A startling question at the GSPCA that floored me

Jan 21, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I keep writing and saying ad infinitum that you find negative things here that are not in existence elsewhere. A few days before Christmas, I saw another such situation.

For years now, my wife and I stopped giving each other birthday and Christmas gifts. We take our respective money that should go into the purchase of the gifts, pool it, and at Christmas we give it to the Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA) on Robb Street, Bourda.

Last year, something unusual happened. I entered the building, stated what my business was. I was stunned by a question I would never have anticipated anywhere in the world. One of the attendants asked me as I produced the envelope with the funds; “Do you want a receipt?”

I thought that was standard practice anywhere in the world. When you make financial donations, to the organisations of any kind, a receipt should be issued. I went home, told my wife what happened, and she too found the question strange.

I have been hearing reports the last two years that the GSPCA is falling below the standards it had decades ago with regards to its willingness to respond urgently when animals are in physical pain. My dog got knocked down on UG Road and the GSPCA was unable to help.

This new situation is ironic because the past ten years, Guyana has experienced quite a number of university-trained vets, and there cannot be a shortage. I think only a few of them donate their service to the GSPCA. But is that any surprise? Hey! This is Guyana maan!

A letter by Ms Atika Stephens in the newspapers recently needs to be highlighted. I am reproducing the letter because the contents we should reflect on. Ms. Stephens wrote;

“I heard the loud cries of a cat coming from the roadside; I stepped outside to see what the problem was. I saw a cat (presumably a stray) with both back legs broken and in pain. I immediately picked him up rested him on a dry blanket and waited for the GSPCA to start working. At about 830am I called the GSPCA to ask for assistance but was told by the young lady that answered the phone that the vehicle was down and I have up until 5 to transport the animal. The kind lady told me that it was better to put him to sleep (euthanasia)

Throughout the day I monitored the poor Tom, and even fed him a few ounces of milk with a syringe. At about 4 in the afternoon, I packed the cat in a basket and asked a colleague of mine to drop him by. This is when the trouble started. As we drove up to the entrance of the shelter the gate was padlocked and my colleague with the cat in his hand moved towards it, no one sitting outside even made an attempt to open the gate, but as he rested the basket on the ground they screamed at him not to put the cat down (I don’t know if they thought he was going to abandon the tom there)

As he stepped in, and before he could have said anything, he was told that the vet was not in and they could not take the cat but gave directions to some other place in Cummings Street. Again he tried to explain and was interjected and told that they can’t keep the cat, I subsequently called the phone and told the nurse that that cat is the feline I called and reported this morning. She immediately raised her voice and said that my colleague did not explain… (How can he explain if he is not given a chance?)

I could have heard the commotion in the background, and I said ma’am, please do not raise your voice, to which she responded that that’s her tone and she can go higher if I like. I told her I will pen this letter.

I know GSPCA responds promptly to letters published. And I patiently await their side of the story.

But in the meantime my word of advice to those in the organisation would be:

1 Do not take the job because there is a vacancy; take it because you genuinely love it.

We are all humans, sometimes it’s okay to listen before we respond.
We appreciate your service to the voiceless, but sometimes it’s okay to extend the same courtesy to those with voices also.”

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A startling question at the GSPCA that floored me

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