Dear Editor,

We write to express our serious concern as to what the misleading headline in last Monday’s newspaper – “Stray Dog invasion! Vets warn of public health and safety” — will do to the already sad state of the island’s stray animals.

And coming as it does on the tragic death of a small child, it can and probably will set off a chain reaction of panic amongst the general public.

It is true that some stray dogs (particularly if parasite-infected) may pose a health hazard, but I think the article was actually suggesting that this would be a future consequence if the problem is not addressed now.

As an animal sanctuary that has handled thousands of stray animals over the past 20 years, we can attest to the fact that we have done so without ill-effect. Most of these animals have been ill or injured and yet no one associated with our sanctuary has ever been injured or become ill as a result of interacting with them.

Generally, stray animals are neither vicious nor a threat to the island’s people, so to paint them as such is rather unfair to the dogs that already are subjected to unbelievable cruelty, especially poisoning.

Speaking of poisoning, we are now seeing a frightening increase in this barbaric phenomenon. As an organisation formed to fight against animal abuse, we are anxious to have the Cruelty to Animals Act brought up-to-date so as to provide the punishment that is appropriate for such a crime. We are also concerned about the adverse affect on the environment that the indiscriminate use of such dangerous chemicals (which are sold without any controls) is having. Again, articles such as the one that appeared in your newspaper are very likely to further increase a horrible and quite dangerous situation that is already close to being out-of-control.

Several years ago, The Gleaner published a similarly misleading piece regarding “cat scratch fever” which resulted in hordes of cats, even family pets, being unnecessarily abandoned. And, as all of us who bothered to follow up that incident know, there was only one case of the fever ever reported in Jamaica.

The answer to stray overpopulation is sterilisation as is rightly pointed out by the vets you quoted in the body of your article. However, with the cost of spay/neuter surgery being what it is in Jamaica, (although the average cost varies from $7,000 upwards some vets charge as much as $18,000 for spay surgery and $12,000 for a neuter), there is no way that the average person with a pet can afford to have it done even if they wanted to. And not many people are willing to have a stray sterilised at their expense.

As our initial attack on this problem, which is quite critical on the north coast, we have two highly qualified volunteer vets coming from Germany next Tuesday who are prepared to do a one-week free spay/neuter clinic focusing on (a) our in-house rescued animals, (b) the feral cats at local hotels and (c) stray dogs in the community. These vets are willing to make this a twice-yearly event with the addition of more volunteer vets each year. There are several other similar initiatives in the works.

Given the enormity of the problem we all have to work together to solve it. From what we hear, a massive effort was made in St Lucia with strong co-operation between international and local vets and animal shelters and sanctuaries. The result? The stray overpopulation was brought under control within five years.

It is our hope that one day this will be the case in Jamaica and we are committed to making it a reality. We would ask that you print something on your front page about the thousands of harmless stray dogs and cats who already live a very tough life and are, in the vast majority, free from any contagious disease and will not bite, to reassure the public that they have little to worry about at this time so they should leave them alone.

Dogs are wonderful creatures that are rightfully called “man’s best friend”. If treated well, a dog will defend you to the end and it is in the public’s best interest to be educated to the fact that the presence of dogs in a community (if the population is controlled) is a blessing rather than a curse.

Another aspect to consider is the concern of the visitors to the island who become distraught at the fact that there are so many stray cats and dogs in dire need (we do as much as we can but we need 10 more organisations such as ours). We get hundreds of letters annually expressing this concern and if a concerted effort is made to help these animals, the resulting positive publicity will do much to change the present perception and increase visitor arrivals (there are millions of animal lovers out there).

In closing, we would like to invite any local vet who is able to come and assist at our clinic next week. It is a requirement of the Veterinary Division of the Ministry of Agriculture that we have a local vet present to oversee and we would be very grateful for volunteers.

The Animal House Jamaica

admin@theanimalhousejamaica.org