— animal activist urges Guyanese

RECENTLY, Guyana’s head of state had declared the country to be in a state of disaster because of the ongoing floods.
Since May, Guyana has been experiencing above-normal rainfall which has resulted in severe flooding across the country. Homes are flooded, crops and livestock have been damaged and some families have been forced to evacuate their respective homes.

While persons’ livelihoods have been affected by the floods, animals too have been affected by the ongoing disaster.
Animal activist and founder of the Rosewood foundation, Donna Lam, is urging Guyanese to be considerate of the homeless animals, as they too are suffering during these times of flooding.

“They are suffering from the effects of the flood too. Not only are they being displaced from their homes, but now they face possible starvation,” she said, questioning: “People are struggling to make ends meet. And if they’re struggling to place food on the table for their families, what about their pets or the strays on the streets?”
Lam in a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle said that many animal activists and foundations have been struggling to provide assistance to animals, since they too are struggling to make ends meet during the floods.

STRUGGLING TO KEEP UP
“We as animal activists have been struggling just to keep up. Less work, less [sic] jobs, less[sic] people on the roads means less food for the strays. Less [sic] people are able to contribute food regularly to feed strays daily,” she said, adding: “And with less [sic] people contributing towards animal welfare, there are more strays on the roads now more than ever before… animal welfare organisations are struggling just to procure foods for their fosters and are limited in the ways they can have fundraisers.”
The animals, she said, do not understand that there is an ongoing disaster; hence, people should be considerate of them.

During this time, Lam noted that her foundation has received several calls about stray animals being dumped at odd places. She said that persons have also made calls about snakes and other reptiles surfacing due to high floodwaters.
“Since the flooding we’ve gotten hundreds of calls about snakes too. With the rising waters, they are being displaced too. We’ve been urging people not to kill them, but to make contact with the Guyana Wildlife Commission to have them safely removed. They’ve lost their homes too. ”
She added: “We’ve had many, many calls about animals being tied near trenches, near kokers, over the seawalls. Why people would do such a heartless cruel act is beyond our comprehension. ”

DISEASES
Lam explained that animals are currently at a high risk of contracting diseases as flooding continues to persist.
For example, the activist said that animals like stray dogs can be easily exposed to leptospirosis, a bacterial disease which is caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected rats, which often are carriers of the disease.
She further explained that unvaccinated dogs can contract this disease and spread it to other animals and humans.

Additionally, stray animals are at risk of contracting heartworm disease, which is a serious parasitic condition caused by a worm commonly known as dirofilaria immitis, which lives in the blood vessels and hearts of infected pets.
According to Lam, the disease is spread by mosquitoes. She explained that when an infected dog is bitten by a mosquito, the blood that is withdrawn can contain heartworm offspring. When the mosquito bites a second dog, the offspring are passed on.

Inside the host, the heartworm can grow into a parasite up to a foot in length. The parasite can cause injury to the lungs, arteries and the heart.
This, she said, is very concerning since the rising flood waters are breeding grounds for these diseases and more.