![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/operation-potcake.jpg\" "\\"operation-potcake\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Nassau, The Bahamas — Close to 2,000 dogs in New Providence have been sterilised through Operation Potcake, a two-week spay and neuter initiative by the international organisation Animal Balance and the Bahamas Humane Society.<\/p>\n
And, irresponsible pet owners came under fire for abandoning their animals.<\/p>\n
Emma Clifford, director of Animal Balance said the only way to combat the high numbers of street dogs is through an aggressive spay and neuter programme.<\/p>\n
Animal Balance organises high volume spay and neuter campaigns on islands around the world. They help the local government, animal organisations,\u00a0 and the veterinary community become self-sufficient at humane animal management control.<\/p>\n
Five clinic sites where set up throughout New Providence, since January 10, providing the free services. The programme ended Monday (January 21).<\/p>\n
The dogs were also vaccinated and given internal and external parasite treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of these thing combined means that you have a healthier street dog population here on New Providence,\u201d said Ms Clifford.<\/p>\n
Operation Potcake also starts a five-year programme in which the Bahamas Veterinary Association and the animal organisations including Bahamas Humane Society will continue the work.<\/p>\n
If 75 per cent of the stray dogs are sterilised then the population starts to decline naturally, said Ms. Clifford.<\/p>\n
Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, V. Alfred Gray, visited the Operation Potcake clinic in Fox Hill on last weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am grateful on behalf of the Bahamian people for this gesture of kindness to our country,\u201d he said. \u201cI do not believe that money will ever pay for the sacrifices they make as professionals to do this free of charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are isolated incidences which give rise to great concern and that\u2019s why we have done what we could to trap and euthanise those animals whenever we could where there are no owners for them and nobody would seek to adopt them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Maurice Isaacs, veterinary officer, with the Department of Agriculture underscored the \u201cserious problem throughout The Bahamas\u201d with respect to stray dogs from attacks on livestock to being vectors of diseases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are talking about trying to promote responsible animal ownership,\u201d said Dr. Isaacs. \u201cThese programmes are excellent but they are more like a band aid because you need a sustained programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how well they do, if there are animals that are not neutered they can reproduce and repopulate the area and you can have the same problem next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Isaacs said it is \u201cinhumane\u201d to just release dogs into the communities and leave them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not their natural environment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have taken them out of their natural environment and brought them into ours and so it\u2019s our responsibility to take care of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He expressed the need for public education so people can understand the responsibility of being an animal owner.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany dogs are sent up for adoption because folks don\u2019t know how to work with them. They need training, not just the dogs, but the persons also,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A lot of dogs end up being euthanised.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, for most of those dogs that\u2019s the best thing that ever happened to them because of cruel treatment and abandonment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But, for Kim Aranha, president of the Bahamas Humane Society, euthanization does not resolve the stray dog problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way is spay and neuter,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Bahamas Humane Society pledges to continue this work for as long as it takes to humanely reduce the number of dogs on the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe owners of these dogs have a huge responsibility to their fellow Bahamians. If you own a dog you must, by law, keep it on your property.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the dogs we pick up have owners. Until we can get people to understand what responsible dog ownership is, it makes it three times as difficult for us to resolve the problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a dog that you don\u2019t want, bring it to the Bahamas Humane Society. We will take it and we will find it a home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Veterinary Medical Association of The Bahamas has pledged to do 3,000 low-cost spays each year for five years.<\/p>\n
By Gladstone Thurston<\/em><\/span> Minister of Agriculture, Marine Resources and Local Government the Hon. V. Alfred Gray watches as veterinary assistants prepare animals for surgery during Operation Potcake at Fox Hill Community Centre. At left is Emma Clifford, Founder and Director of Animal Balance. (BIS Photo \/Raymond A. Bethel).\u00a0<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Close to 2,000 dogs in New Providence have been sterilised through Operation Potcake, a two-week spay and neuter initiative by the international organisation Animal Balance and the Bahamas Humane Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[63,61,133,19],"class_list":["post-30462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-animals","tag-charity","tag-community","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBahamas Information Services<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n