Too many people are still dumping their pets while others are exploiting the free or discounted neutering and spaying services offered by animal charities.
These were the two main areas of concern for organisers of Walk for the Animals, a family-oriented activity organised by local animal welfare groups to recognise World Animal Day on Tuesday.
Founder of Action for Animals Barbados Gail Hunte said during the heightened stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, scores of Barbadians were abandoning their pets because they had lost their jobs and could not afford to maintain the animals.
However, she said that although the COVID-19 situation had eased and thousands of Barbadians had restarted work, this was still a major issue.
“You are not really seeing an improvement,” Hunte said. “People obviously don’t have the money to care for their animals. Sometimes they don’t even know what to do with them so the shelters would always say bring the animals to them but not everybody has transportation. So, as a quick fix, what they would do is dump them and they assume the animals are going to survive but they don’t.”
Hunte encouraged people not to go this route but to reach out to the shelters for assistance in getting food and medical care for their animals.
Founder of K9 Friends Karen Millen said her charity’s neutering and spaying programme was also an alternative for people who could not afford services at a veterinary clinic.
However, she said some people were abusing the programme.
Millen explained that people below the poverty line receive the services for free, while the charge for others ranges from $50 to $100, depending on the type of employment an individual had.
She said K9 Friends had other animal welfare functions to execute and abusing the neutering and spaying programme was “unfair” and dishonest”, and the situation angered her,
What has made the situation even worse is that there has been a significant decline in donations to the charity.
“We used to have a fundraiser every Christmas until COVID-19 came around and this will be the third Christmas we have not had it. When we had that, we used to get around US$250 000, but we have still been quite lucky. We are still getting money; not as much but we are still managing through people’s generosity,” said Millen.
This was the first time the Walk for the Animals was held in Barbados and officials said more than 100 people took part in the event.
The purpose of the walk was to promote animal welfare in Barbados and give representatives from various animal rights and welfare groups the opportunity to speak about what they were doing to advance animal wellbeing.
About 12 groups were represented, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), Ocean Acres and Humane Organisation for the Relief of Suffering Equines.
The walk kicked off around 6 p.m., starting at Pebbles Beach car park in Aquatic Gap, St Michael, and ending at the nearby Bay Street Esplanade. (SZB)
