News
Sinai: The Dogs of Dahab
February 22, 2008, 5:54PM MT
By Sharon St. Joan
Saving hundreds of dogs on the shores of the Red Sea
Saving hundreds of dogs on the shores of the Red Sea
Dahab is in Sinai, about 50 miles northeast of Sharm el Sheikh on the Red Sea.
By Susie Nassar, Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals
Janet Johnson first arrived in Port Said, Egypt, on a stop from Turkey, where she had been working as a crew member on a boat. She traveled to Cairo where she worked for a time as a teacher. A job as a writer for a travel guide first took her to Dahab, thereby followed by various other casual jobs.
Her first encounter with the 'Dogs of Dahab' started one day when a dog followed her home and into her garden and insisted on staying put! In 2001 Janet made the decision to stay in Dahab after witnessing a huge poisoning campaign on the beach at Dahab.
Just one dog amongst the scores of dogs on the beach that day survived, and Janet made the decision to take him home with her, and try to save as many dogs as she could from being poisoned. During this period Dahab was very much a casual backpacker type of tourism place, but very soon a big tourism development plan was to be put into place by the Government. One of the first steps taken in this big tourism development plan was to rid Dahab of its dogs, and hundreds of dogs were poisoned yet again.
Up to that point Janet was just an ordinary pet loving woman traveling for adventure, but after witnessing the cruel and senseless killings she became a woman with a mission -- a mission to try and save the dogs of Dahab. She pleaded with the local Government representatives to stop the poisonings and emailed international organizations to send teams of vets to do sterilization programs to curb the overpopulation. When the organizations failed to assist her and follow up on her plea to set up sterilization programs, Janet lost credibility with the Government, the poisoning campaigns continued, and Janet's determination increased. Inevitably the numbers of dogs saved by Janet increased. She even learnt how to save dogs after they had been poisoned by using a cocktail of drugs (even though she has no previous medical training).
After a never ending struggle, in 2002 Janet decided she had had enough and was about to return to England, but then a terrible massacre (by poisoning again) occurred on the beach in broad daylight in front of many tourists. Government officials walked along the beach throwing poisoned food to the hungry dogs. Janet once again stepped in and saved the remaining dogs by transferring them to four 'safe houses'. Once the numbers had crept up to about sixty, she had to move them again, this time to an undeveloped building out of town, to keep them out of danger.
Life in Dog Valley
Janet by now was well known in Dahab as 'the dogs' saviour' and people took injured, and sick dogs to her (the only vet in Dahab is the Government vet). Foreigners who had stayed in Dahab for some time, and made friends with dogs, also turned to Janet as a 'drop off' point when it was their turn to leave. When the increasing numbers of dogs became too many for the undeveloped building site to accommodate, Janet decided the only thing relatively safe and big enough to accomodate the number of dogs was a remote 'valley' (hence this became known to local people as Dog Valley).
Janet now lives with the dogs (now around 200) in the Valley (translates to Wadi Kalab in Arabic). It is certainly not an easy life as the writer can attest to from a recent visit. A nearby water supply and generator have been cut off, so Janet now lives without electricity and water. She has even been threatened with guns to try and force her to leave the valley, although she pays 'rent money' (unofficial payments to occupy land are the norm here). In addition to this very harsh life of freezing temperatures in winter and unbearably hot weather in summer, Janet has a daily struggle to feed the dogs. From local people, she buys food scraps that hotels have thrown out. When she cannot obtain food she has to find the money to purchase 80 kilos of dry food for one meal for the dogs. Feeding, watering and taking care of the sick dogs takes up most of Janet's day.
In addition she has the added fear of poisoning which still occurs from time to time. This time it is not limited to the beaches, but also someone has now been coming to 'Dog Valley' to leave out poisoned rice for the dogs. There have been several recent complaints that poison has been thrown into private gardens too, poisoning pet animals. God only knows what these poisoning campaigns are doing to the environment, besides the dog poisonings, cats, goats and hundreds of birds are found dead. We suspect strychnine (a substance banned in many countries) is being used.
Help on the way for spay/neuter!
On the writer's recent trip a very interesting fact on how huge numbers of dogs can live peacefully was discovered. Although the valley is mostly an open area with just a few fences, the dogs live in 'family packs' (whether related or not;, for the most part they respect each family's territory. They are able to get out of the valley but this is a very rare occurrence. They instinctively know that 'Dog Valley' and Janet are a much safer existence for them than the beaches of Dahab. A recent visit to the local council from members (including myself) of various animal welfare organizations, based in Egypt, was made to complain to the authorities of the poisoning campaigns, and also to ask them to support Janet in her endeavours to keep the dogs away from anywhere where they are perceived to be a nuisance, by offering her a piece of land where the dogs can live in safety.
Can you help this courageous woman to sustain the commitment she made to the dogs of Dahab in 2001, to dedicate her life to saving the constantly persecuted dogs of Dahab. Janet is badly in need of supplies and donations.
We will send a team in a couple of days to sterilize and vaccinate more than 100 of the dogs in 'Dog Valley.'
Photo: ESMA
How you can help
Your donations can be sent to any of the following people to use for this intensive sterilization/vaccination campaign. If there is an excess of funds received we will use the funds to buy Janet stocks of dry food and building materials to build more enclosures and other urgent supplies for the dogs of 'Dog Valley'. WSPA have already committed to assist financially in this campaign, and we thank them profusely.
Donations can be sent to
the website of ESMA
http://www.esmaegypt.org
You may donate through PayPal and then send an email to specify that your donation is to help the dogs of Dahab.
Thank you!