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Unlawful establishment of ‘animal shelters’ countrywide

Dec 23, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

The Animal Welfare Act of 2018 assented to by former President, David Granger, published in The Official Gazette 7th September, 2018, Legal Supplement A, provides much needed broader, comprehensive and effective Legislation to address animal cruelty.

It makes specific provisions of requirements to operate an animal shelter including regular inspections by the competent authority, accountability inclusive of record keeping of deaths and humane killing of animals in its care and animals permanently removed from or taken out of the shelter.

There are ‘animal shelters or sanctuaries’, as they introduce themselves on social media, soliciting financial and kind from the public using pictures of animals with heart touching stories. The motives of these establishments are grey since they openly publish threats to ‘put down’ the animals if donations are not to their expectations. There are also reports of unhealthy and insanitary living conditions and gross mistreatment of animals at these establishments. Such situations pose health risks to neighbours, it creates discomfort and discord in communities which are all harmful to efforts to foster empathy, compassion and respect for animals from the public to promote good animal welfare to reduce animal cruelty.

A call is made to the ‘competent authority’ identified in the Act being the Guyana Livestock Development Authority to investigate and level appropriate sanctions at these establishments in the absence of lawful approval to operate. An urgent crucial issue is accountability for the manner, in which animals in these establishments are ‘put down’ when they are strapped for resources to provide the appropriate humane technique in adherence with good practices to induce the most rapid and painless and distress-free death possible. The questions to be answered are who conducts the procedure in the absence of a licensed Veterinary Surgeon, using what and are the methods lawful. In the absence of justifiable explanation then it is unequivocally clear that the sympathetic public is deceived to support animal cruelty operations which should not continue with impunity as outlined in Animal Welfare Act 2018.

Sincerely,

Tricia Azaire

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