EDITOR, The Tribune.
I sent a letter to this paper about the abuse of a puppy by a young man in a pet store. I do not know if it was published but I never saw it in the paper and I purchase The Tribune almost every day.
I shared how the young man said that the puppy was “soft” and that was why his friend was treating it roughly. Each of them had an innocent puppy to torture and in their minds they were making the animals tough. This tells us that something is wrong mentally and spiritually with these young men.
I was very upset and told them not to treat the dogs like that. I was told that they were not my dogs so I should go where I going. I hope The Tribune prints this letter because as a Bahamian I have some things that I want to say. I observe that political letters that take up the whole page are printed very often and they are often written by the same person. I ask that the same courtesy be given to me.
Firstly, I want to say that the abuse of animals is a crime and anyone who witnesses it or is aware that it is going on should call the police.
I have noticed that in our society very few adults speak out against what is wrong.
I have witnessed school children on countless occasions, doing wrong in the presence of adults and not a word is said.
I am always the one to speak up because I believe that this is how children and people in general learn what is ok or acceptable.
We as a society must have a standard. I prayed for those poor puppies and I asked God to intervene and take them out of their care.
I had to leave the store, but I wonder if anyone else spoke to them about the horrible evil they were doing or called the police or offered to buy the dogs from them just to save them. Did anyone do anything?
Secondly, our police should and must take animal abuse seriously. No one should be laughed at if they call to report abuse and ask for a police officer to come and deal with the matter.
Those in charge of law enforcement should research the connection between animal abuse and other violent crimes.
I have heard the minister of National Security quote statistics on many things, but I would like him to research how many persons in America who are charged with animal abuse are also charged with violent crimes.
I heard on the news that the President of the Christian Council said that the criminals have no boundaries because they shot a woman and her baby. This is indeed true. That incident was disturbing and heartless.
My point is that if someone can abuse or hurt or kill an animal they can and will most likely kill or hurt a human being without thought.
It is for this reason that the government and governments to come should pass more stringent laws on animal abuse and neglect.
Also along with severe penalties should come psychological therapy.
Persons charged with such crimes should not be allowed to own animals ever again.
Also the government needs to ban the breeding of dogs, especially pit bulls who are usually recipients of abuse by ignorant, heartless owners.
The Commissioner of Police should give firm orders to his officers to take crimes against animals seriously and to enforce all laws including the abuse or neglect of animals.
There is no doubt that anyone who can hurt an animal can and will hurt a person.
For too long this crime has been downplayed by police and by some people in general.
We need to establish animal abuse hotlines and assign officers to this unit who will take these crimes seriously.
We need to allow for anonymous tips and offer rewards.
If we apprehend an animal abuser of any age we are intervening in the life of a person who is on his or her way to more violent and dangerous crimes and hopefully we can prevent another assault or murder from taking place.
Animals may be unable to speak but they have feelings and emotions just like we do.
They feel hunger, thirst, and pain and they also want to be loved.
Just about every day on the news in the United States we hear stories of how policemen or firemen rescued an animal or how an animal abuser was jailed.
The US has a population of millions of people and yet they have created and are enforcing laws that protect animals. We need to do the same.
A VOICE FOR ANIMALS
Nassau,
April 18, 2021.
Comments
themessenger 3 years ago
The letter writer is entirely correct. Animal abuse is, and has been, rampant in the Bahamas. How often have you seen school children walking the street pick up and throw rocks at a dog that was guilty of nothing other than being in the immediate vicinity. These same school children pick up rocks and bottles and throw them at each other without a second thought. There is also no question that there is a correlation between deliberate act’s of cruelty towards animals and deliberate acts of violence directed at humans by others as evidenced by the mayhem and carnage on our streets and in our communities every day. We do have laws for animal cruelty but asking the police to enforce them is a complete waste of time as they are some of the biggest offenders, even going as far as to shoot caged animals on private property. These are those same rock throwing school children grown up and now wielding something more deadly than a rock. Over the last fifty odd years we have seen in the Bahamas a gradual but steady erosion of law and order, beginning with ignoring the enforcement of the more minor or petty offenses. That trickle has become a torrent, we have sown the wind and are now reaping the whirlwind!
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