The Cayman Islands Humane Society is fighting a losing battle. Too many animals, limited facilities and a reliance on the generosity of the public for its very survival has made it very difficult for the organisation to keep up with the needs
of local animals.
Unfortunately, Cayman’s animal problem does not seem to be getting better. There are various elements that play into this, from a weakening economy that is forcing people to move into smaller apartments to people leaving the Cayman Islands due to rollover or due to redundancy.
The knock on effect is that the ones that suffer are the animals, many of which are abandoned, while others are surrendered to the Humane Society shelter in the hope that they will be able to find a new home. However, the shelter is currently overcrowded and the end result, though unpleasant, is unavoidable – the shelter will either have to start turning animals away, or some of those at the shelter will face euthanasia in order to make room.
Twila Escalante, the shelter liaison for the Humane Society and also a former president of the Humane Society, is opposed to euthanasia in all but the most extreme cases. “I have been with the Humane Society for over 20 years and served as President for two years but resigned due to personal commitments. Unfortunately after I left, not too many dogs were given a chance and the shelter was a slaughter house. The shelter has come a long way since those days,” she says.
She says that euthanasia is only considered as an option when there is no other way out.
“Euthanasia is reserved for animals too sick to save such as paraquat poisoning, parvo or severe heartworm disease, or those who have been treated so inhumanely that they can no longer be socialised,” she says.
According to Escalante, the shelter has not yet reached the stage where it has to turn away animals, but it might not be far off.
“The shelter is close to having to turn away intakes. Thankfully, this has not happened as we always manage to adopt out a few animals but the free space is quickly taken up,” she says.
For many animal lovers, it is unthinkable for euthanasia to be considered for a healthy animal, but given the current overcrowding at the shelter there may be very limited options.
“Euthanasia is a bad word – nobody wants to see a needle stuck into an animal’s vein, but on the other hand, do you want to see an animal in a shelter for a year? People want to save every animal there is and they think that they’re doing something good by keeping them and don’t put them down,” says Giuseppe Gatta, a former president of the Humane Society and founder of PAWS, an organisation that champions the case for animals in the Eastern District.
It is important to note that the shelter is not a no-kill facility. Gatta says that during his time as president, the board contacted various no-kill shelters in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe in order to find out how they did it. However, the news was not very positive.
“Simply they told me either you have people that donate to you in the millions per year, or somebody that dies and leaves you millions. That’s the only way you’re going to survive,” he says.
According to Gatta, while he was with the organisation, the shelter would usually have a maximum of two dogs per kennel.
“If you have two nice pooches that you can see they are placid, then you can introduce another animal that is also placid, so at times we had three into a kennel, and everything was fine,” he recalls.
This meant that the shelter was home to some 50 dogs at the time. However, at present, the shelter is home to some 120 dogs and puppies and 100 cats and kittens, with some cages housing up to five dogs. The play room for the cats has even had to be changed into a quarantine area for cats with ringworm.
The impact of this on the animals is undeniable, with increased stress as well as less human interaction per animal.
“Volunteers play a very important role in the shelter. They are the surrogate owners to the dogs and cats and are the closest a shelter buddy could have to knowing a kind and loving owner. They pat and hug the dogs and cats, they walk the dogs, play with the dogs and cats, they give them baths, take the dogs and cats on sleepovers or to take the dogs to the be
ach and to weekly basic training on the beach,” says Escalante.
However, with so many animals currently at the shelter, it is very tough for the available volunteers to get to each and every dog.
“The problems are massive, but the core problem is that you cannot keep all these animals. They have a massive amount of animals in there,” says Gatta.
“Nobody wants to see them put down, we have to struggle at times to do that, but you have to do it, you have to control the population.”
