Syrian woman opens hotel catering for pets in Erbil
Amal Amro and her husband with cats at their center in Erbil – North Press
ERBIL, KRI, Iraq, (North Press) – Her love for pets and her activity in the arena made Amal Amro, a Syrian refugee, to open a hotel catering for cats and dogs in Erbil, capital of Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), being the first of its kind.
Seven years ago, Amal Amro did not travel alone to Erbil; rather she took her dog “Blaki”. Blaki made Amro to open a hotel to be the first in the whole of Kurdistan region.
Amro told North Press that she came to Erbil in 2015 looking for a job. Within her residence, she expressed fears over her dog, “I thought where could I leave him when I go to work, or going outside Erbil?”
Based on this obsession, Amro decided to set on her project. In 2020, she opened a hotel like a kindergarten where solution for a large number of pets loving people was found.
After few months, the hotel received applauds and people began to leave their pets when they travelled “in return for a daily amount of money.”
Although the center has become a source of income for her, Amro stressed that the idea of the project is to cater for animals in the first place, as an activist in this arena.
She seeks to develop her work and to spread the culture of catering for pets dubbing her project as “humanitarian.”
“It is true that services rendered by the hotel are paid for, but the project is a non-profit one fore and foremost. It is a humanitarian one that caters for pets and protects them; we love pets fore and foremost.”
Amro described her house as a warm one where pets find all kinds of psychological and health care, saying, “We do not put dogs in cages or quarantine them, we play with them in the garden and inside. They have a daily routine that includes breakfast, bathing and playing, and an evening routine that includes dinner and playing in the garden.”
Amal Pet Hotel provides psychological support for animals saying, “When an animal is left alone, or in a cage, its feelings are scared. It becomes isolated and lazy. However, in the hotel the dogs play together. They play with cats, too. They become more active and their health improves.”
The project of Amal is not limited to receiving animals from their owners and cater for them until they return, she helps owners of pets to register them formally and to give them vaccinations and to facilitate their documents in case of travelling abroad.
Amal Pet Hotel includes a section that provides bathing, nail clipping, combing, and perfuming them. In addition to sleeping rooms and a room for playing which has balls and games to develop their intelligence.
Amal Amro added that she loves pets and that she does not believe in trading animals. She caters for them and protecting them from man.
“Eastern communities have religious heritages, some hurt animals saying that dogs are unclean, some say cats have evil inside, this makes animals in danger.”