THE Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA) is investing $500,000 from a recently received donation to raise awareness on animal welfare, targeting primary schools across Guyana. The donation was received from Guyanese investor and mining executive, Dean Hassan, CEO of Tesouro Resources.

President of the GSPCA, Oliver Insanally, said that awareness on animal welfare has always been high on the society’s agenda and the recent donation will be used to boost the delivery of this long-awaited project, which is expected to commence in the September school term.

“We would like to improve our efforts at awareness and education but we are constrained by volunteers, but nevertheless, we have plans in place to work with primary schools to teach the basics of animal welfare and introducing ways on how to interact with animals,” said Insanally.

The reason behind such a project, said Insanally, is to spread awareness on the ills of harming animals, especially stray dogs and cats on the road. Insanally added that the root cause of such acts carried out by children comes from exposure to violence in homes and communities.
Recent statistics have indicated that Guyana is listed among 20 other countries with the highest murder rate. Ranked as number 15, the country has recorded 20.2 murders per 100,000 people with 49% killed by firearms.
Insanally referred to the statistics, noting that children are often eyewitnesses to violence in homes and their communities, especially in rural areas.
This project, he explained, will aim directly at eliminating thoughts of violence by interacting with the children, especially those who display signs of violence by releasing their anger on helpless animals.

However, Insanally also noted that the funds will not only be allocated for awareness and education efforts but also for the society’s spay and neutering programme which is geared at reducing the number of unwanted animal pregnancies, and the consequent proliferation of strays.

“The GSPCA is especially proud of the spay and neuter programme. Since its inception we have spayed and neutered hundreds of stray dogs free of cost which required significant amounts of fundraising activities,” said Insanally.

Recently, the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) indicated that they are concerned about the free roaming of horses and cows on the roads that is allowed by the animal owners.
In this regard, Insanally said that quite a while the society has been dealing with this issue for a more “holistic” view. He stated that the society has been throwing their support towards this issue but because of volunteer constraints, many projects have been halted.
However, with the donation made by Hassan, Insanally promises that the society will be able to carry out long-awaited projects and continue with works that had to be halted.

By Shivanie Sugrim