EDITOR, The Tribune.
The Bahamas Humane Society applauds the incentive of the Bahamas government to create a sanctuary for dogs. It is high time that the plight of animals in the Bahamas be recognised. Potcakes are frequently mistreated and abused and the Bahamas Humane Society has spent the past 99 years trying to alleviate suffering.
We are presently the recipients of a grant from government of $75,000.00 and excitedly await more assistance from this enlightened Bahamian government.
The Bahamas Humane Society was founded in June 1924 and has always had a strong emphasis on education. We have been visiting schools every year since our education programme was established in 1986. We have been very dependent on volunteers to support the programme because of the quantity of schools that need to be visited and the numbers of classes. Since COVID, we have less visits but still average about five a month and have recently been requested to travel to Exuma to visit the schools there.
In 2008, the BHS presented to every school in the nation a curriculum for primary school with the knowledge and support of the Ministry of Education. We would be happy to share this textbook which we created.
Education is key, and a thriving and comprehensive education centre, as anticipated, with lively classes daily for visiting schools would be very welcome addition to the animal community.
We also acknowledge the enormous need for a rehabilitation centre, as there are so many unnecessary and unfortunate attacks, and clearly very few responsible owners, rehabilitating those dogs to be able to join loving homes is a goal that is steeped with compassion and empathy.
We, at the BHS do our best to rehabilitate as many animals that we can, however, the time and money required to rehabilitate just one dog, can be very challenging. We are delighted that BAARK will be making these very needy dogs a priority to help them to become better citizens.
The Bahamas Humane Society has been providing a safe haven for animals that are neglected or abused for the past 99 years. We have a very active inspectorate who goes out daily and conducts animal abuse inspections, frequently resulting in taking possession of the animals involved. Providing “Safe Haven” for animals is a tradition we started almost a 100 years ago and we continue to do so every day.
Yes, we welcome all the help we can get, we welcome BAARK and the Bahamian government welcoming some of our canine residents into their sanctuary to help them find better lives. We need lots of assistance, so this is good news.
There are approximately 30,000 dogs on the island of New Providence, it will take many more sanctuaries and shelters to help resolve the problems. The Bahamas Humane Society is actively working on the plans for our new shelter and we plan to break ground in early 2024.
In the past 12 months, we have airlifted over 1200 animals to North America to “no kill” shelters for adoption. The only real solution to the exploding animal numbers is spay and neuter which is what BAARK is so remarkably good at.
In the century old tradition of the Bahamas Humane Society, we will continue to support, protect and educate and are now so very excited to see that Minister Sweeting is one hundred percent on our side and we look forward to working together to make this country a better place for animals and people.
Kim Victoria Aranha
President, Bahamas Humane Society
June 13, 2023.
Comments
themessenger 10 months, 3 weeks ago
Mrs Aranha, I applaud your appreciation of the government’s $75K grant, however, the question begs what could your organization do with the millions of dollars that will be squandered by the government on expensive and mismanaged animal shelters, one has only to look at the government Animal Control Units record to see an opportunity squandered.
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