Poor pets, just disposable to these Dubai residents

Certainly not going to just fucking leave it to starve to death

You really gonna stay to look after a pet?
Perhaps that's natural selection at work

You're right, it's abso-fucking-lutely not the same at all.

A controlled explosion situation isn't comparable to a warfare situation.

Wait...did you take your dog with you against orders or did you just stay behind in the blast zone?

You don't have to put your children at risk in order to either find a home for your pet or have them pts. Putting them to sleep is hardly a great choice but is a much much better choice then leaving them to starve.

If I was in another country and it started getting bombed I'd have my kids on the next flight/train/boat/donkey out of there. Anyone that would put their children at risk for the sake of a dog doesn't deserve their kids.

You’ll be popular in the queue further evacuation flights.

Maybe they’d agree to take your pets if you gave up your spot. I don’t see why anyone else should.

Except that’s clearly not what I was referring to.

Deny it all you like, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

While we’re on things that you claim are not happening did you have any words of apology for gnusoncanoes after you airily dismissed what is actually happening in the ME and clearly have no idea what you are talking about?

Yes, his brother is an arsehole, the cat isn’t.

If the only exit opportunity for you and your child was an evacuation flight out of a local airport, they wouldn't take the dog on the plane and there were no options to flee to neighbouring countries, your choices then came down to stay and face war, or go without the dog? No other choices are available. What do you do? Stay with your family? Put your child on a plane alone? Leave the dog?

This is the very difficult choice some people may have had to make.

Although I can't even begin to imagine suddenly being in the middle of a war I do know for certain that I would not just abandon my dog. If no rescue could take him I would have him pts. If that were not possible I think I would probably just take my chances and I am literally certain that is what DH would do.

Tie them up and walk away knowing they will starve to death! No caring owner would do that

Nah, if we had to flee, the dogs come too. Part of our area was evacuated last year due to a possible improvised explosive device. The police told residents to leave, but said dogs had to stay behind. Abso-fucking-lutely not.
We even have a plan for how to get my son’s snake out of the house in the event of a fire (grabbed and stuffed into a pillowcase, for the interested. The vivarium is in his room next to the airing cupboard).
They are my responsibility, I will be responsible for them. Come hell or high water.

From the Guardian news report quoted the problem was shelters being overwhelmed, which indicates that people were trying to ensure the safety of their pets as best they could.

I also can’t imagine giving away my animals but then I can’t really imagine being in such jeopardy that I’d have to. It hasn’t happened to me and I appreciate how fortunate I am in feeling relatively safe in that way.

Or maybe when a woman who was attacked by her partner and left in hospital texted her friend and called the abusive partner a Fa*t and got a prison sentence while the cunt who assauled her walked free?
Yeah that kinda thing.
I didn't get it on YouTube and Google does the job nicely thanks, more than your little made up scenarios there anyway unless you've googled them?

I think it is disgusting to just abandon a pet. I can't even begin to think about leaving my dog behind if I had to flee but if I really really had no other choice I would either find a rescue to take him or have him pts.

When you get a pet you become responsible for them you don't just abandon them

I completely admit I come from a place of ignorance. I have asked people to correct me if I’m wrong, because all I’m seeing is people saying Dubai is still safe, and they have tech to stop the debris that is falling.

i am seeing some people and news minimalising, and some like this thread saying it’s an emergent situation. I am not there.

i know there are no flights and people can’t get out, and it seems to be a matter of waiting until airlines get flights on. Commercial flights, not governmental/army evacuation flights.

I have seen some people travelling to Oman and catching flights there. If things are that bad would you not load as much as possible into a vehicle and attempt to travel overland to a safer country in the south? Why sit and wait for a flight from Dubai. There are ferries to Africa if you can get to a crossing.

i suppose my logic is if you are so desperate to get out you’d dump your pets in the street, wouldn’t you be desperate enough to just get out any way possible. No flights means driving or going overland somehow.

also if people can’t get out, why dumping pets now? Wouldn’t you wait with them until last minute when you’re about to get a flight?

