THE Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA) has indicated that in order to reduce the number of stray animals which die in Guyana, the public should take responsibility for transporting its unwanted animals to the animal shelter.

GSPCA President, Oliver Insanally, told this publication: “The straying of animals is a very cruel act, as such animals live very difficult, tragic lives, and can suffer painful deaths.”

He declared that the public should assist in combating this issue, since animals are vital to man’s life.
More importantly, due to the steady unwanted animal pregnancies and hit-and-run accidents, land and air pollution is threatened, whereas sometimes there is traffic congestion on the roads due to these stray/unwanted animals (mainly dogs).

The GSPCA has long implemented a free spay-and-neuter programme which it is hoping the public would take advantage of to solve the issue of straying unwanted animals.

In 2009, the society spayed and neutered 339 dogs and 119 cats; vaccinated more than 6,000 such animals, and provided shelter to 590 cats and dogs. The GSPCA is highly committed to nurturing animals that are in dire need of attention, with minimum cost to the owners, given that it is a non-profit organization and is always open for donations to enable the organisation to provide better care for the sheltered animals.

(By Shivanie Sugrim)