It's just a bunch of unscrupulous store owners who see that the locals' value whatever is expensive and associated with wealth in the west.
I had a Qatari girlfriend here who once bought a Persian kitten for a few thousand riyals, then proceeded to keep it outdoors (in the Doha heat!!) and feed it table scraps... She only wanted it because it looked "pretty" and "fluffy" and because it cost so much (that, to her, meant that it must be better!).
Don't support stores and individuals who do this. If you desperately want a pure bred animal, wait until you return to your home country and purchase one there from a reputable dealer. Otherwise, like Scarlett said, adopt an animal from QAWS here that needs help.
By purchasing that cat you saw, you'd be helping it for sure, but you're also encouraging the store owner to get more and more cats like this, not tend to their medical conditions or treat them well...and in the end that hurts more cats than the one you'd be helping.
Animal trafficking (like human trafficking) is a profitable business here in Qatar. I can't tell you how many local families I have seen over the years who keep large cats (think lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc.) as pets, have chimpanzees and other large primates -- all for the novelty of saying that they have one. Then as it grows and becomes unmanageable, they lock it up in a cage too small to move around in...sad really. The government needs to do more about animal welfare here.
"Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise."
-- Maya Angelou
It's just a bunch of unscrupulous store owners who see that the locals' value whatever is expensive and associated with wealth in the west.
I had a Qatari girlfriend here who once bought a Persian kitten for a few thousand riyals, then proceeded to keep it outdoors (in the Doha heat!!) and feed it table scraps... She only wanted it because it looked "pretty" and "fluffy" and because it cost so much (that, to her, meant that it must be better!).
Don't support stores and individuals who do this. If you desperately want a pure bred animal, wait until you return to your home country and purchase one there from a reputable dealer. Otherwise, like Scarlett said, adopt an animal from QAWS here that needs help.
By purchasing that cat you saw, you'd be helping it for sure, but you're also encouraging the store owner to get more and more cats like this, not tend to their medical conditions or treat them well...and in the end that hurts more cats than the one you'd be helping.
Animal trafficking (like human trafficking) is a profitable business here in Qatar. I can't tell you how many local families I have seen over the years who keep large cats (think lions, tigers, cheetahs, etc.) as pets, have chimpanzees and other large primates -- all for the novelty of saying that they have one. Then as it grows and becomes unmanageable, they lock it up in a cage too small to move around in...sad really. The government needs to do more about animal welfare here.
"Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise."
-- Maya Angelou