Meet Syria's saluki dog breeders

Despite a war and a pandemic, the dog-breeding business in Al-Darbasiyah, a Syrian town on the border with Turkey, hasn’t stopped.

Mohammed Derbas has been breeding hunting dogs, including greyhounds and salukis, for over a decade. Salukis, cousins of the greyhound, have been used for hunting for thousands of years in the Middle East, and are some of the fastest canines. They were revered in ancient Egypt, being kept as royal pets and mummified after death. Derbas races his dogs on his motorbike to train them up.

Derbas usually sells the dogs to Emirati and Qatari nationals, but in his village of Alia, in the outskirts of Al-Darbasiyah, the pandemic brought about tough conditions similar to those of the war. He claims transportation came to a halt for six months, but that didn’t stop him from completing his sales. Derbas shipped dogs to Qatar via Damascus International Airport, where he says they were safely received. He is now waiting for a road to be reopened so his 50 dogs can be transported to their Emirati owners.

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