The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Featured image via www.totallygoldens.com

It’s common knowledge that animal welfare is a pressing issue in Egypt. Pet shops around Cairo are a difficult sight for any animal-lover. The puppies, kittens, and sometimes exotic animals such as monkeys often look dehydrated, depressed, and in overall bad health. They’re put on display in cages and given inadequate care, if any at all. Even worse, this sight can make you feel incredibly helpless.

We’ve all wondered what we can possibly do to help the situation. Unfortunately, we can’t take home every single animal in need that we see (no matter how badly we wish we could), but we can all take small steps to address this problem. Luckily, there are groups and communities out there that make this task much easier.

Pet Shop Watch is a Facebook group started earlier this summer by Arielle al-Bagory when she heard about a husky which died from heat exhaustion after being left outside in a cage by pet shop owners. She and Leila Gheita gathered a community of others who have the same passion for animal welfare, and since then the page has grown to include over a thousand members.

Pet Shop Watch provides updates on conditions of animals at pet shops around Cairo, and members make trips to these shops and demand better conditions, such as fresh water for the animals, and to be brought indoors during hot days. These efforts have made differences, with some of the pet shops meeting the group’s demands, but there is still a long way to go. While some pet shops making small improvements is indeed a big step, it would be nice to see these pet shops disappear altogether, and instead ensure that everyone adopts animals from the some of the amazing animal adoption initiatives in Egypt, such as SPARE or ESMA.

Join Pet Shop Watch to be a part of this amazing movement!