Isa Town local market – birds section – panorama (6936 x 1484), originally uploaded by malyousif.
A panorama of the birds section of the Isa Town popular local market. I’ve taken a series of pictures, some of which I know that most of you would find objectionable as they show how crowded the cages are and what is actually allowed to be sold in this market.
It doesn’t seem that any government agency is regulating it; hence, you find people selling anything from snakes (poisonous and others), scorpions, all manner of birds from parakeet chicks crowded in filthy cages, pigeons, and even falcons tied and thrown in with the pigeons!
A walk through the other sections of this market would also show you stuff being sold, old and new, and I wouldn’t be surprised to know that some of the wares being displayed are “hot” stuff.
How the situation is allowed to go to this level without any regulation, at least for the health and well being of the animals we saw there is inexcusable.
Having said that, there are a few of the stalls which are better managed, the cages are clean and the birds and other animals seem to be better taken care of.
Even with that, there doesn’t seem to be any restriction on what could be imported and sold and no regard whatsoever to the environment in as much as importing animals which are simply unsuited for Bahrain.
Comments
I don’t care for this market… rather I don’t like how they keep these animals and such. If I’m not mistaken, this is the same place I saw cats stuffed in small wooden crates …. w/ cut off chicken heads inside for them to chew on. It was horrible.
I really wish this stuff was regulated some how.
These ppl would be in trouble if they were hit w/ bird flu. With the conditions there, it would travel fast.
and travel fast throughout the island as those sort of conditions are not unique to this market unfortunately.
I really do not understand why there is no law against animal cruelty, that would make the BSPCA much more powerful and get it to do its job properly.
But then, you need to educate society about humane treatments and I personally think that the best way of doing so is hitting them where it counts, in their pockets. They’ll learn soon enough that being cruel to creatures just doesn’t pay.
I remember that very alarming picture that Amira once took of the chickens shoved in the back of a cramped pick-up truck, it was incredibly sad… like a chicken holocaust or something. And I totally agree with the 2nd comment.
I can’t understand why there is so much animal cruelty in this region. I’ve seen similar things in the UAE and I just can’t see where it it comes from. Islam teaches us to care for animals, right?
There are supposed to be an ‘powers’ that can shut down dodgy pet shops and stop illegal trade but sadly these ‘powers’ seem to be toothless…believe me, I’ve contacted them on numerous occasions and there’s always some dumb excuse as to why they can’t do anything about it.
I took the kids there for something to do last friday, and the last area we came to was the “pet” market.
I counted 29 African Grey Parrots and 2 Burmese pythons, a baboon being sold as a monkey,(like to be in the house of that particlar owner when it bites his face off!) and incredibly, a rare Brazilian parrot which was light green in colour with amazing blue eyes for which the trader wanted 1,200 BHD (USD 3,183), Turkeys, geese, rabbits, cats, dogs, scores of love birds, ring necked parrokeets,and other exotic birds I didn’t recognise.
The lack of regulation in these markets is typical of 3rd world countries.
The government don’t see this as a priority and therefore devote no resources to it’s regulation.
My daughter was all tears as we left the market begging me to save the animals.
If someone with wasta feels the same way, the police will stomp in there close it all down, and it will reappear in Souq wagif, or Muharraq.
The “stop” point needs to be at the point of entry to Bahrain, which must be the Airport and Mina Salman. So I think this should be a customs affair.
Fancy lobbying the head of customs with some letters requesting change?
Live Long and Prosper
Forgot to mention. There’s a guy with a little farm next to BSPCA, and he has deer, cattle, sheep, goats and an 8 foot long crocodile kept in a horse stable. Must be like living in a butchers shop for the croc!
They’re potentially not breaking any laws! All they had to do is get a vet’s certificate that the animal is healthy, keep it in quarantine for 48 hours or so and into the country it comes.
There is nothing in the laws I have read so far that prohibits the import of an animal because of unsuitability to the country’s environment nor any regard given to the degree of danger an animal might have to people or indigenous animals.
The concerned laws I have read so far are:
The important section of the last one are these paragraphs, you will see that none restrict the import or export of animals based on environmental impact or degree of danger to humans and other indigenous animals:
Weren’t there a fuss in the local media just a while ago after someone bought a live crocodile from there? Or that other incident when a guy managed to smuggle in a hyena over from Saudi Arabia, which later went lose..
We really do have a border security issue.. Thank god for not having land borders with anyone..
I didn’t know that we had a law that only allows the import of certified halal meat, how come some supermarket chains all around the island still manage to sell meat products that aren’t halal?!
Hmm, last time an mp came to the Ma’atam and said that they will give the local market a face lift, a 3 million bd one. They will make it comparable to some sooq in dubai he talked about, it will be air conditioned and blah
That’s my favourite hangout place.. I have not rarely missed a friday (except this one)..
I guess the same regulations should apply to all the fake DVD layouts all over bab-ul-Bahrain, especially the make-shift stall behing the Ministry of Information (Tourism Office), opposite the Manama post-office.. How Ironic :w00t:
Sorry Mahmoud, slightly off-topic. I had mentioned my gardening interest etc. and I finally started a permaculture blog. I just posted a video by Geoff Lawton who’s a very well known permaculture practitioner from Australia and he went to Jordan to change the manner of growing food and in the process changing the salinity of the water in the soil. Since you’re such an avid gardener, plus living in a dry region, I thought you might be interested. My other (permie) blog is at http://austinpermie.blogspot.com.
Ingrid
This is really awful. I don’t like seeing birds in cages. Some parrots get so frustrated at the unatural confinement, they go nuerotic and mutilate themselves.
There is also a big illegal trade in South American parrots that is depleting the wild specimens.
You really have to stop the demand, get people to stop buying from places like this.
Sometimes, fate operates in mysterious ways. Not that it will deter them I don’t think.
Ingrid that is fantastic, I’m investigating…