AR-News: US) Jordan's Neglected Animals Get Help from Charity

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Reuters
Sat, May 08, 2004
 By Laith Abou-Ragheb 
AMMAN (Reuters) - A group of children rush into a pet shop in one of Amman's 
up-market shopping districts and peer into a small, cramped cage holding a 
baboon. 
 
The youngsters squeal with delight as the clearly agitated animal leaps in 
frustration from one metal bar to the next. 
"It's not cruel keeping it like this," insists the shop owner. 
The two-year-old baboon, probably brought into Jordan from its natural 
habitat in the Arabian Peninsula, is on sale for 400 dinars ($560). 
Next to the baboon is an even smaller cage containing a litter of black and 
white puppies that are practically lying on top of each other. Further along, a 
Siamese cat claws at the cardboard flooring of its pen not much larger than a 
shoebox. 
The pet shop will continue to trade as Jordan has no animal protection laws 
and because the notion of animal welfare is low on the priority list for people 
in this part of the world. 
Jordanians are often mystified at how sentimental Westerners can be toward 
animals. Few people in the kingdom keep pets. Dogs, for example, are widely seen 
as dirty and unhygienic. 
But attitudes are slowly changing, according to the Society for the 
Protection of Animals (SPANA), a charity that works in Jordan as well as the rest of 
the Middle East and North Africa. 
"It's important to stress that animals suffer here through ignorance and not 
through malice," Dr Ghazi Mostafa, director of the charity's Jordanian branch, 
told Reuters. 
"We are gradually helping to educate people to take better care of animals 
and to respect them more." 
SPANA has worked in the kingdom for the past 10 years. It offers free 
veterinary care through its four clinics -- two of which are mobile and can reach 
remote villages. 




full story:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=753&e=1&u=/nm/2004050
9/sc_nm/jordan_animals_dc 

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    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
tyranny. The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they 
SUFFER?" 
Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 



         
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