Riding along Blue Hill Road not many days ago, a subject close to my heart caught my eye. A beautiful and fluffy-looking coal-black puppy, just a few weeks old, was standing on the edge of the sidewalk.
His head was mechanically rotating from shoulder to shoulder as its babyish and soft brown eyes scanned the heavily trafficked street to find that needle-eye of opportunity to make a break for the other side of the street.
I was frightened out of my wits. My pulse picked up pace as my heart began beating wildly. I saw someone standing in the front yard, merely a stone's throwaway from the pup.
Before I could bellow out a word of warning, it was like "man over board." The puppy had plunged into the street. I watched In the rear-view mirror as he made good a narrow escape; then I asked a question to which only the good Lord knew the answer: How many more times before his luck runs out?
The number of stray dogs roaming our streets is rising at an insidious and alarming rate.
The thing, however, that is equally unsettling is the manner in which these animals are needling through traffic-unimpeded, as they navigate their way all over New Providence at peak traffic hours and beyond. These dogs are so at home on our streets that some of them literally stand on the side of the street and wait until the light changes to make their move... this, I have watched in thorough amazement on numerous occasions. I think it is one of the wonders of Bahamian roads.
Several months ago I was in the Farrington road area, in an exit way waiting to ease onto the main street.
Suddenly out of nowhere a young dog, probably less than eight months old, got wind of a food trail, and with his nose glued to the asphalt, headed out into the middle of the street.
At my right I saw what I could only call an incredibly reckless driver doing roughly double the speed limit in that peak traffic area.
In hopes of averting the impending disaster, I lay on my horn to alert the driver to the plight of the dog in the middle of the street, and the possible danger to himself. Could you imagine that? This was something that should have been clearly in his purview, if he was awake. But I may as well had been 'whistling Dixie'.
The car plowed thunderously through the dog, thrusting it about twenty feet ahead.
The driver seemingly woke up and slammed brakes and came within inches of his own life.
Two seconds more and the carnage of twisted metal and sparkling, shattered glass would either have included the unloving embrace of a huge cedar tree or an engagement with the car waiting in line before him - or perhaps both.
Shockingly, (it must have been an adrenal in rush) the disorientated dog sprang out of his mangled form and headed for the bushes howling, as if mourning his own death.
I seriously doubt that he outlasted the night. Clearly, there is a lot of blame to go around.
However, flogging a dead horse is just as futile as shutting the barn door once the horse has already got out. The abuse of animals in this country has reached insane proportions. Could you imagine how many dogs die on out streets annually? I ~can, in recent times, recall seeing three dead dogs on the street in one day.
That saddened me terribly. It is an undeniable fact that many animal owners are falling down in their responsibility and neglecting their animals that subsequently become menaces to other people and their property. Inspector Grant, with his more than twenty years of experience at the Humane Society, had a mouthful to say on this subject - a mouthful that should not be kept secret: "People fail to spay and neuter their animals and fence their yards and equip them with gates. Proper types of confines for these animals are absolutely essential.
Sometimes people tie these animals on short chains without shelter and available food and water. They take them to the beach without any fresh water for the dogs to drink, without the conscious realisation that dogs don't drink salt water. It's not so much a dog problem as it is a people problem - were they more responsible we wouldn't have a problem." Inspector Grant continued: "You know, already for the day we've had two dogs struck by traffic. Subsequently, we had to send out our ambulance and put them to sleep; one had a broken back." I can think of several ways to approach this poorly monitored problem, but for the sake of time and space I am offering two suggestions.
Firstly, we must think along the lines of short and long term planning. In the short term, with a sustained and heavily concerted effort, we can easily and effectively clear our streets of strays to a noticeable degree in a few short months.
Long term, newspapers and radio stations should carry announcements that caring owners (who allow their dogs to go out to exercise) have a week to secure their dogs and after that week everything roaming our street would be fair-game for the Canine Unit.
Other branches of Government that deal with dogs can be brought in to assist the Canine Unit. Fencing, collar and licensing laws for dogs should be made an enforceable reality by this Government.
Where are the authorities?
Sometimes, I wonder if the authorities responsible for trapping these animals drive the same streets and shop at the same stores as do the rest of the populace.
Or has bureaucracy and red tape so tied their feet that they throw up their arms in disgust, because nobody wants to make the really tough decisions.
I was told by a source close to the Canine Unit that the challenges facing them are multi-faceted, firstly, they don't work shifts and work hours are from Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm.
They are closed on Saturdays and Sundays, and they only pick up dogs from Monday to Thursday.
Work on Fridays is generally restricted to the compound.
As of the first week in October, only one van in an embarrassingly small fleet was working.
Now for my analogy that may be considered a little strong and in some quarters I may be measured "out of my skull." If Police officers were mandated to stop working shifts and worked only Mondays to Thursdays from 8am to 4pm to service the public, and work on Fridays were restricted to in house police business and if their offices were closed on Saturdays and Sundays, the first outcry from the public would likely be: "They ain' serious 'bout crime."
Another individual speaking under conditions of anonymity said: "No Government has ever taken the problem of stray dogs seriously."
I, however, won't be so hasty to paint so broad a stroke with my brush until we've given a bit of time, because sometimes people genuinely don't know what is happening beneath their noses. However, time will be a fittingly appropriate judge ... and if nothing changes in the, next couple months, then it would be most fitting to borrow and apply a vernacular that's been made popular in the world of football: "It is what it is."
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the stray dog dilemma is a Government problem, what I am saying, however, is that they can do more than anyone else, by way of overdue legislation, awareness (print and electronic media) and issuance of penalties to the transgressors.
The biggest eye-opener for me in relation to this subject is how the Canine Unit would set traps for the stray dogs and people would sometime release the dogs from the traps and others would steal the traps and use them to catch fish and sell crabs.
It appears, Inspector Grant may have hit the nail on the head, when he said: "It's not so much a dog problem as it is a people problem - were they more responsible we won't have a problem." I was informed that the Unit has lost close to one hundred such traps (ballpark figure) in the past five years due to theft. It's like making two steps forward and being pushed five steps backward. Is motivation the problem? Yes, that's it. Good old-fashioned motivation.
Is that what we're waiting for? For a pack of mutts to chase school children into streets to dart their way through oncoming traffic?
Or are we waiting for them to bite another tourist, before leaping into action in full regalia? Then we have all the cameras and microphones show up, just to tell the world about our polished plan for never allowing it to happen, ever again.
Then they come up with a few hundred thousand dollars for "mop-up" duty and "damage control." Don't tell me that I'm being melodramatic, because, if there's one lesson to be learnt from history it is that she has a stammering tongue, that is to say she repeats herself. These indicators are not characteristic of a proactive society; rather it's the indigenous and decrepit belongings of a reactive one.
If we don't deal with this situation now, and do so in a direct, coordinated and deliberate way, it will come back to bite us, no pun intended.
I'm reminded of the words of one writer who said: "No clever alignment of rotten eggs can give you a good omelet." There are some things that just don't mix, and dogs and traffic just happen to be on that list. The end result will usually be someone getting hurt, maimed or killed. More often than not, though not always, it will be man's best friend.
CLINT SEYMOUR
Nassau,
November, 2008
Letter to the Editor, The Tribune
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