For all the good that the Cayman Islands Humane Society does, its shelter is indeed in a crisis situation.
Dogs are being kept too long in kennels making the situation unpleasant and dangerous for the animals.
We can appreciate that those in charge of the shelter don’t want to put down healthy animals, but we have to ask – how humane is it to keep five or six dogs in one kennel, causing them to be distressed, which can lead to aggressive behaviour?
No one likes to see animals euthanised, but the reality is that something has to be done to control the animal population at the shelter.
Just in May alone there were 40 dogs and cats adopted out, but there were 60 animals that were turned over to the shelter.
The Observer on Sunday finds it appalling that so many people in the Cayman Islands have abandoned their pets, for whatever reason.
If you are leaving the Island for any reason and have a pet, make arrangements to take it with you. You may think you are doing the animal a favour by turning it over to the shelter, but in fact you are not. Not only have you put additional stress on the shelter, but you have also put Fido or Fluffy under tremendous stress because they miss their home and their humans. In many instances the surrendered pets make themselves sick by pining over their missing humans.
God bless the volunteers and shelter staff. They do all they can to make the animals in their care comfortable, but the more dogs and cats sheltered makes it impossible for every animal to get a special pat on the head or walk down the sidewalk.
As for the shelter itself, it is too small and in a bad location on North Sound Road. It would be wonderful if another site could be found and a new shelter built.
The shelter’s overcrowding problem ultimately rests on the shoulders of pet owners – those who refuse to spay and neuter their animals and those who abandon their cats and dogs. A solution to the overcrowding – and it should include euthanasia – has got to be found or there is eventually going to be turmoil at the Cayman Islands Humane Society Shelter. The Observer on Sunday appreciates all the shelter does, but believes more can be done about overcrowding.
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