Silent Victims

And there are also anecdotal stories of pet owners ill treating their pets as well as numerous reports about cruelty to animals made to the T&T Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (TTSPCA) and the local Veterinary Association. And while there is legislation against animal cruelty local NGOs and other stakeholders have described it as archaic and ineffective and called for it be amended.

Sita Kuruvilla, former TTSPCA president of the and member of the management committee of the Animal Welfare Network (AWN), described the legislation as “so minimal” and added that there was very little history of any action being taken. Kuruvilla reported that a few years ago an Animal Welfare Working Group was formed to work on an animal welfare act for this country and included representatives from the Veterinary Association, TTSPCA and Animal Welfare Network. She said, however, that it “fell by the wayside”.

Section 79 (1) of the Summary Offences Act states, “Any person who cruelly beats, ill-treats, starves, overdrives, overrides, overloads, abuses, tortures, or otherwise maltreats any animal is liable to a fine of four hundred dollars or to imprisonment for two months.” Attorney Bijili Lalla pointed out that the current act treats the animal as a working animal though dogs and cats included.

“The legislation has not come up to speed with today’s society,” she stressed.

She said the difficulty was that while someone can ring up the police and say someone is treating an animal cruelly and the police can come and apprehend the offender and penalise him there is no provision for removal of the animal.

She said that in law an animal is still considered property and you cannot take away someone’s property.

She said other societies such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia have moved forward from viewing animals as property to having a right to basic necessities and the human is their guardian.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Veterinary Association, Dr Nicholas McKenzie, said the association is of the view that the legislation is “terribly outdated and inadequate”.

“One of many, many, many laws in this country in general that are very outdated and need to be revamped,” he stressed.

Returning to the legislation regarding animal cruelty McKenzie also described it as “archaic” and the penalties as “ridiculous”.

“Four hundred dollars is not going to stop anybody from hurting an animal,” he added.

He reported that the association receives “a lot of calls” about people being cruel to animals and not only domestic pets but horses and farm animals like chickens. He said there were viral videos of a man in a forest kicking a dog repeatedly and also of people strapping scratch bombs to animals and causing fatal injuries but more common than that “is everyday neglect and cruelty”.

“People not taking care of (pets). They are chained up in a yard, not fed for three or four days.

That is tremendous cruelty,” he lamented.

McKenzie said this behaviour goes “unchecked and unpunished”.

He referred to the quote by India independence activist Mahatma Gandhi, “the greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.

McKenzie said that the law served its purpose 50 years ago but the legislation should be amended to have longer jail sentences and a “very hefty time”.

But even with an archaic law and low penalties is Section 79 regularly enforced? Kuruvilla said she was aware of one or two cases over the years and she believes charges were laid.

When the TTS PCA get reports it is usually for neglect of animals - half starved, tied up for long periods, lots of puppies - and they would try to use moral suasion with the owners. They do not, however, have the authority to remove the animals. Kuruvilla said when the owners are violent or aggressive they try to refer to the police and at times officers will accompany them.

“By and large police have other priorities.

Either they don’t know or not interested.

It depends on whether the individual officer is interested,” she said.

McKenzie explained that vets can by law contact law enforcement and use police officers to go to premises and lay charges and they have done that. He said this is done sometimes as a “scare tactic”.

Lalla said a difficulty was that it was not an important issue and there are other crimes which the public are more concerned about. She also said they have to get police to recognise that protecting a non-human being is worth spending time on.

“The question we ask is ‘how to make animal rights important (to people)?’” she added.

She said another problem is that animal welfare currently falls under multiple Government ministries when it shall fall under one, with the most logical choice being agriculture.

Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat, speaking with Sunday Newsday in November at an honorary game warden induction at Caroni, said animal cruelty does not strictly fall under his ministry “but of course the ministry has a responsibility across the board for animals”.

He pointed out the NGO Animals Alive is partly funded by the ministry. He said the “beautiful facility” is located in South Oropouche and care for stray animals. He reported that it supports a number of regional organisations “and it’s good work and the type of work we want to encourage”.

“So far I have not given consideration to how we can afford further protection to domestic animals.

It is something of course I am prepared to consider and make the appropriate recommendations to the Cabinet,” he said.

On establishing animal cops locally, Rambharat pointed out that game wardens perform functions similar to animal cops abroad and they can go into the places where people keep pets. He said if there is expansion of regulations it will be game wardens who would be empowered to deal with those.

On the legislation he said that it is not just about increased fines but also education, information and enforcement.

On whether this country needs animal cops as obtains in the United States, Lalla said even before that we need to change people’s mindset and this she described as the “greatest hurdle”.

She said both TTS PCA and AW N have been working to propose legislation and have pulled examples from different jurisdictions.

She said it was “just sitting there” to be taken and adapted for Trinidad and Tobago.

McKenzie reported his association is “working on it” and there are a number of laws under review.

“When the laws are changed people will think much longer and harder before acting out on an animal,” he stressed