Poor pets, just disposable to these Dubai residents

Well your point is why I don't think people should have pets in the first place. I don't think we should get to "own" animals for our own amusement. But if you do, recognise they are pets.

Yes the social media I am seeing is that Dubai is still very safe and the government have anti missile tech etc and have everything very much under control.

i am somewhat surprised to read this as I thought the issue was mainly holiday makers having their return flights cancelled due to the airport closure and the risk of flying over the area.

i hadn’t realised those living there were fleeing. That’s very different to the image projected.

There's nothing in the world that would make me leave my dog. I'd rather die with them to be honest.

Fleeing and dumping cats and dog

Well yeah. Because humans are more important than cats and dogs. What do you expect them to do, stay and risk getting bombed?

Pet people are nuts.

? If it’s a shelter that the animal is dropped with, or that the stray has been sent to, then people are having to stay behind to look after these abandoned pets.

My cat was always my priority. A pet is a family member. Although there are cases where people have to leave quickly and cannot take their pets with them, Dubai is not a war-torn country and many people have the resources to take their pets or arrange for their safe relocation.

Which they don't deserve at all.

No - I wouldn't and couldn't leave my beloved dog to fend for herself. I love her beyond words.

It’s not a Dubai thing, it’s an expat thing. War or not.

I live in an area with high amount of US expats and some, not all, leave pets behind when they go back to the states. I know quite a few people who have taken cats in through cats protection after their US family just went back to the states. Someone I went to uni was an expat for a while and they took in a street dog that had been abandoned by their previous expat owners )no idea where they were from). The person I went to uni with brought the dog back with them but the dog found air travel hugely traumatic, it took the dog months to settle in the new home and it cost them a fortune.

In a life or death situation, you do not have time to take your pets. Reparation flights won’t have space for animal travel crates. People won’t have time to do the necessary veterinary tests to get pet passports. Pets slow you down and if it is something where you are fleeing and don’t have money (not necessarily Dubai) it’s extra mouths to feed, extra costs.

I have pets and I’d like to think I would take pets with us if we moved countries or got a loved one to look after them. If we had to flee in a hurry that just isn’t the case. I’d like to think we could put them to sleep but there just isn’t time in many incidents when you’re fleeing.

In the World Happiness Report 2025, the UAE ranked 21st and the UK ranked 23rd. I still am mesmerised by how beautiful the Dubai marina is.

The war might knock that down a point or two.

This post has made me laugh hysterically.

I have family in Dubai. Been there for decades on the golden visa. Are Indian nationals. The pet they have in Dubai was actually mistreated and left as abandoned in the UK.

Why all this Dubai bashing constantly?

In the World Happiness Report 2025, the UAE ranked 21st and the UK ranked 23rd. I still am mesmerised by how beautiful the Dubai marina is.

No they are staying because in many cases they don't have anywhere else to go. Not everyone has the money to evacuate.

Do you actually know the process to export a pet from Dubai? Tell me .

Easy for me to say I wouldn't leave without my dogs, I am not in that situation and I don't have children.

Who is seriously going to turn down a flight out for them and their kids, because the flight won't take the dog or cat as well? You're going to deprive your children of a parent, by staying behind with the dog... or keep the kids with you in a bomb zone, so you don't have to leave the cat?

I very much doubt it.

If anyone is interested in actually doing something to help, I have adopted cats from Dubai previously and the small rescue I used is frantically trying to get three rescue cats rehomed in case they also have to leave. I have posted about it on the Litter Tray section - although a fair few posters there feel it's probably better just to put the cats down. So those attitudes are not restricted to Dubai expats.

Well im getting very mixed messages. Are bombs falling all around and people are fleeing in droves or is it business as usual and “we trust our leader “ because it can’t be both.

Or deer but I am pretty sure we’d survive

OP, my husband's cousin just came back from Dubai. Evacuation flights start at £700 a pop, you face hours in the airport, which gets bombed the most, to find out if you even got in. People in queues were sleeping in the car park. They were allowed limited luggage. Two weeks ago they were planning a trip to the desert, now they've had their life upended. Easy for you to judge from your comfy armchair.

That’s why there’s rescues that bring dogs etc from Greece or Romania or the like.

That being the case: Other people are having to stay behind to look after all these animals as the owners all flee.

Id never leave my dog i absolutely love her and know she loves me.

Some might but id never.

@GladHedgehog my dogs could hunt (and have done previously) for us 🤷‍♀️ pretty sure we’d survive…admittedly I am not keen on skinning rabbits or plucking pheasants but hey ho food is food

I also have enough dog food for around 2 months at home and if I did need to flee pretty sure I could stop and get some more

People are illogical