Animal rescuers in Qatar are calling on the government to establish laws that protect the lives of all creatures in the country, including stray animals.
A number of Qatar-based animal rescuers and activists stormed the internet on Tuesday over a picture showing a cat hanged in a public highway in the Al Sadd area.
Animal welfare advocates in Doha shared the picture of the shocking incident in which an unknown individual killed a white cat by hanging.
Doha News has opted not to share the gruesome image.
“This is an act of a psycho who is living amongst us. This cruelty should stop against these poor beings,” an animal rescuer and advocate said in a post on Instagram in response to the horrific incident.
“If this can happen to this stray, it could happen to the people too,” she warned on Tuesday, calling for the establishment of an animal welfare law to protect stray animals from such acts.
“This is a serious matter and cannot be set aside.”
The incident was met with public outrage and demands for the government to take immediate action.
One Qatari animal rescue page confirmed in a story on Tuesday that one of the municipalities had reached out to them, noting information regarding the incident has been shared with authorities who launched an investigation into the matter.
“We do not need a law to prevent such violations that offend us as humans and our nation. Just an official statement from authorities would be enough to prevent mentally ill people from committing such acts,” Klaabna page said in a statement on Instagram.
The page’s admins, as well as many other activists who shared the story, raised concern over the seriousness of the issue, pointing out that the presence of such “psychos” could risk people’s safety.
An unidentified woman found the cat hanged in the streets of Al Sadd and documented the incident to plea for help online.
The awful news comes a month after Qatari authorities sent an eviction notice to one of the country’s few animal shelters that protect stray cats and dogs from such criminal acts.
Read also: PAWS animal rescue to shut down shelter after ‘eviction notice’
Qatar’s most prominent animal rescue organisation, PAWS Rescue, once protected and helped home thousands of stray cats and dogs across the country.
The shelter is still scrambling to find another location to house hundreds of sheltered animals that are still awaiting adoption before they will be forced to evict their current premises.
