FOUR years ago, when Muhammad Abu Khair took in his first dog, it caused a family feud. His daughter brought home a stray that was wandering the streets of Jabalia, a district of Gaza City. He was unhappy about keeping it, a common feeling in Gaza’s conservative society: Islam views dogs as unclean and frowns on owning them as pets. But he relented, hoping to make his daughter happy. His relatives were not so understanding. For a while they stopped visiting the house.
Today he struggles to keep the visitors away. A group of enthusiasts organised a dog show in a public park in February, the first of its kind in Gaza. The event was covered in local media, and the pictures set off a canine craze across the territory. A Facebook group called “German Shepherds of Gaza,” which posts photos and information about different breeds, has added more than 70,000 members.
Dozens of owners even hope to earn a living as breeders, though dogs are an impossible indulgence for many in Gaza, where nearly half the population of 1.8m is unemployed and 75,000 families are still internally displaced after a devastating 2014 war with Israel. A small puppy can...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/28SEbAK
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