Brave Vet in Baghdad

[Guest guest]

Baghdad vet risks all as he tends to sick animals

 

Iraqi veterinarian Namir Abdul Fatah

 

An ethical, noble, courageous man who puts animals before himself!

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKBRVI20a7vXNdNlmZJVxez-TTew

 

 

BAGHDAD (AFP) Nameer Abdul Fatah has shrapnel holes in his vehicle

and wounds in his leg suffered during hazardous trips across conflict-

ridden Baghdad to treat injured and sick patients.

 

But Fatah is not an ambulance driver. His patients are animals that

receive expert care thanks to one Iraqi veterinarian who is

determined to keep on working.

 

Treating all creatures great and small, from pure-bred poodles to

fierce guard-dogs, parrots and even tigers, Fatah has been on duty in

Baghdad for 26 years.

 

Since the US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in

2003, he has continued to tend to needy animals in the violent and

chaotic times that have engulfed the city.

 

" People in Baghdad still want to look after animals despite

everything, " he told AFP during a short break in his daily round of

house calls.

 

" More Muslims keep dogs as pets than is generally believed, " Fatah

said, despite Muslim tradition that holds dogs are unclean and

discouraged as pets.

 

" There are many expensive dogs like Pekinese in the city. People keep

them inside at home and don't take them for walks because of the

danger. "

 

Fatah, 46, who qualified as a vet in Baghdad before specialising in

small animals while training in the former East Germany, rushes

around the Iraqi capital with a large case crammed with surgical

instruments and medicine bottles.

 

" It was very difficult to get the right drugs under Saddam because

taxes made it impossible to travel and UN sanctions difficult to

import anything. Now I can buy the medicine I need privately from

abroad, " he said after injecting an adopted stray cat with

antibiotics and vitamins to help it recover from a road accident.

 

He said he had worked with police dogs during the rule of the ousted

dictator, but like many Iraqis he declines to talk in detail about

his career during those years.

 

Fatah said that since Saddam's fall, which triggered sectarian

violence that has claimed thousands of lives, he has had many near-

misses from shootings, rockets and mortar attacks.

 

" The windows of my car were blown out once when I was driving to

examine a client's dog, and another time I got bad wounds in the leg

from shrapnel.

 

" But I was never the target, and I would never stop because of the

dangers. "

 

Just days after US troops arrived in Baghdad, he was trying to visit

clients in Baghdad's southern Dora neighbourhood when a gunfight

broke out around him.

 

" The Americans blocked the road and said I couldn't go forward. But I

had to go, so I took the risk and drove straight on. I got through to

treat the animal. "

 

Just a month ago the stocky and energetic Fatah saved the life of a

German Shepherd dog that had been punctured with 20 pieces of

shrapnel after a mortar landed near it in Baghdad's western Yarmuk

neighbourhood.

 

The dark-haired vet, who has a small clinic equipped with an

operating theatre, said many of his clients are wealthy families or

diplomats but that his main concern is for the animals.

 

" This is how I have survived. I go to big houses but I don't ask

questions. I keep myself away from politics. "

 

Having such clients has meant that he has been called on to deal with

an exotic menagerie, including rare birds, bears, monkeys and even

tigers and lions.

 

" Only recently I had to remove a bullet from a bear that was shot, "

Fatah said, adding that Iraqis keep large animals in cages as prize

possessions -- although US troops have confiscated most lions and

tigers from private owners.

 

The vet prefers to treat smaller domestic animals and often looks

after seriously ill pets in his clinic overnight if they need

constant supervision.

 

" Sadly I can't have my own pets because during the day I am out of

the house for 15 hours, " said Fatah, who believes he is one of only

two vets in the whole of Iraq specially trained to treat small

animals.

 

He said he has turned down prestigious and highly paid job offers in

Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt because he prefers to

continue working in Baghdad.

 

Fatah's seven-year-old son wants to become a vet and often

accompanies his father on his rounds -- giving hope that in the

future there will at least be one more person to care for Baghdad's

much-neglected animal population.