Welcoming the proposed animal welfare legislation

Mar 25, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to my letter in your edition of March 23, captioned, “A brief history of my involvement in animal protection,” and would appreciate the publication of my conclusion here. Often Dr. Emmanuel Cummings and I struggled to cope with the large amount of companion animals which arrived at the SPCA. I recalled registering 64 animals one Tuesday afternoon, they included many exotic species which included caimans, snakes, tiger cats and wild hogs among others; it was blows! We soon enlisted the assistance of two friends and we still worked very hard. I wrote the British SPCA and solicited training for two persons but only secured funding for one and Mr. Noel Marques pursued training in London.
While at the SPCA, the need was felt for stricter animal welfare legislation, many persons who had the money to buy animals just bought them and mistreated them. There was one gentleman who bought a dog and a tiger, raised them both, and then put them to mate, the tiger just ate the dog! Then persons were mating dogs of incompatible types, such indiscriminate breeding only produced –monstrosities – in the words of the then vice president of the SPCA Steve Surujbally. This exposed the animal to great discomfort and dirty the bloodlines which requires foreign exchange to replenish.
It is in this context that the proposed animal welfare legislation, once properly crafted, will assist Guyana to develop. All middle income countries have such legislation. For example, Guyana has produced some very good breeders of dogs and cats, a few exported animals with great difficulties; others just stop breeding out of sheer frustration. The proposed legislation will provide protection to unsuspecting persons who purchase companion animals, many of whom are habitually ripped off in the absence of such legislation.
Professional breeders will also be able to protect the intellectual property and purity of their bloodlines, which is very important to a breeder. Guyanese breeders will be able to obtain very high quality breeding stock from overseas because international breeders will have a guarantee that agreements of sale and ‘farming out’ agreements will be honoured by the laws of Guyana, so they will have greater confidence in the system as well.
A lot of work was done to this end over the years, when the Canine Club sought to register dogs which originate overseas; we had to fulfill some rigid criteria. In 1994, we needed an official attestation from the government. We took this up with the government and Dr. Cheddi Jagan instructed then minister of agriculture Mr. Clinton Collymore to issue those documents to the relevant authorities.
We also tried to invite a cruise ship which ferry dogs and owners to shows around the world. The then minister of home affairs provided a guarantee to the tour operators that the government was willing to do everything possible to make their visit here a success.
We successfully lobbied the ministry of agriculture for Trinidad and Suriname to be removed from the restricted schedule which prevented dogs being imported from those jurisdictions. The senior officers who addressed that matter were Dr. Lennox Applewaithe and Dr. Linden Dodson. Then came another problem, whenever a dog was imported, one had to leave the animal at the Timehri international airport to engage customs in Georgetown, this often took several days. We took the matter up with Messrs Bahadur, Linton and Bancroft and persons were allowed to remove the dogs to a safe environment then deal with customs, which brought much relief.
So that things were being dealt with in a symptomatic and onerous manner. We even assisted persons who had pet shops to justify their case at commercial banks, since the banks did not understand the nuances of the pet and companion animal industry. We also started an animal journal which was more popular overseas than at home because of the general lack of awareness. In the end the economy could not support such a high end sport and we decided to lay the organisation to rest until such time that there is sufficient need for such a highly specialized service.
When word of the proposed legislation was made public several enthusiasts met and took a decision to resuscitate the Guyana Canine Club. In summary, the proposed legislation will address matters as it relate to animals in its totality many of which currently negatively affect the lives of the average Guyanese, without our involvement in or knowledge of it.
Clairmont Featherstone

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Welcoming the proposed animal welfare legislation

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