Dubai Senior Dog Project urges people to adopt older dogs

The cases of people abandoning their pets have become increasingly common especially during the summer.

It’s a dog’s life!

With an increasing number of pets being abandoned, non-profit group Dubai Senior Dog Project urges people to adopt older dogs instead of buying new pups

Paulita, Louise, Sophie Palmieri, Hayley Strifler and Olga Krumova with their dog Zuki. — KT photos by Shihab

Eight years ago, Olga Krumova and her husband rescued and adopted Zuki from a dumpster near Al Ain. Krumova was being treated for leukemia then, and Zuki, a German shepherd-mixed breed dog, became a source of great relief to their family during such tough times. “Zuki is a beautiful soul. He has bought our family so much happiness in the last eight years,” Krumova, a Ukrainian national, told Khaleej Times.

Unfortunately, Krumova’s husband (name withheld at request) suffered a stroke about six months ago and has been in coma since. After paying off her husband’s heavy medical bills and health expenses, the family could not afford to keep Zuki at home anymore.

The Krumova family had no other choice than to give the dog up for adoption. Fortunately, with the help of the Bin Kitty initiative, the not-for-profit Dubai Senior Dog Project (DSDP) and social worker Paulita Barreto, Zuki found a new home with the Palmieri family, who are based in Jumeirah Park, Dubai.

“When we saw a post on Facebook about Zuki needing a permanent home, my husband and I felt it would be a good idea to bring him over. Something in me just pulled me towards him. He is such a kind and gentle dog that we decided to keep him for ourselves. He has such soulful eyes. We are very happy with him and I think from a family of three, we are family of four now,” said Louise Palmeiri, a British national. Though it was a happy ending for Zuki, this is usually not the case with most older dogs in the city. According to social workers, dogs and other pets are being increasingly ill-treated and left by themselves. Animal behavioural specialists said cases of people abandoning their pets have become increasingly common especially during the summer.

Many of these abandoned pets usually end up having to fend for themselves, and some are eventually picked up by either social workers or municipality workers. “It is very sad and common occurrence and it is very difficult for agencies like ours to take care of so many dogs.

Our organisation adopts a maximum of 5 dogs at a given time, especially because many of the dogs that come to us need to be given a lot of medical care in the beginning, and also because we don’t have shelters and have to keep these dogs in foster homes,” said Hayley Strifler, an Australian national and owner of the charity DSDP. Experts in the line of work suggest that people who are interested in keeping dogs can look to adopting older dogs that’ve been abandoned, instead of buying new pups.

Krumova said: “My husband is a British national and because it is too expensive for us here, I sent my sons back home to the UK. Even though Zuki has a passport, we cannot afford to take him to the UK.” She said: “It broke my heart to let him go, but unfortunately, we had no other choice and I know Zuki will be happy with his new family.”

Strifler, who is also a dog behavioural analyst said: “When I checked on Zuki, I found that he has excellent temperament. The usual temperament tests done on dogs are to see if they are safe with small children, small dogs, and other animals.”

Re-homing dogs

“The usual circumstances that a lot of the dogs are left behind are because expatriates return to their home country for medical or financial reasons and they cannot take their dogs with them. We have so little resources to support them financially and we’ve had dogs in the age group of 7 to 17 years. People leave the dogs in their backyard, drop them by the road side, desert or many of them are left in shelters. We basically re-home the dogs,” added Strifler.

The DSDP gets requests to take on dogs everyday and according to Strifler, many perfectly healthy dogs are usually put to sleep incase they are not found a decent home.

“I don’t take the responsibility of a dog everyday, but we get requests to find home for abandoned dogs everyday. Many of the dogs that come in initially are really sick. It is worst during the holiday season, especially Ramadan and Christmas. It seems that is when people are most cruel to animals. I’ve noticed the trend more commonly among expatriates, over locals,” she added.

DSDP suggests that people need to pre-plan and have a savings for things like this.

“People can stop supporting puppy mills and can instead adopt older abandoned dogs. They have a better temperament and a fixed personality, so nurturing them would be much easier. It is a very slow process and it takes months to find an older dog a home. The process of finding a dog is very slow,” said Strifler. dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

5 reasons to adopt older dogs

• You would already know about their personalities

• Less work to have an older dog, because many of them have already been provided with training and medical care until they are healthy enough to be re-homed

• Don’t need as much exercise and are happy to be left on their own

• It is suitable to place these dogs in an apartment, unlike younger dogs who need more space to run about

• It is tough to get an older dog adopted. If they don’t find a home, they get put to sleep. You are saving a life if you adopt an older dog

• UAE