DR. NARDEO BASSOODEO was on the Gildarie-Freddie Kissoon last Wednesday and appealed to the government and the police to prevent people from killing animals on Diwali night. The veterinary surgeon said that as a practising Hindu, he knows Diwali is a peaceful moment that celebrates the joy of life and should never see the use of firecrackers and fire-works that result in the killing of animals.

He is appealing to the authorities to clamp down on the sale of these items. The use of squibs is illegal in Guyana, yet Dr. Bassoodeo says they are openly sold in the markets. Leonard Gildarie joined in and said that he noticed that squibs were being sold right opposite the police stations at Diamond and Grove.
Every year on Bourda Street outside the Bourda Market, vendors can be seen openly selling squibs and fire-crackers. It is no exaggeration to say that the police seem not to care. There are two horrible descriptions of what happened to dogs on Diwali night and New Year’s Eve as told by Dr. Bassoodeo.
He said uncivilised people would capture stray dogs and stick the squib into the mouth and other parts of the body. The exploding squibs destroy the entire face of the dogs and rip off the lower part of their bodies. This will happen on Sunday and Monday unless there are stricter measures. This will happen on New Year’s Eve. This has been happening every year.
The goodly veterinary surgeon suggested to everyone that after the night of firecrackers, visit the streets the morning after and you see how many dead dogs litter the roadways. He went on to add that cats suffer extreme laceration then death when the squibs and firecrackers go off. He explained that they run away and try to climb the barb- wired fences where the razors tear them to pieces.

Dr. Bassoodeo informed us that there are noiseless firecrackers that lit up the night skies without making that booming sound. He believes that this is the type of firecrackers Guyana should import.

The merciless torture of animals when people let off squibs and firecrackers makes no sense based on the statistics of Dr. Bassoodeo. He says seven out of every 10 households in Guyana have pets.

From ruling politicians, opposition politicians, police and army officials, foreign diplomats, the rich, the famous, you name it; these people have pets that they love, yet every year, whether it is the celebration of Independence Day, Republic Day, Diwali event or New Year’s Eve, many animals are killed in this country because of the use of squibs and firecrackers.
But how much of humanity is left in this country? I remember in 2016, when Guyanese from the interior landed at Ogle airport with their pets, they were asked to produce documents to show that the pets were born in Guyana. If they couldn’t produce any paper, over-zealous veterinary surgeons from the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) would then kill the animals.

This animal cruelty went on for two weeks. The Chronicle, the Kaieteur News and this columnist exposed this horrible situation and not one member of the APNU+AFC intervened to stop the death of those animals. The ‘vets’ from the GLDA and those who run private clinics had the vaccine to treat those dogs instead of killing them off but it seemed that murdering them was a better option.

Please see the following three columns of mine of the killing of those puppies whose owners included Brazilians who had landed at Ogle and had no idea that they had to produce birth certificates for their pets. One Brazilian woman broke down hysterically when her pet was taken away from her and killed.

1- Wednesday, November 30, 16, “The horrible denial of the rights of Guyanese that they willingly accept.”
2- Wednesday, December 14, 2016, “The puppies were killed because Mr. Gomes did not keep his promise.”
3- Friday, December 16, 2016, “The Guyana Revenue Authority officials are doing nonsense.”

After those two weeks of extreme animal cruel by the officials of GLDA and the Ogle airport officials, I literally began to hate everything about the APNU+AFC government and hate the people that administered power in the APNU+AFC. The columns that I did on the murder of those puppies will forever remain the most memorable I have done in my 35 years of newspaper presence.

But when I look back at the history of the APNU+AFC, it made sense why they killed those animals. They had no humanity in them. These were people who refused to deport foreign prisoners unless they paid their own plane tickets. These prisoners were locked up forever at the Diamond police station. See my column of Tuesday, March 26, 2019, “Guyana secretly buries dead foreign prisoners.” The APNU+AFC was an evil regime. Guyana was saved on August 2, 2020.