Kameal Ali blazes trail of consciouness on animal welfare

Elspeth Duncan

Imagine an island where hotels and guest houses collect left over food to feed starving stray or owned animals in the community . . . where guests and members of the public are moved to donate toward the spaying and neutering of street dogs and cats . . . where foreigners (many of whom are strong animal lovers) are increasingly inspired to visit Tobago because of exemplary treatment of all animals.

This article highlights Kameal Ali, manager of Blue Horizon Resort, who has been quietly transforming the lives of animals (and by extension people) in his community through kindness to God’s creatures.

“I think we in the tourism industry owe a duty to this country, this island, apart from getting tourists into our establishments . . . apart from serving humankind . . . when we see animals we should treat these animals with love, respect and kindness,” he says. “These animals are created by Almighty God. Remember Mahatma Gandhi said that the greatness of a nation is measured by how its animals are treated.

“I would like to encourage all stakeholders in the hotel industry to come on board. Instead of throwing away and wasting food, give it to animals. People may not understand that when these dogs and cats benefit from our actions, we too are getting blessings. The Creator will bless you. He will open a way for you. He will open a way for your business to flourish.”

A Muslim parable speaks of a prostitute who was granted a place in Paradise for her kindness to a dog:

‘Abu Huraira radi allahu `anhu (may God have mercy on him) reported Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) as saying: “There was a dog, whom thirst would have killed, moving around a well. Suddenly a prostitute from the prostitutes of Bani Isra’il [Children of Israel] happened to see it and she drew water in her shoe and made it drink, and she was pardoned because of this.” (Sahih Muslim, 2245 b)’

Source: http://www.virtualmosque.com

Islam also teaches Muslims to treat cats well. The cat is revered as a creature to be cherished and loved. Mistreating one is regarded as a severe sin deserving of punishment.

Kameal (director of the Lowlands mosque), his wife and their family subscribe naturally and faithfully to these tenets. Their love for animals is extended not only to their own pets, but to the animals in the community.

Nine large, well-fed, happy cats grace Blue Horizon’s grounds—lazing in shade or sunlight, feasting from the many available bowls of food and water and peacefully allowing guests to stroke them.

These cats are all spayed or neutered, one of the many signs of responsible pet ownership.

As a child, Kameal’s wife, Wahida, would sometimes hear kittens crying in the night in an empty neigbouring lot. Clad in her nightclothes, she would sneak over to rescue them.

When, eighteen years ago, she married Kameal, he was “uneducated” (his word) about cats. Through Wahida and a stray kitten that someone gave them in their earlier years together, he grew to know cats and love them as important family members.

“Education has a big part to play in people’s lives,” he says from experience. “When they get to know about these animals they grow to love them.

“From a religious point of view God says we must treat animals in a certain way. As human beings it must be part of our nature to care for animals. Most importantly, these are God’s creatures and so are we.”

With a pained expression he recounts unpleasant stories:

“One night I went in pouring rain with a piece of galvanize and put it over one of the chained neighbourhood dogs so it would get some shelter. Dogs that were fat and nice and round as puppies are reduced to skin and bone. It breaks my heart to see what a dog was and what it becomes. If people know they cannot care for their animals and do justice to them, they should not have so many. It is a disservice to yourself, to the animal and to the Creator. And to anyone who has it in mind to poison or kill a dog, just think about when you stand before God Almighty. What are you going to tell Him on that day?”

The Blue Horizon compound sets an animal friendly example worth emulating.

“When a dog comes, we never turn it away. We feed it and then let it go back to its owners. I’m not ashamed to say that we go to our guests and ask that all the food they are going to throw away, they bring to us. We put it in a bucket and go to feed animals.”

For the past two years, several owned but neglected dogs in the community surrounding Blue Horizon have benefitted from Kameal and his family’s generosity. His wife and daughter remove ticks and fleas from some canines. And every other day when enough food has been gathered, Kameal drives around to some neighbours’ homes for feeding time. Skeletal in appearance, the dogs leap and bark upon seeing him, straining excitedly at their short chains.

“One thing I learned from my wife . . . anywhere she goes, like to a restaurant, she collects the left over food. She doesn’t let them throw away and waste food. An animal will benefit from that. I have adopted that practice.”

In addition to helping animals, earlier this year Blue Horizon Resort started a big ongoing recycling drive, to date saving almost 5,000 plastic bottles that have been weighed and sent to Trinidad for processing.

“If every individual did his or her part, can you imagine? Change starts with us and we can make a great change for Trinidad and Tobago,” Kameal says. “This positivity will outweigh and outshine the daily negativity that people in Trinidad & Tobago have become so accustomed to seeing.”