The US has its Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan, while T&T has its Animal Rescuer Terrance Aleong. Despite threats and harassment, for more than ten years animal activist Aleong has been rescuing dogs and cats that have been abandoned and left to fend for themselves in Macqueripe.
Aleong goes daily to the area to feed a small pack of abandoned dogs callously discarded by their owners because they are no longer fashionable.
Aleong has also appealed to the CDA (Chaguaramas Development Authority) on several occasions for a small area to create a dog sanctuary but with no luck.
He is appealing to the authorities to spare the dogs and for the public and animal lovers to assist in relocating and adopting the nine dogs and seven cats he currently has as there is no more space at his home. When they are injured he provides medical care for them sometimes with his own money and donations from other animal activists. Aleong said the abandoned animals desperately need help
The head of the NGO, Angels for Animals is now concerned over information he received that the pound is planning to round them up and destroy them. Some of his neighbours complain about the barking, he said, but all the cats and dogs want to do is live and be given a second chance at life.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian at his Carenage home, Aleong said, “That was something I just could not ignore anymore, seeing cars driving up and people opening their trunks and dumping animals that might end up starving to death.
“They’re living a horrible life, then being caught in the most cruel way by dog catchers and killed in the most inhumane way.
“I don't believe animals should be treated like that, they’re sentient beings like humans with feelings, emotions, they can feel pain and can actually cry.
“Government has to realise that killing or destroying dogs is not sustainable, they’re sending the wrong message.” He said the US FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) now categorises animal cruelty as a Class A felony.
A survey was done in US in prisons in which psychologists had found that over 80 per cent of prisoners had committed some form of animal abuse and cruelty in their lives.
Aleong said if someone can derive sadistic pleasure from taking a dog or cat and swing, hang, torture or burn it to death, what is to say the next step is not to do that to a human being?
He said it was even more distressing to see well-to-do people in high-end vehicles such as SUVs discard their animals in Macqueripe as he had seen a woman do to her cat.
Aleong said many people did not know that there were provisions for the protection of the welfare of animals and against cruelty to animals in T&T under the Summary Offences Act of 1921.
Section 79 (1) states: “Any person who cruelly beats, ill-treats, starves, overdrives, overloads, abuses, tortures, or otherwise maltreats any animal is liable to a fine of four hundred dollars or to imprisonment for two months.”
He advised pet owners not to dump unwanted animals in desolate areas, since their means of survival were slim, they can be injured, starve, attacked by other animals, die slowly and fester.
Aleong said an alternative was to take the animal to the TTSPCA (T&T Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) or find it an appropriate home and if given enough time, perhaps someone will adopt it.
He said another shelter was needed in the north because the TTSPCA was overwhelmed and doing the best it can.
Aleong said he started rescuing animals one by one without a plan. His friends helped him with a proposal inspired by the PBS channel’s Shelter Me programme in which prisoners are rehabilitated by training them to take care of shelter pets.
The certified aerial yoga instructor and Thai yoga massage teacher said rehabilitation has worked because the former prisoners learned compassion again along with empathy, responsibility and other life skills.
Aleong said this holistic approach can be applied to T&T’s prison service and crime situation as he was in touch with an animal trainer who had just returned from Canada and was exposed to these practices that was contained in his proposal. He said he gave the CDA his proposal in 2010, which was reviewed by board members who found it “very good.”
Aleong said he was asked to find a suitable piece of land and to provide a cadastral sheet showing the extent and value of the land, but he couldn’t get one.
He said there were more no-kill shelters in the world than those that euthanized animals, and T&T’s animal population can be controlled through nationwide spaying and neutering.
Aleong said there were international veterinary groups willing to come to T&T to do surgeries but he didn’t want to cause any friction with the local veterinarians.
He said he had written to Caribbean Spay Neuter, an American-funded group and its veterinarians would love to come to Trinidad, they will pay for their own airfare, however the country had to raise donations for the medicine and find a location for them to perform the operations.
When the T&T regiment was contacted to enquire about an allegation that stray dogs were being shot by the authorities in the Chaguaramas peninsula, the Sunday Guardian was told to contact the CDA.
Solomon: CDA doesn’t shoot or poison animals
Cherisse Solomon, the Chaguaramas Development Authority’s PR specialist said the authority was unaware of that rumour that stray dogs were being shot or poisoned.
She said the CDA didn’t engage in any type of activity that harmed any living creature or the environment and its newly instated chairman Anthony Pierre found that kind of behaviour unacceptable as well.
Solomon said the authority had a stray dog issue on the peninsula that was an ongoing problem for more than three years before her tenure.
She said the authority tried to remove the dogs out of the environment very safely using all best practices which included calling the relevant authorities and organisations such as the TTSPCA and hiring dog catchers to make sure the animals found a home or were housed properly outside the peninsula.
Solomon said from a personal standpoint being an animal activist and vegan, the CDA had been lobbing for some sort of facility for animals and discussions were on the table.
Dial: Animals poisoned on a daily basis
Nalini Dial, president and founder of Animals Are Human Too and founder of Animal Cops T&T said animals were poisoned on a daily basis when people didn’t want them anymore.
She recounted an incident in St Ann’s where nearly a dozen dogs were poisoned and their carcasses were left on the roadside in March, 2013. One month later, hundreds of dead corbeaux that had ingested poison were found at the National Heliport in Chaguaramas.
Dial said as an animal activist she lobbies every year against the use of fireworks which is illegal and the TTSPCA doesn’t do anything about the situation regarding the fireworks' deleterious effects on dogs.
She said the TTSPCA gets paid for each animal it takes in from the Port-of-Spain City Corporation and it was the association’s decision whether to put them down or not because of the limited space and upkeep.
Dial said most of the dogs are destroyed, even healthy dogs, pups, cats and kittens and she had evidence of this.
Ramnath: Register and micro-chip all dogs to identify owners
Animal behaviourist Kristel-Marie Ramnath said the means of control for stray dogs when there were irresponsible owners or abandoned dogs would be legislation in terms of an animal control act where all dogs are registered and micro-chipped so the owners can be identified. She said the Government should also provide a subsidised sterilisation or neuter programme to institute some measure of control on the dog population.
Ramnath said this would have to be paired with a comprehensive education programme as many pet owners were unaware of the benefits and sometimes necessity of neutering their animals.
She said there were only two dog shelters in Trinidad, Animals Alive in South Oropouche, and the TTSPCA in St James, which were both overwhelmed in terms of numbers of animals that were relinquished.
For more information on adopting a dog or cat, making a donation towards speying, funding to offset food and medicine costs, call 358-7590 and 632-1613.