Animals' Angels is with the camels at the market in Abu Nakhla in Qatar. The market is only a few years old - before that, the camels were still housed at the old market in Abu Hammour, in old pens and sheds with broken fences. Often there was not even a shelter for the animals, so that many camels were exposed to the sun 24/7 without protection. Even in summer with temperatures above 50 °C. For years we have made countless complaints to the responsible ministry - and as we could finally see during our last visit - with success! The old market is finally a thing of the past.
The infrastructure of the new market is much better. There is a roof in each pen to protect from the sun; each pen is equipped with a water tank and the size of the market is manageable and overall much better organized. In March of this year, we had still documented that some pens were overcrowded. The camels, which often live here for long periods of time, did not have enough space. Also, some pens were divided in such a way that the animals no longer had access to shade or water in these separated areas. After our last visit in spring we had addressed a market report with suggestions for improvement to the responsible authorities.
During our current visit, the situation has improved again: in almost all pens the animals have free access to water and we do not find any more overcrowded pens. For the animals living there right now, this is a clear improvement.
In one of the pens we meet the camel mare Mera. She follows us curiously as we take our notes. Mera stretches her head towards us in a friendly manner and wants to be petted and cuddled. She has confidence in us, which makes us very happy. Finally, it also shows that she is treated well by the workers here and seems to have had less bad experiences with humans so far. The workers and keepers, who are mainly from East Africa, also seem relaxed here and seem to take good care of the animals entrusted to them. In two pens we even observe them grooming the camels. We hope that these positive developments will continue in the future.
