Gulf News takes a look into the methods being used to control the growing population of stray cats in Dubai.
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00:00With the population of stray cats growing in Dubai, people have mixed views about how
00:10to deal with these animals.
00:15The municipality is taking steps to control the rising numbers of strays but has met with
00:20criticism over some of its methods.
00:28There are also reports of civilians trying to eliminate suspected strays.
00:33As far as the Dubai municipality campaign is concerned, I think that they're doing the
00:41right thing in some ways but they're going about it in the wrong way.
00:44I understand how they're feeling.
00:47We have got far too many street cats but I feel that there are other options to deal
00:52with it.
00:53And the way it's been going about is saying that there's rabies and they're causing diseases.
00:56It's actually causing a bit of a panic.
00:59We're getting lots of phone calls about people saying they don't want their cats anymore.
01:03It's actually inciting people to be vicious and cruel to animals because they're frightened
01:07of them.
01:08So you're going to have kids beating them with sticks.
01:09We've had a few dead kittens turn up with broken legs and things like that.
01:14So I think that's what worries us.
01:17It needs to be dealt with in a different way and education is the first way.
01:25Our programme has been approved by WESPA.
01:29WESPA is the World Society for Animal Protection.
01:32The healthiest and youngest cats will be subjected to the neutralisation and spaying programme
01:42and then after spaying and neutralisation we return them back to the same area.
01:48Because we know that scientifically every area, every residential area should be occupied
01:55by cats.
01:56For the diseased and aged cats we will euthanise them.
02:01Poisoning, bad treating, mistreating, everything, all these practices will go under the umbrella
02:11of the animal welfare or bad treatment of the animal.
02:19Some members of the community have come together to reach out to these animals, providing them
02:24with food and helping them to get medical attention.
02:27I'm feeding the cats for more than six, seven years and we hold them and we literally hug
02:34them but what municipality is saying is not true because they don't give us any disease.
02:40By now I would have got the disease and they are not vaccinated but still we have not got
02:45anything.
02:46But I think what municipality is trying to do is scare the people, which is not true.
02:52They should give the right picture to the people that they are harmless and if you don't
02:58want to touch it's okay but just leave them by themselves.
03:01To think that they will kill them or euthanise them, I think that is being unfair.
03:08They should just leave them.
03:10These poor animals are not dangerous for the people and they're not doing anything harm
03:18for us.
03:19I'm doing this feeding of cats for almost a year now and until now I'm still, I didn't
03:25get anything.
03:26Dubai's stray cats do play a part in city life, so finding a humane way to control their
03:32numbers will only benefit us.
03:34Sunita Menon, Gulf News.