At the start of the war in Ukraine, I remember reading about a British charity called Nowzad, founded by the former Royal Marines commando Pen Farthing in 2007 after he rescued a stray dog while on tour in Afghanistan.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Farthing stepped in to organise support for animal shelters overwhelmed by pets abandoned as their owners fled the fighting, supplying food, veterinary supplies and equipment. He set up staging posts in Poland and organised evacuations and re-homing.
Farthing was not alone in his passion to rescue the dogs of war. One man, an Italian called Andrea Cisternino, who ran a shelter near Kyiv for around 400 animals, refused to leave them even as the soldiers advanced, saying he would ‘rather die’. He was inundated with supplies and offers of help. As far as I know he is still there.
Now the dogs and cats of Dubai need a similar hero. Expat Brits are flooding home, and many are either unable or unwilling to take their pets with them. There are reports of animals being left tied to lampposts, dumped by the side of road or outside veterinary clinics. Some vets say owners are simply coming to them asking for their pets to be euthanised, and shelters are full of terrified animals.
I understand, of course, that most people would consider a human life more important than that of a pet. Nevertheless, I think if it were me, there is simply no way I could just up and leave my two dogs. I might as well abandon my two children.
Sarah Vine’s two dogs, Florence, left, a labrador/spaniel cross and Muffin, a lhasa apso
The cats (I have two of those as well) would on some level probably be fine, although it’s a myth that cats don’t show affection for their humans: mine are highly demonstrative, especially when I’m cooking roast chicken. But they are to an extent ruthless hunters, and highly adaptable creatures who know how to look after themselves.
Dogs, by contrast, are hopeless on that front. How they managed before they domesticated humans into providing them with food, shelter and endless belly rubs is a mystery, but suffice to say most dogs – and certainly my two – wouldn’t survive in the wild.
The younger, Florence, a labrador/spaniel cross, might just about be OK. She’s highly intelligent and extremely resourceful, particularly when it comes to sourcing food and dirty socks. And as far as I can tell she’s indestructible: the other day she ran smack-bang into a metal fence in pursuit of a ball and it barely seemed to register (where there’s no sense there’s no feeling, as my grandmother used to say).
Still, to abandon her would break my heart – and hers.
My elder dog, Muffin, would be impossible. My daughter says she is soul-tied to me, and the feeling is mutual. When I leave the house, she seems to fall into a deep depression, waiting forlornly at the door until I come home.
She sleeps on my bed and woe betide anyone (animal or human) who tries to usurp her. There is no way I could leave her. It would haunt me until the end of my days.
But then, if an all-party parliamentary group for animal welfare gets its way, Muffin wouldn’t exist at all. As a lhasa apso she belongs to one of 67 dog breeds that could be banned, along with chihuahuas, corgis, several varieties of common terrier and, mystifyingly, border collies.
The criterion for such a ban is not that they pose a threat to others, as with XL bullies or similar, but more that they pose a threat to themselves because of so-called breeding defects, such as overly short legs, too-long bodies, excessive skin folds, mottled colouring, bulging eyes and deformed muzzles.
Florence and Muffin with one of Sarah’s cats, called Cersei. ‘The problem is not dogs, it’s people. Perhaps we should just ban them instead’
It must be said that I know of more than one MP and several members of the House of Lords to whom those same criticisms could be applied, yet no one is suggesting banning them. By contrast, Muffin suffers from none of the above. At the age of 12 (84 in dog years), she is much healthier than any human I know of that age.
As to the notion that her kind should not be bred, I find that highly objectionable. Lhasas – the smallest of the Tibetan terriers – have a noble history.
Despite their diminutive size, they were kept as alarm dogs for monasteries and palaces. For centuries they were considered sacred, and could not be sold, only gifted. Their only real health issue is caused by the fact that they have hair, not fur, which needs to be trimmed regularly. Hardly a reason to advocate euthanising them as a breed.
But this is the problem with initiatives such as this one: they lump all dogs together, totally failing to appreciate that, like humans, they may look similar and share similar characteristics, but each one is an individual, unique in its own way.
No sane owner wants an unhealthy dog, but not all owners are sane, or care properly for their animals. The problem is not dogs, it’s people. Perhaps we should just ban them instead.
Meg’s off – again!
The Duchess of Sussex has parted company with Netflix, declaring that she is ready to go it alone. The streaming giant was instrumental in getting the Duchess’s lifestyle brand off the ground, providing her not only with a platform but also backroom staff and development teams. Now she has got what she wants, she’s off. Remind you of anything?
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in a still from her Netflix show called With Love, Meghan
War has many unintended consequences. In Iran, the death of between 160 and 180 people in a school in Minab, after it was struck by what are believed to be American missiles, is an unfathomable tragedy for which Washington must bear full responsibility. This catastrophic error does not, however, absolve the Iranian regime of its part in the slaughter of 30,000 citizens during its recent crackdown.
No one will mourn the death of Soham child killer Ian Huntley. But the man who allegedly ripped him apart ‘like a rat’ is no angel either: he raped and murdered a pregnant woman and murdered a mother and son. How was he allowed access to a ‘spiked metal pole’ – and what does it tell us about the state of our highest security prisons?
Look out for token fraudsters
Britons are wasting an average of £123 a year on unused subscriptions – a cost of £1.6billion a year. I am painfully familiar with this, and the methods deployed by companies to get their hands on our money. I’m talking about the free trial that turns out to be anything but, and the curse of the auto-renewal.
Yet there is one other thing I don’t think many people know about (well, I didn’t). Sites such as Amazon, Uber and Deliveroo attach ‘tokens’ to your bank cards, so even if you cancel the cards, the token automatically updates to the replacement card.
This means if your phone is stolen and the thieves hack into your accounts, they can keep buying stuff.
You can get these tokens removed, but you must request it from the bank. It’s a lengthy process, but worth it for the sake of good financial hygiene.
Gen Z men: the depressing truth
A global study of 23,000 people has found that Gen Z males are far more traditional than older generations when it comes to sexual equality. For example, a third of Gen Z men and boys think that a wife should obey her husband; a quarter think that a woman who appears too independent is off-putting; and 21 per cent felt that looking after children was emasculating.
Admittedly some of the countries surveyed – such as Malaysia and Indonesia – have much more traditional values when it comes to male/female roles, but I have to say, I find these results deeply depressing.
Why is it that some men find it so hard to cope with successful, self-sufficient women who dare to have minds of their own?