A sanctuary for animals in the Arabian desert
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When you think of an animal sanctuary, the Arabian desert is probably not the first location that comes to mind. But Ronel Smuts runs such a place in the United Arab Emirates. Times staff writer Jeffrey Fleishman reports:
Life can be tough on the edge of a desert emirate where sand stings and the sun hangs like misery by 9 a.m. Ronel Smuts oversees a menagerie of exotic and endangered animals rescued from smugglers, airports, bazaars, palaces. Some arrive bone thin, others were abused, like the lioness whose teeth were filed down by a sheik. Two African baboons were found in a car in Dubai; a jaguar was shipped in from Kazakhstan. When they get here, they meet a South African divorcee with a tin feeding bowl and an ornery side who jokes -- one assumes it’s a joke -- that she’ll throw her crew, eight Arab men in khaki shirts and matching caps, into the crocodile pond if floors aren’t swept and cages aren’t repaired. Smuts has a soft heart for animals and a tart tongue for most everyone else; she once had 14 cheetahs living in her villa, and she’s installed mosquito zappers in the lion’s den, which, incidentally, is air-conditioned.