Overpopulation
There are many reasons for the number of animals currently at the shelter. The core reason is uncontrolled breeding among pets, both domestic and feral, on the Island. The Humane Society, along with a variety of other organisations and veterinarians on Island, have been pushing the spay and neuter message for many years. In fact, all animals at the Humane Society are spayed or neutered once they reach the appropriate age. Even though this is a significant drain on the funds of the organisation, it prevents the animals from becoming part of the problem rather than the solution.
According to Carolyn Parker, president of the Humane Society, the organisation has done close on 4,000 spay and neuter surgeries since the inception of its clinic and when surgeries organised by other organisations such as Cayman Animal Rescue Enthusiasts and PAWS are taken into account, along with those performed by veterinarians in their private practice, it is clear that the animal problem could have been far worse. However, in spite of all the help offered to pet owners to get their pets spay or neutered, many still resist.
“You cannot make the people spay and neuter their animals. You’re dealing with population which don’t believe in that and don’t necessarily want to spay and neuter their animals. They want to have their animal to have little puppies, they don’t understand. You cannot make the people. There is cultural resistance – ‘don’t touch the manhood of my dog’ and things like that,” says Gatta.
These sentiments are echoed by Escalante.
“The resistance to spay and neuter is often cultural. I don’t understand the mentality of some owners who want their female dog to have one litter or that their male dogs will somehow miss out something if he is neutered,” says Escalante.
Surrender
Not all animals that end up at the shelter are picked up off the street. Many of them come from homes but are surrendered to the shelter when the owners move to a rental unit that does not allow pets, or in some cases when owners leave the island.
“People leaving the islands probably don’t realise that it is relatively easy to take their pet with them,” says Escalante.
“A cat or a small dog can be taken in cabin with them and of course dogs can be taken in the pressurised cargo hold. Cayman is a rabies-free country and if arrangements are made in time, a pet can be transported back to the UK or Europe.”
Although animals being surrendered to the shelter might be the only option for many, it has a major impact on the running of the shelter.
According to Escalante, 40 dogs and cats were adopted in May, but there were some 60 surrenders, undoing all the hard work the shelter had put into finding a home for the animals.
“I don’t think most people realise how hard it is on their pet when they surrender it. The dog or cat misses their home terribly and often pines away developing skin conditions and other ailments. We, the volunteers try our best to make the animal as comfortable as possible but its hard with so many and every one that comes is just as cute as the last one,” she says.
The way forward
One of the most important limitations when it comes to the Humane Society’s ability to take care of more animals is the current facility on North Sound Road. According to Gatta, the organisation has faced an uphill battle over the years as it has searched for land that could house an expanded facility.
“The moment you approach the owners to buy a piece of land and they know the Humane Society is going to put up a shelter, all bets are off. We went as far as East End into the farmland, but there the pieces of land they are all 50 to 100 acres, you have to break it down, they are not prepared to pay the money to subdivide,” says Gatta.
However, even if a bigger facility were available, it would not present anything but a temporary solution, as the ability to house more animals would only serve to increase the expenses of the Humane Society, which already spends some $50,000 per month on the running of the facility.
As the facility relies on the generosity of the public in order to fund its work, finding even more funds to support more animals will not be easy.
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It is a daunting task for the society just to feed, house, and treat the animals. The Society appeals to anyone who might be able to give one or more of the animals a home; please come to the shelter and adopt,” says Parker.
The Humane Society, along with a number of other organisations on Island, also do puppy transfers to shelters in the United States where the dogs have a better chance at being adopted. However, even with people donating their air miles to help with the transfers, only puppies and small dogs are accepted and only in limited numbers.
Although this alleviates some of the pressure on the shelter, it does not present a sustainable solution and to an extent masks the seriousness of the situation, as it does not address the root cause of the overpopulation on Island.
According to Parker, the only viable solution is responsible pet ownership.
“The bottom line is that there are too few homes for too many animals. The population cannot absorb the number of companion animals residing in the shelter. It would be preferable for everyone to help reduce the over population by spaying and neutering their animals,” she says.
Only then is the shelter likely to see a manageable number of animals living there.
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