10/9/05 Paws in the Park

Yesterday was World Animal Day. Did everybody send their favorite vet a card?!? As part of the celebration the GSPCA organized Paws in the Park, a rally in Camerhogne Park on the beach.

The goal of the rally was to put a petition together to get the government to start enforcing some of the animal laws that are already on the books. Just within the last few weeks I’ve seen several cases of dogs with cutlass injuries and poisonings resulting in the maiming and deaths of these dogs. In fact, just this past week a full color photo was published on the front page of a popular Grenadian newspaper of a dog whose head had been cut in half with a cutlass. Another major problem is people allowing their dogs to roam free, especially at night. A different newspaper had photos of several sheep that had been torn limb from limb by a pack of dogs that are known locally to be a big problem. There are currently laws to protect against abusing animals and also “dangerous dog” laws but there is no enforcement. Peggy, the president of the GSPCA, has been working with both the police and government officials including a minister on these issues. To say that she has become frustrated and fed-up would be a considerable understatement. So we organized a rally.

The event was launched with the singing of the Grenada National Anthem by a group of students who volunteer at the shelter.

We had several contests including biggest (a Great Dane) and smallest dog (a local Pompek). Pedigree dog food was a huge sponsor and gave away a large amount of food to the contests’ win, place, and show dogs.

An obstacle course for the dogs (some of the kids tried the course too). Peggy’s spoiled little Monica can’t even sit on command so I don’t know where Peggy got the idea that she would jump over a stick when there wasn’t a bowl of food on the other side!

There was also a Blessing of the Animals.

Behind the crowd you can see our mobile surgery van that is slowly becoming operational. The van should get an entire blog entry unto itself! The short story is: damaged in Ivan September 2004, spent one year parked at a garage down the street while they “worked” on it, returned in September 2005 as “repaired” and repainted, rear doors stuck so badly I had to crawl in the side window to open the doors from the inside, rear window fell on my head TWICE as I try to close the sticking doors, discovered diesel leaking from tank when driven, taken back to garage to get “repaired” in October 2005. With all the quotes in that last sentence, I’ll be lucky to use the van at all while I’m in Grenada.

Anyway, Paws in the Park was a successful event. Everyone had fun, many people signed the petition, and lots of dogs went home with food that was better than the usual chicken and rice!

By the way, it was HOT!!