News

THE DAILY HERALD, April 13, 2002

"Sterilizing is the perfect solution"

by Wim Hart 

Two bowls can always be seen in a dead-end alley next to this store in the center of town. One contains dog food, the other has water in it. And, if you are patient long enough, you will see a lady coming out of the store to check the contents of the bowls at irregular intervals. Almost as soon as a bowl is empty, she of her husband will fill it up again. They do this for their pets. Right? Wrong! Unless you call the breed of dogs that hardly anyone seems to care about her pets. In that case you are right.

Street dogs. Numerous of these miserable animals are hanging out in places where they expect to find food or—who knows?—a bit of love. However, often mangy and covered with ticks, always hungry, often chased off, never caressed, the poor creatures scuffle around, shying away whenever they see someone approach, expecting to be scowled at or worse.

The type of food most street dogs survive on you can hardly call adequate. It's mostly food scraps thrown away carelessly or wrapped up in plastic garbage bags, which if they can get at them they tear apart. Fighting off other dogs, and rats, they devour whatever they find edible. Edible but hardly healthy, not to mention tasty.

Unless someone like Isa and her husband, and ac-cording to her, a few other Philipsburg business people who share their concerns, put out some decent food for them and make the lives of at least a few of the stray dogs a little happier. "Fortunately, I know a few people who adopt the animals and I also have a lot of girl friends helping me out," Isa notes.

Deserted

In some cases, Isa picks up an animal that does not seem to belong to the pack of stray dogs that frequent the streets in the area, but has likely been deserted by its owner for reasons unknown. One little, white dog was still wearing something of a collar and a broken leash when she picked it up from the street just a few weeks ago. "The poor she-dog was mangy, with a skin that had many sore spots. Mange is very contagious. After I took her to the vet, she recovered within ten days and now we have found a shelter and caring people for her. I gave another one that I had picked up to a Rastaman and it's also doing fine," Isa says. She also has lots of praise for the firefighters, who have adopted one of the dogs. "This dog's name is Fire and you can always see him walking happily around at the fire station. I' hear that they sometimes take him along on the car. Great people, these firefighters!"

("Fire is our mascot. He barks when we go out and sometimes he runs along with us " says Head Firefighter (Hoofd Brandwacht) Henry, as he holds the Department's pet for a photo.)

Unwanted litter

With a deep frown Isa shows her concern as she explains that one reason so many dogs are thrown out in the streets is that they are of a litter that is unwanted. And this unwanted issue worries her very much. "Many people are so careless and maybe some macho men think that with their balls off their male dogs are a suffering lot. What nonsense! As a consequence their dogs are never sterilized. And when there is a new litter, they just dump them somewhere of kill all of them."

Besides the center of town, flocks of stray dogs (and cats!) - can also be seen in areas where hotels are located. "Although many tourists don't care about these animals, there are also many tourists who feed them and try to treat them in a friendly way. That's why you see so many cats and dogs there." Another site where many street dogs gather is the dump, which ironically is also the place where many litters end up dead, put in plastic bags or in closed cartons. "Killing kittens and puppies in such a way is horrible. Why not sterilize your pet? If you are an animal lover, you should know that spaying and neutering your pets is the perfect solution. It's as simple as that," Isa contends.

She adds that a homeless woman named Patsy, who herself lives a miserable life in an empty container near Carnival Village, shares whatever food and drink she can get hold of with the mangy street dogs that are scurrying around there, often taking shelter from the sun in the theatre where shortly Calypsonians, musicians and other Carnival entertainers will expose their talents to thousands of revellers.

Animal misery, health risk

The harsh reality is that with so many around who do not care about the fate of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens, not only do they bring misery to these animals, but their revolting behavior also risks the health, and sometimes the lives of humans as well, Isa stresses.

"Thanks to the St. Maarten Animal Welfare Foundation, the local vets can often do spaying and neutering at reduced rates. But considering the health risks that stray animals pose to humans as well, I'm of the opinion that Government should join Animal Welfare, so that sterilization of pets would become cheaper or even free," the St. Maarten business lady concludes.