By Sara Al-Awadhi — Originally published in Streets Times, Issue 168

I couldn’t be more grateful to have been brought up as a person who has always been fond of animals, ever since I was a kid. That explains why I used to want to be a vet when I grew up — until I found out there is no such major in Kuwait.

Having as many pets as I want is never an option, but I hope someday it will be. It’s things like going to Friday Market and seeing how poorly and mercilessly the animals are treated there that breaks my heart every time and makes me want to do something about it. Up until recently, I thought that the best thing to do was to save up a budget from my monthly salary to spend on buying as many of those poor cats and dogs and finding suitable families to adopt them. However, that will only encourage the merchants to bring and trade with more victims — which made me realize that was not the solution.

I’d rather shut down the zoo and the Friday Market for good rather than have animals trapped in such small cages and the wrong climate. The real solution to seeing dead cats on the street every day is people like Maha Mullajuma Al-Khateeb, founder and member of KareQ8, which stands for Kuwait Animal Rehabilitation and Education (@KareQ8).

KARE is a non-profit group of animal lovers and volunteers who devote their efforts, time and money trying to save as many lives as they possibly can. They rescue stray cats and dogs from cruel situations across Kuwait — no matter how risky — in order to find them a loving home, usually after treating all their injuries, medical problems and spaying/neutering them. It’s worth mentioning that there is no shelter for KareQ8’s rescues, so all members and foster volunteers help each other by keeping the cats and dogs together until a permanent home is found.