed local, with a tourist on his hump and other tourists standing around taking photos.  I have a strange soft spot for the camel - love the eyelashes.  

Talking about animals at the souq - my pet peeve are the poor little bunnies, love birds, kittens and puppies that are dyed pink, green, blue, or yellow to attract the buyer.  There have been newspaper articles about this practice, but to no avail - it still keeps on.

All other animals serve only a utilitarian purpose - they are there to be eaten or used in some form of animal husbandry out in the desert farms - milk from camels and goats, meat from sheep and lambs, and all their wool is used too.   Cattle are also in evidence, but not in huge numbers - mostly due to lack of water and grazing of course.  This meat is mostly imported from Australia and New Zealand.

And you already have my view on cats and dogs!  Poor hapless things having the misfortune to be born in Qatar!  How I wish we could do something about it.

There you have it.