Dubai now has one shelter that treats, rehabilitates, and rehomes rescued cats and dogs, plus a digital platform that shows you which pets are available before you drive out to see them. The shelter sits inside the Birds and Pets Market in Warsan. Vet care, grooming, and adoption all happen in the same building. If you want to adopt instead of buying from a breeder, found a stray on your street, or lost a pet somewhere in the city, keep reading.
Adopters, people who found a stray, and owners with a missing pet. Those are the three groups this shelter was built around.
If you’ve put off adopting because walking into a shelter cold feels like a gamble, that risk is mostly gone now. Check a pet’s health and behaviour details on your phone first, then go meet the ones that look like a fit. Found a stray cat or dog nearby? There’s now an actual place to bring it, staffed by people trained for intake, not just a drop-off box. Lost your own pet somewhere in Dubai? There’s a centre built specifically to get it back to you.
Four services live under one roof here: veterinary treatment, rehabilitation, grooming, and adoption. There’s also a surgical operating theatre on site, so animals that arrive injured or sick don’t need to be shuttled elsewhere for care.
Dubai Municipality has also signed on Vets Fur Pets Veterinary Clinic and Phoenix Veterinary Clinic as treatment partners. The shelter isn’t handling every case alone.
For adoption, the setup uses interactive rooms instead of cages lined up in a hallway. You sit with the animal somewhere quiet before deciding anything. It sounds like a small detail, but it changes things. A cat that looks shut down behind bars can act completely different once it has room to move and a person sitting still next to it.
Open the app, browse what’s available, read the health and behaviour notes on each animal. That’s the actual shift here. You’re not guessing whether a dog does well around kids or whether a cat has a medical issue you’d only find out about later. It’s written down before you show up.
The routine looks like this: check the platform, shortlist a few animals that fit your home and your schedule, then go to Warsan and spend real time with them in the adoption rooms. Nobody’s asking you to decide on sight. You’re narrowing things down before you even walk in, which saves you a wasted trip and saves the animal another round of being looked over and passed on.
Not ready to commit to a pet yet but want to be around animals for a bit? Family spots like Umm Al Quwain Zoo work for that too, especially if you’re trying to see how kids in the house handle being around animals on a regular basis.
Go to the reunification centre at Warsan. It exists for exactly this, and it checks identification and ownership before handing any animal back. Bring whatever proof you have: vaccination records, a chip number, clear photos, anything that confirms the pet belongs to you.
It also helps to already have the right emergency contacts saved, not while you’re standing in the street at 11pm looking for your dog. DigiFlow’s list of emergency numbers across the UAE is worth bookmarking before you need it, not after.
Trap-Neuter-Return is still running for stray cats, alongside the new shelter, not instead of it. Cats get humanely trapped, neutered, vaccinated where needed, then returned to where they were found, as long as it’s safe for the cat and for anyone nearby.
Stray dogs and cats needing ongoing care go through separate treatment programmes rather than TNR. Dogs aren’t sent back to the street the same way cats are under this system. Between the shelter’s own clinic and its two partner clinics, the aim is managing the stray population humanely rather than just moving animals out of sight.
Dr Naseem Mohammed Rafei, acting CEO of the Environment, Health and Safety Agency at Dubai Municipality, tied the shelter to the “One Health” approach, which treats human, animal, and environmental health as connected rather than three separate problems. That’s why a pet shelter also counts as a public health project here, not only an animal welfare one.
This isn’t the municipality’s only move in this space recently either. Earlier this year, Dubai Municipality installed the region’s first AI-powered “Ihsan” smart feeding stations for stray animals, 12 units across the city. Stray animal welfare is now one more area getting the same AI-driven public service treatment other city services already get.
Thinking about fitting a Warsan visit into your week? Pair it with whatever else is already on the calendar rather than treating it as its own separate errand. DigiFlow’s roundup of weekend activities in the UAE can help with that.
Where is Dubai’s new pet shelter located?
Warsan, inside the Birds and Pets Market.
How do I adopt a cat or dog in Dubai now?
Browse the digital adoption platform, check health and behaviour notes on the animals you like, then visit Warsan and spend time with your shortlist in the adoption rooms before deciding.
What does the Warsan shelter offer besides adoption?
Veterinary treatment, rehabilitation, grooming, and a surgical operating theatre, all in one building, with Vets Fur Pets Veterinary Clinic and Phoenix Veterinary Clinic backing up treatment.
What do I do if I find a stray cat or dog in Dubai?
Bring it to the Warsan shelter. It’s set up to handle intake, treatment, and either rehoming or return depending on the animal’s condition.
How do I find a lost pet in Dubai?
Contact the reunification centre at Warsan with proof of ownership, like vaccination records or a chip number. They verify identification before returning any animal.
Is Dubai still trapping and releasing stray cats?
Yes. TNR continues alongside the new shelter. Cats get trapped, neutered, vaccinated where needed, and returned to their original spot if it’s safe.
What is Dubai’s Ihsan feeding station programme?
AI-powered feeding stations for stray animals, 12 units installed across Dubai earlier this year. It runs separately from the Warsan shelter but serves the same welfare goals.
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