Dealing with stray dog, cat problem

THE EDITOR: Open response to Minister of Local Government Kazim Hosein on the topic of the proposed San Fernando City Corporation $3 million dog pound.

I was present at a meeting when you were mayor at which you discussed a way forward to the stray dog/pound issue and we suggested that a modern building was not the complete solution as it would only be a new building where the same old workers would operate in the same old way.

Please consider instead a dramatic change in the way the stray dog and cat problem is managed:

* New laws or amendments to existing laws which make pet owners culpable when they are irresponsible (Chile just did this).

* A government-subsidised national spay and neuter programme based on education, awareness and action (this can be for a period of three years).

* Instituting the licence and electronic tagging system so each district maintains a database of pets owned (this will gain back the revenue for the spay and neuter programme).

* The implemention of an animals authority where people who abuse animals can be reported and cases investigated and perpetrators charged and fined or imprisoned.

After these have been put in place, the modernised pound will then only house real homeless dogs or dogs seized from irresponsible owners who have been dealt with by the law and would be blacklisted from owning another pet.

The corporation can now begin a working relationship with the shelters to take over the dogs because the numbers should have been greatly reduced because of the restrictions placed on pet ownership. This is a holistic approach which looks at inputs, throughputs and outputs and does not just deal with the end result of a huge problem in an inhumane way.

Please meet with the stakeholders to consider these and other humane recommendations, Mr Minister. You seem to be a good man who is interested in meaningful change. And we should never undervalue any of God’s creatures.

KATHRYN

CLEGHORN

president,

Animals Alive