Activists heading to court to get tougher sentences for animal cruelty

Five animal welfare organisations are renewing the call for the Government to enforce animal abuse legislation.

And asserting that they are not yet satisfied that animal abuse is being taken as a serious crime in Barbados, one of the groups is seeking judicial review of a case in which a 28-year-old man was earlier this year given probation after admitting to animal cruelty which led to his dog’s death.

The Be Their Voice organisation insisted on Wednesday that it wants to ensure someone in Barbados is fully penalised for animal injustice instead of getting a slap on the wrist.

Members of the group, with the support of representatives from Action for Animals Barbados, The Horse Charity, and Ocean Acres Animal Sanctuary, made the plea for animal abuse to be taken more seriously on the one-year anniversary of the death of a dog named Sparky on Pebbles Beach, on September 13, 2022. In that highly-publicised incident, which was captured on video and circulated on social media, Davino Shakell Howard of Bullens Avenue, Dalkeith Road, St Michael was charged with wantonly ill-treating and causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

Attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman, a member of the Ark Animal Welfare Society of Barbados, who is representing the Be Their Voice organisation in the application for judicial review that will be heard on October 30, pointed out that since the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Abuse Act was passed in 2007, there had only been two prosecutions, to his recollection.

“One was to do with Sparky where Mr Howard got a suspended probationary sentence of 12 months to run concurrently with two other sentences. So, in fact, it can be argued that he didn’t get any sentence at all . . . [even] though he pleaded guilty to mistreating the dog,” he said at a press conference held at the Cruising Club in Aquatic Gap, St Michael on Wednesday.

“There was also the issue of the burning of two monkeys in a cage and only suspended sentences were handed down [in that matter]. Section 3 the Act speaks to being incarcerated up to 12 months or a $1 000 fine or both, but neither has ever been done. Nobody has ever been fined, not even $1 for animal abuse in Barbados in the last 16 years . . . . Nobody has been imprisoned, not even for one day.”

Hanuman said he believed talk about the Government amending the legislation was a “public relations exercise” because of the public outcry following Sparky’s death, when video of the incident was circulated on social media.

He insisted that increasing fines will make no difference if the law is not enforced.

“So instead of it being a 12-month imprisonment option, it will be a two-year imprisonment option, and instead of it being a $1 000 fine, it will be a $50 000 fine. But I asked the Prime Minister if the current miniscule fines and sentences are not being implemented, what difference does it make if it’s a 1 000-year sentence or a $1 million fine?

“Changing the legislation and raising the fine or raising the sentence is totally irrelevant. Implementing the legislation is what is required, not a change to the legislation,” the attorney insisted.

The proposed Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health Bill, 2023 includes penalties for persons convicted of engaging in animal abuse, torture, and cruelty.

Head of the Be Their Voice organisation Lavern Beresford said she wanted the Government to have a heavy-handed approach to animal injustice.

“This is Barbados where animal welfare is not taken seriously. This is Barbados where dogs are being starved daily, they’re being chained, they’re not being socialised, they cannot exercise….

“Today, we have come here to gather in solidarity to say to Government, ‘we’re begging you, please [that] unless penalties are put in place, it will continue to be a Barbados where animal welfare just isn’t taken seriously without the penalties and the fines. We will continue to see more Davino Howards, we will continue to see more Sparkys and there will be others to follow. We need for the legislation that’s already in place to be enforced,” she pleaded.

During the press conference, Trustee for Action for Animals Barbados Gail Hunte announced that she was in the process of gathering signatures for a petition to be sent off to the Government regarding the improvement of animal welfare in Barbados.

Thus far, she said she received about 10 000 signatures.

Meanwhile, Karen Whittaker of Ocean Acres announced that more than 200 homeless dogs from Barbados will be put on a chartered flight on October 15 to be sent to an animal shelter in Canada.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb