Call for creating government facility for animal welfare

KUWAIT: Five puppies ended up at the Royal Veterinary Hospital in Rai after they were tossed and thrown into a garbage bin by students at a local school. A video of the incident, filmed by one of the students, went viral in Kuwait earlier this week. A local animal rescue team, Become a Foster Guardian (BFG), along with other local animal protection groups Rescue, Adopt, Foster and Help the Animal Kuwait, worked with the school principal to rescue the pups and send them for treatment.

Anwar Jawhar, BFG group volunteer, said the school promised to pay the hospital bills of the five puppies of around KD 270. According to Jawhar, the students found the puppies inside the school early morning on Monday. The school does not know where they came from, but according to Jawhar, they could be pups of stray dogs left there by their mother.

"The kids are clearly making fun of the dogs in the video. They were playing but did not know they were hurting the puppies. It is a cruel thing to do, but it also reflects the way these kids are raised at home," Jawhar said. According to him, when the headmaster of the school learned about the incident, he was deeply concerned and the school immediately took the necessary action. "The puppies were taken to the vet hospital in Rai by the schoolboys who were seen playing with them," he said.

"The boys said the mocking was unintentional; they were not laughing in the video because they were witnessing the dogs being tortured. According to them, they were laughing because some of the boys were scared of the puppies. So, I think the moral lesson is that the government should take some serious steps on running more awareness campaigns on how to treat animals. Secondly, we have to consider having more facilities for animal welfare. We have facilities, but they are in the desert - too far away," Jawhar said.

He pointed out that Kuwait should create a separate department for animal welfare. "Look how the animals are sadly treated at the pet market. Our behavior mirrors the way how we respect human and animal rights in the country. Stray dogs are killed through poisoning - they die a slow death by this inhumane method of killing animals and no one cares."

Kuwait has no official, licensed animal shelter, as the only one closed down in December. Kuwait, along with other Gulf Cooperation Council states, has seen a growing rise in cases of animal abuse and mistreatment, often videotaped and shared across social media. At the same time, a growing community of animal rescuers and activists has emerged to protect animals, but it receives no government support.

By Ben Garcia