Tuesday 29 July 2008

Cats and Dogs in Amman

Couple of weeks ago I was looking around the city for a place to buy my 9 year old cousin a dog, a Pomeranian or a Beagle, a small Terrier, apparently they stopped selling cats and dogs in Amman because of mistreatment and the bad conditions dogs are left in shops without vaccination and proper nutrition, 10 days ago, GAM shut a place @ the first circle that is something like 1m x 1m without windows except the entrance door, for a man who used to lock up cats in an upper storage room that is reached by a ladder and used to give male cats shots for reproduction, that place really stinked and had too many old cats and too many sick cats and he used to give out kittens for food or donations so he can breed more cats, i really didnt understand what was he doing. So we headed to the humane center for animal welfare in Ghamadan to see if there are any set for adoption since its the only place, all the dogs were of mixed breeds, they are fine and happy, we found a month old puppy but its the kind that will grow big with sharp teeth, most of them are suitable for guarding and need spaces but not for apartment indoors, there are cats there too, lots of them, playful, all are clean and vaccinated and are set for adoption if anyone is up to it, what caught my attention is that they allow you to adopt only after they do a surgery for the pet so they won't reproduce and the aim is to minimize the numbers of stray dogs and cats in the country, i don't know how much i agree to this, in addition to that, they can add a microchip under the dogs' skin that has all the dogs information in case it was stolen or was "internationally" lost. its a good idea but inserting data chips under skin for alive species freaks me out plus these chips can become tracable wherever you are.

Once we went to il Fheis and i found a Shepard nearby who had four dogs, they were really doing the job of aligning the cheep on the field but all were with no ears, i asked him why, he said " so they won't sleep! " [!!!!!] Dogs ears' are sensitive and covering it helps them sleep, and then i remembered how cats and dogs can move their ears if they didn't want to move their bodies when they hear something half interesting, hmm. stop the ear/tail chopping, nail root removing and reproduction surgeries..

i used to trim the nails for my cat after the pink edge so they won't bleed, but then he stopped being able to climb trees or stand for himself against other cat fights so i stopped the trimming too. everything in our bodies is there for a reason. i guess.

There was this animal at the center, my uncle said its a gerbil, it looks really weird, this one has big rabbit ears and a long curled tail.


10 comments:

aboSamoor said...

I can not understand how can people minimize their family size due to the expected expenses, and in the same time they don't mind to spend money on getting pets. Even if my first argument does not hold for all cases, I think it's not logical to spend money on cats, dogs, fishes ... , while our brothers in world dies everyday because of hunger, diseases and wars. I don't think that cats or dogs will do the same to their species !!! Yes, you can use animals to play some useful roles,like guarding and producing meat, but we know that Amman houses do not need such services. These animals were not created to live with humans, so please just let them to live alone.

Tala said...

There is some truth to what you said, dogs and cats were domesticated and "Humanized" to their current form of being, but the friendship of the Dog/Cat as i see it now is something amazing compared to who humans are perceived by wolves.

"They think that early humans domesticated wild wolves to make them useful companions and work animals. Since that time, selective breeding has produced the many varieties of domestic dogs, some of which are very un-wolflike in appearance and habit"

"Canis familiaris is the scientific name for the domesticated dog. He belongs to the same genus as the wolf, Canis lupus. Scientists, after many years of controversy, now agree that wolves were domesticated about 12,000 years ago by various Indian tribes throughout the world"

"Although wolves and dogs are both members of the Canid family, wolves rarely bark"

but the dominance of humans on earth and the changes man did to nature, requires that humans preserve the existence of other species including domesticated animals and the wilds.

aboSamoor said...

I love this man :)
http://www.alrai.com/pages.php?opinion_id=8786

Anonymous said...

I came to Amman at the end of last year. One thing impresses me a lot is the wild cats here. There're cats everywhere in every corner of the city. The cats near my house like to search for food in the trash cans and sometimes they come to people's houses for food and shelter.
They're lovely and they do no harm to people in the neighbourhood. I do believe animals have the same right to live as human beings, and they let us know more about love and tolerence.

I hope you find the dog finally. And by the way, do you know where i can find an animal adoption certer in Amman? My email is:
cleochu416@yahoo.com.cn
Thank you very much.

Mustafa Alia said...

i was wondering if its possible to give me a place to adopt a nice dog from mostly for security.. my e-mail is high_off_life_83@yahoo.com and my phone number is 0788-140-156 and 079-733-4468.. thank you soo much for all your help

Tala said...

Anon, Mustafa

"I do believe animals have the same right to live as human beings, and they let us know more about love and tolerence."

ofcourse they do

Thank you for passing by my blog :) as for the adoption center, its located at the airport road and the center is in Ghamadan Park, next to the dunes club, this is the location of wikimapia

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=31.8564093&lon=35.8928061&z=17&l=0&m=b&search=%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9%20%D9%85%D9%84%D9%83%20%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86

Anonymous said...

In amman, even cats go wild. I gave up on the middle east 50 years ago.

Good luck to all of you still there.

Anonymous said...

Even cats go wild in jordan, I gave up on the middle east a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

Just to let you know, the animal in the picture is not a gerbil... It is a chinchilla!! a very delicate creature.

Anonymous said...

The animal is a chinchilla, they are not to get wet or they will get pneumonia. You cannot pick them up around the stomach area because they are so fragile their ribs will break. They live 10-20 years if taken good care of. To bathe them, they have a special volcanic dust they roll around in, don't let the word dust confuse you, it isn't dirty. To pick them up, grab the base of their tails. Their tails are very strong. Make sure your uncle takes good care because they are extinct ):