“We have shelters, but they are not enough compared to the number of animals that are being killed, poisoned or not treated well in the country,” Eman Sabri, who has an animal shelter in Amman, the capital of Jordan, said.
“Every now and then (people) launch campaigns against animals that include poisoning and shooting dogs,” she said. “We are in need of many shelters, not only one or two shelters.”
In 2021, Sabri opened Petly shelter with an owner of a veterinary clinic in Amman to give dogs with special needs that can no longer survive on the streets a home.
Veterinarians first treat injured dogs in this clinic, and those with permanent health conditions are sent to the shelter for proper care. The shelter provides animals with food, water and medication.
Veterinarian Adham al Ainazy said that humans hit and even shoot stray dogs in Jordan: “Most dogs suffer from special conditions including having been hit by a car, hit (by people), or been subjected to violence.”
“So some dogs suffer from fractures or neurological symptoms like this dog (he points to a dog at the veterinary clinic). We try to reach the right diagnosis to determine whether this dog will get better in the future or if we should take it to the shelter,” he added.
“This dog came from the airport road. He had been shot in his paw. Unfortunately, he could not use his paw. He stayed with us for a while, and we provided him with vaccines. Later we had to amputate the whole paw,” veterinarian Raed Gharaybah said about a dog at the shelter.
Finding people to adopt animals from the shelter is difficult in Jordan. Sabri, who said the shelter is self-supporting, hopes to expand it to help more animals. The existing animal shelters that Jordan does have are not “up to the international standards in dealing and looking after animals”, she added.