There is a house in Abu Dhabi that is said to be the first owl café in the Middle East, but netizens accused it of trapping birds and preventing them from flying freely, which is suspected of cruelty to animals.
Xie Xi, the owner of the café named Boomah, said, "The birds are all taken care of by the trainers. The restaurant opens daily at 2 p.m. and is open until 10 p.m. This allows the owl to "have enough rest throughout the night and all morning, and will also be released to roam freely".
Xie Xi told that there are 9 owls in the store to serve customers, but some of them are not allowed to live in the wild: "Take Venus (yellow brown owls) as an example. When she hatched, one wing was shorter than the other, which prevented her from flying at high altitudes, and now she is a healthy 8-year-old owl living happily despite her disability."
Netizens who were dissatisfied with the shopkeeper bombarded: "I mean, birds should be free, and it seems wrong to make money from animals in cages," and "Can we stop using animals for entertainment and money?" It's wrong on all levels, it's animal cruelty", "When will animal entertainment stop forever! We humans are terrible! It's heartbreaking that these birds are trapped in chains."