Yes thanks gnus that was sort of my point. There are lots of ordinary non-attention seeking people in Dubai but for obvious reasons the attention seeking very materialistic types are the ones posting on social media. I don't wish them any ill either TBH. But I think there's a reaction against it because it always felt quite fake and the current situation is allowing people to who though it looked fake to feel vindicated. But I don't think being somewhat annoying on the internet means one deserves to be afraid either. Let alone all of the non-annoying ordinary people we don't think about.

Tice and Oakshot are free to criticise the UK. There are plenty of things to criticise and I complain all the time. But someone from outside the country criticising it will always rile people up more than someone inside a country criticising (rightly or wrongly). Especially if (eg) they are getting very angry at free speech laws in the UK but not commenting on the laws in Dubai.

You do realise the uk stats for “offensive online posts” include cases such as domestic violence and coercive control.

so we should let Dave continue to harass poor Susie and threaten her and her family on Facebook, even when she has a restraining order after he broke her arm. It’s only some “hurty words online”

or when Johnny sells a car on fb marketplace, and the buyer sends him a message with a picture of a gun saying the car’s no good and he’s going to come round and deliver justice.

this is the sort of thing you trivialise with “hurty words online”

maybe if you’ve ever been stalked or in a DV relationship you’d have more empathy for other women.

also google and YouTube aren’t reliable sources.

@Usernamenotfound1 you are speaking from a point of ignorance I'm afraid. I'm a pet lover but do you think for a minute officials are thinking about allowing people to take up space on evacuation flights with pets? In normal times it is expensive and there are many stages to go through. They ARE being attacked. The UAE are doing well to intercept much of it but yes attacks are getting through. Dubai Financial Centre was also hit recently. Maybe read more about it.

@Usernamenotfound1 take a minute to look up the number of missiles and drones Iran is directing to the UAE. It outstrips the number being targeted at Israel; and also the rest of the GCC states put together. This is not ‘nothing’.
America is actively evacuating its citizens. I had 3 colleagues go this week. (Fun fact: they don’t take you back to the States but just out of the region. My colleague was dropped in Istanbul with two children under 3, and left to make her way onwards. I did not know this was how it worked.)

The UK embassy has asked us to register for evacuation flights (you pay for them; but they run them as commercial travel is so limited right now.) I haven’t yet but they absolutely are offering routes out.

And I can tell you personally that my phone alerts multiple times a day to tell me missiles are overhead. My house shakes with the intercepts. My child is out of school. Someone died in the road near us the other day from falling debris. It’s very real to those of us who are here.

I actually think @persephonia makes a fair point. The situation is exacerbated because the most vocal ‘face’ of Dubai - if your judgement comes from what you see on social media - are materialistic influencers. (The fact that these people were cultivated in the UK and exported to the UAE, seems to be conveniently overlooked by many.)

But there are scores of people like me who live in a normal house, have no maids, nannies or drivers, and are just raising their families quietly - and have been, for decades. (Inclusive of one cat, with passport, that I would do everything in my power to take with us if we had to leave.) That so much of the commentary lacks any nuance, is so vitriolic and simply wrong, is frustrating.

A quick Google gave me this....

Daily Trend: Police are making over 30 arrests daily for what they consider offensive online posts, retweets, or cartoons.
Annual Estimate: This activity amounts to roughly 12,000 arrests annually, based on data cited in this YouTube video.
Context: Arrests include actions related to WhatsApp messages, social media posts, and public behavior, with high-profile cases involving significant prison sentences.

Why do you care what the ‘influencers’ say though?

If you don’t want to move to Dubai, don’t - they are not forcing you.

Finally there are high profile political figures like Tice and Oakshot who are very keen to push Dubai as a superior place to the UK because of its tax regime. And to talk down UK crime rate/safety. And to criticise free speech laws in the UK. There's some natural schadenfreude in being able to point out to some of the hypocrisy in that position.

And they are right about a favourable tax regime - the Labour government are determined to tax entire industries into oblivion and have increased the burden on people at all income levels and we get less and less for our money - you’re surely not claiming they are doh g a good job? Our crime rates are bad - just look at the huge leap in theft and robberies in London - it’s so bad that other countries are issuing earnings about it.

How is that hypocrisy? Surely you’re not weaponising a WAR to ‘own the expats’??

No empathy for those caught up in conflict, just ‘schadenfreude’. You’re not showing yourself up well here.