A dog believed to have been abandoned in the Abu Dhabi desert is looking for a forever family.
The Saluki mix was found wandering alone by dune bashers at the weekend.
The dog, thought to be about a year old, was first spotted weeks ago by Cristina Marinelli and her family. They visit the same spot in Al Khatim every Friday.
Ms Marinelli said she assumed the dog, who they called Ariel, had an owner who was nearby, so they did not take her home at the time.
"I remember we were having a Christmas party with another family. She just ran up. She saw the car and ran for kilometres," said Ms Marinelli, 36, who has two daughters, aged 7 and 3, and is from Italy.
“She was just hanging around with us and she was lovely with the children, so playful.”
They spotted her for a second time during a visit to the area weeks later.
“She followed us for kilometres. She would literally run after our car to be with us. I guess she was looking for an owner or someone to take care of her,” she said.
“My daughters got really sad. Every time we saw her she was getting skinnier.”
They vowed not to leave her behind if they saw her again, which happened on Friday, when they brought her home with them.
“We said let’s not take her to a shelter, because we didn’t know what would happen. So we took her home,” said Ms Marinelli.
The family is not in a position to keep her permanently, but will look after the "gentle and playful" pup until they find her a good home.
“We would really love a family with kids to take her because she loves children and I think she would make another family so happy,” said Ms Marinelli.
“It looks like she was part of a family before and was most likely abandoned."
The dog, who does not have a microchip, is underweight. The vet said she was probably a stray or was abandoned, given her condition.
Ms Marinelli believes the dog was abandoned because she is comfortable and affectionate with people, particularly children, and appears to be house trained.
Susan Aylott, a vet and partner in Animalia, a veterinary clinic in Al Bateen, said the family did the right thing by bringing the dog home with them.
"If stray dogs have a food source or they are used to being fed, there is something going wrong there," she said.
The clinic reported a surge in people abandoning their animals recently.
“We are seeing not just dogs, but cats and rabbits," said Ms Aylott.
“We are receiving seven phone calls a week saying: can you come and take my dog, cat or rabbit? Because they no longer want it.
“Abandonment is against the law because it is against animal welfare. But the problem is it is hard to implement. How do you prove it?”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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