El Andalous - More Monkey Business

 

Monkey on the Loose

Drama is part of everyday life here (even though I find my own life to be thankfully quiet and peaceful).

Animal welfare – or lack of it – is quite a big theme over here among expats. Wild dogs and cats roam the streets of Hurghada. Often the Egyptian solution is to lay poison or take the animals away and shoot them. This is done unofficially and many people’s pets get killed in the process as well, thus doubling the pain of the initial cruelty.

There are a couple of charitable organisations who will neuter animals if you catch them and bring them in. I believe the animals are then tagged and let loose in the wild again (unless someone adopts – FaceBook is full of adverts for people to adopt the stray cats or dogs). The issue got worse with coronavirus as people left Egypt to return to their home countries and dumped their pets to fend for themselves in the streets.

I can’t remember how much I’ve written about this before. A cat was found locked in a boot of a car and left to die. A dog was kept on the top of our roof in its own feces and with nothing to eat or drink. Two monkeys were kept in a tiny cage over by the boats on the pier in the full sun in the middle of summer with nothing to drink.

A recent incident has again been to do with monkeys. It was noticed that monkeys were being kept in a cage in one of the unused shops (in the dark). Once people complained, instead of rectifying the issue, management just closed the door. Out of sight, out of mind.

A number of people went to complain, but nothing was done. The people complaining tried to find out who was responsible, but all of a sudden, none of the staff could speak English. The culprit was the owner’s son, who is basically their employer.

Another person went directly to culprit to say she would call the police. The guy became very aggressive and threatened to kill her and her dog if she did anything.

Eventually, another owner stormed in saying that she had personal connections to the head of police and if they didn’t act, she would go straight to him. Finally, the monkeys were removed. It’s not exactly a solution, but it was something.