A Guyanese entrepreneur shares her quest to help stray animals

Jun 05, 2022 News

---

“For as long as I can remember, my father, brothers and I have always loved animals. My husband, Tony Da Costa is also an animal lover so I didn’t have a problem…I always cared for animals but I didn’t realise just how much I cared until I started to rescue them…It’s a feeling like no other… Of course, these animals can’t say thank you but the reaction you get when you help them shows just how much they appreciate you for helping them.”

By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – People often go to great lengths to care for their pets; they invest time, money, and other resources to ensure that their precious ‘fur babies’ are cared for.

This week, Kaieteur News places the spotlight on the founder of the animal welfare non-profit Marie’s Pet Choice, Morissa Singh, whose single quest is to help stray animals.
Singh, an entrepreneur and animal lover, discovered just how much she cared about animals after the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to put a pause on her small-scale food manufacturing business.
Today, she spends an estimated G$1 million per month taking care of 137 abandoned, stray or mistreated cats and dogs.
Singh has literally opened her home to these abandoned creatures and pays out-of-pocket all the medical expenses to ensure hurt and discarded animals are fed and have adequate shelter.
She explained that when the COVID-19 pandemic came to Guyana some two years ago, like most entrepreneurs, she was forced to take stock of her life and weigh the prospect of continuing to operate her business.

Singh, a Guyanese by birth and a naturalised Barbadian had returned home from Barbados where she was resident for a number of years, on holiday but like most visitors, she got stuck here because all the flights in and out of the country were grounded.
As a result, she was forced to put a pause on production for her small manufacturing food enterprise which is based in Barbados.
She explained, “I am a trained and certified chef so I used my culinary skills to develop a line of healthy products called Marie’s Health Choice Hummus Dips… It’s made from Garbanzo beans, tahini and flavoured with a variety of spices that adds a Caribbean flare to it, it’s a popular food option in Barbados where I studied and lived for most of my life.”
According to Singh, the dietary supplement became a healthy food option and an instant hit among Bajans and tourist variety consumers. “They loved it; it became so popular that it was on the shelves of almost every supermarket on the island.”
The 36-year-old Guyanese told Kaieteur News while her tiny food enterprise was booming, she was always on the lookout to “do something that would add more meaning to her life.”
During the pandemic when everything slowed, Singh was able to discover “what that something was.”
She found purpose in helping stray or unwanted cats and dogs from her home village at Leonora, West Coast Demerara, and other parts of the coastland.

Singh said her work with the animals started when she rescued a neighbour’s abandoned cat, which she has since named, “Sunshine.” She said that the cat, which came into her life during the pandemic, has helped brightened each day since.
The animal lover explained, “He was my first rescue, he came and I could tell he was looking for a home so I started to feed him and pet him. He would go and come until he decided to stay with me.”
Singh told Kaieteur News that after that, she began to notice a number of stray animals, “mostly cats and dogs,” on the streets.
“I would see them when I went for my usual walks to get some sea breeze at the Leonora seaside. Puppies were being dumped there and I would see cats almost everywhere and no one seemed to care about them…Actually, my second rescue was a pup, which I found abandoned at the Leonora seawalls,” she added.
According to Singh, the decision to take in the stray animals was not a difficult one, since she comes from a family of animal lovers.
She explained, “For as long as I can remember, my father, brothers and I have always loved animals. My husband, Tony Da Costa is also an animal lover so I didn’t have a problem…I always cared for animals but I didn’t realise just how much I cared until I started to rescue them…It’s a feeling like no other… Of course, these animals can’t say thank you but the reaction you get when you help them shows just how much they appreciate you for helping them.”
To date, the couple has rescued 87 cats and almost 50 dogs—all strays which she took in over the past two years.
Due to the growing number of strays, she has taken in, Singh explained her home can no longer accommodate them. As a result, the entrepreneur moved the animals to her property located on the East Bank of Demerara.

She told Kaieteur News that her ultimate desire is to turn the place into a sanctuary for animals.
The Marie’s Pet Choice founder explained, “At present, the animals are housed and fed there. I do most of the work with the help of my husband, so we can’t expand care to include more or other types of animals. I have two persons who volunteer with me sometimes but they are not always available to assist because they have regular jobs.”
She continued, “A lot goes into caring for these animals, for instance, I try to make sure my animals receive the best treatment there is. I would spend close to $200,000 on fish and meat kind for the cats and dogs, I also pay for their vet visit and treatment; for them to be spayed or neutered.”
Singh emphasised that her work with getting the animals (cats and dogs) neutered so as to stop them from reproducing is essential to controlling the population of unwanted animals.
In fact, the animal lover is an advocate for the neutering of the animals.
“I try to spay all of my animals and the work is all out-of-pocket,” Singh said as she explained that her efforts are funded by her family’s construction business where I work alongside my husband.

“We don’t receive a lot of support as we would like but we still continue to do as much as we can to help rescue the animals,” said the entrepreneur who revealed too that she has no immediate plans to return to Barbados.
“As I explained before, I put my business on pause because I can always return to making my branded hummus dips which Barbados loves but for now, my focus is on building a sanctuary for these animals…” added Singh. As she continued, “I am always looking for charitable contributions or ways to continue to work with the animals because this is a non-profit once I get the animals on their feet again, I put them up for adoption and even take people through a process where I conduct site visits to ensure that they will give these animals, the best life.”
While she is open for assistance or donations, the animal welfare advocate also sells pet products such as green (environmentally friendly) and hand-made tote bags, animal beds, and other types of items to help raise funds for her growing initiative.
She said that at present, although she would have loved to extend the same care and support to other types of animals, her resources limit her from doing so.
In the meantime, the pet lover just hopes to encourage others to treat their animals a bit kinder.
She said, “I have lived abroad for most of my life in business, I was given an opportunity to grow and evolve as a person…People treat pets differently overseas and it shows…I just want to make my fellow Guyanese know that the way we treat our animals is a reflection of us, they can bring such joy and comfort to your lives. So start loving and treating them better.”
Those interested in helping Marie’s Pet Choice in the noteworthy venture to help strays can contact Singh on mobile number 659-8222 or email [email protected].
Also, if any member of the public wants to provide food or other items for the animals in Singh’s care, they can drop off same at the Number #1 Plant Shop which is located on Sheriff Street in the capital city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

---