The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

KIM Aranha, Bahamas Humane Society president, says the owner of the four dogs that mauled Alicia Barton should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“Whoever they have in custody it should cost him financially, emotionally and socially, but will it?” she said yesterday as she expressed sadness over the incident that left Ms Barton with serious injuries.

According to Ms Aranha yesterday, the incident shows The Bahamas has not yet reached the point where it takes dog aggression seriously.

Police said yesterday that a man was in custody over the dog attack on the cancer survivor.

However, Ms Aranha suggested this was not sufficient.

She said: “Yeah, they have him in custody and he’ll get a couple of meals from the prison system and then probably be out by day after tomorrow and they’ll track down the other three dogs and they’ll kill them right and then what’s going to happen? I can tell you, nothing until we take this seriously as a country. It’s not going to resolve itself on its own.

“Whoever they have in custody it should cost him financially, emotionally and socially, but will it? This is my concern.

“The thing is there are tons of instances where people’s dogs get out and they bite people or they savage somebody’s dog. But there are no repercussions for that.

“What I keep saying to people is if he (a dog) kills the neighbour’s dog today then what’s he going to do next week to the neighbour’s kid? It’s all a progression.”

Ms Aranha said the issue also involves how guard and attack dogs are trained. Ms Barton has claimed the dogs who mauled her were trained attack dogs.

“It’s just dreadful and once we put aside what’s been done to the victim and what she’s going through, it’s dreadful for all animal owners or dog owners in The Bahamas because (some will think) all dogs are going to go back to being killers and people will be frightened of them and yet the majority of dogs are good guys.

“So, this does everybody a great disservice because I know Pit Bulls who are very nice dogs. All Pit Bulls are not killers. Now, we have no idea under what circumstances these dogs were being kept. We don’t know if they were taught to attack.

“So, they’ve been turned into living, breathing, machine guns, which is so wrong and let me tell you what I find the most shocking in The Bahamas is just about every guard dog I’ve met, when you come to The Bahamas and you see the guard dogs, if you walk up to a guard with a dog he says don’t ‘don’t touch him, don’t touch him, he’s dangerous.’

“You go up to a guard dog in America or in England or a police dog they will lie on their backs and you can rub their tummies until they are told they are on duty and even when they’re on duty they don’t bite you just because you walk up to them.

“The guard dogs/attack dogs in The Bahamas are not adequately trained.

“Now, I can’t actually speak for the police dogs because I’ve had absolutely nothing to do with them. So, I have no idea how they train them. I would be interested to know if, like in other countries, that the police dogs here go home with his handler and lives in the house with the family, with the kids, with the wife, with the cat. I doubt that happens here.”

She also drew attention to the fact that a board mandated under the Animal Control and Protection Act has met only once.

The board’s purpose is to set certain guidelines pertaining to animals in the country.

“Right now, animal issues are not taken seriously in The Bahamas. This is not new. They have never been taken seriously,” the animal advocate said.

“We had a law called the Animal Control and Protection Act. That Act has within its legislation that there has to be a board that meets on a regular basis to establish certain guidelines.

“That law was passed 11 years ago. We have met once. Does that sound terribly serious to you?

“We must start to do things to ensure laws are there and that they are enforced.”

Ms Aranha gave some advice on what to do when an aggressive dog is approaching.

“The big thing is if you ever see dogs like that coming at you, get back in your car. Don’t run. Running away from a dog is the worst thing you can do. You don’t run away from a bear, right? You run away from a pack of dogs, you’re going to get attacked.”

She said everyone was brave in the situation that unfolded on Friday and the advice was not to blame Ms Barton, but instead to help anyone faced with the same situation.