Don't buy a dog in Oman - another example of how badly Animals are treated in Oman

I know, Y magazine did a great bust on the helpless animal concentration and torture camp , oops, er, "Zoo", a couple of months ago. Readers may note that the "Zoo" is apparently still open for business and, so I hear, was even threatening Y with a law suit for having the audacity to actually publish the facts of their disgusting mistreatment of animals. After-all, it doesn't seem to be illegal in Oman to do that to animals.

But I received a nasty report on how those cute little puppies in the pet stores are obtained and treated. And it's mainly our own fault.


Photo: The cute puppy from the Sabco pet shop, "Creatures", that was about to die a horrific death a few days later.


Omani regulations require that a dog imported for sale is at least 4 months old. 16 weeks. And, naturally, that it's had its shots against common (and very nasty and usually fatal) doggy diseases, like distemper.

The problem is that this regulation is subverted as a matter of standard operating procedure by pet shops providing fake documentation. Now, while providing such false documents carries a penalty under Omani law of 3 to 10 years in jail, this ain't happening, naturally.

This is the story I received from a reliable source.

A fairly traumatic time in purchasing a new puppy from the pet shop in Sabco Centre.

To cut a long story short, the puppy was transferred from the shop to the vet clinic last week for some jabs etc. We arranged to pick it up today, but when we got there we were told it was about to die from Parvovirus. In 3 days it went from a lively, playful pup to a bag of bones dying in its own vomit – horrible to see.

Of course puppies do get illnesses and some do not survive. However, the way in which this pet shop has ignored the basic rules is shocking.

I attach herewith the "Pet Passport" we were given when we bought her, and the actual Kennel Club Reg / Birth Certificate.

The "Pet Passport" shows a DOB of 25 Nov 2009. The real birth certificate states the CORRECT DOB as 10 Jan 2010.

When I initially queried the difference, we were told that puppies are not allowed to be imported younger than 4 months of age, so the paperwork is fiddled. This seems to be a perfectly acceptable practice as far as the pet shop was concerned.

The pet shop... is complicit in breaking the rules and putting these animals health at risk.

The vet said that this puppy (and many others) was exported / imported at far too young an age. Also, its vaccinations were given far too young to be effective. (In fact, they would probably have proved harmful). This pet shop has always had a bad reputation when it comes to animal welfare. However, lately we thought they had improved.

People need to know that our puppy is suffering a horrible death covered in its own excrement just because they ignored the rules, and put money first.

Our dog had her DHPP Vaccine (Distemper, Hepatitis, Parainfluenza and Parvovirus) at 2 WEEKS of age (on 25/1/10 as indicated on the pet passport). The following states that it should only be given at 6 weeks+ to start taking over the maternal antibodies.

...

The high demand for pedigree puppies is fuelling this trade, which can be avoided if more people who want a dog approach the local Animal Rescue Charities, who have many dozen dogs at foster homes.

There is a very reputable, well run Pet Shop in Dubai who discuss at length these sort of problems in the UAE pet scene. These problems are:
- importing too young
- obtaining dogs from horrific "puppy farms" in the 3rd world (in the case above the dog was 'farmed' in Thailand)
- not effectively quarantining dogs before selling them
- not looking after the animals properly.

Of course, their dogs cost a lot more, as all that good treatment and European sourcing ain't free. Around 1,200 rials each. Our correspondent's dog from the Sabco death camp was (a still rather pricey) 650 rials. As is often the case in Oman, we tend to do things on the cheap, and suffer the results.

People. STOP BUYING IMPORTED DOGS*.

Just STOP!

There are thousands of abandoned dogs in need of a loving home. If you must have a dog (and do remember this is a Muslim country and populated by people who are generally not big doggie fans) get one of these. Contact any vet.

If you simply MUST have a fancy pure bread dog, import it yourself, perhaps through these nice people in Dubai. And always make sure it hasn't come from some nasty 3rd world breeding farm.

I know our dog buyer has learnt a lesson. But I'll be the first to point out what an idiot he was buying this dog in the first place. Ms Dragon would lock him in a cage and infect him with parvovirus if she had her want.


* and stop buying those long haired fancy cats too. Who does that??? Haven't you noticed it gets rather *%&^% hot in this country?