All pets should be banned from the Cayman Islands.
It’s a broad and sweeping statement, but we hope it caught your attention.
No, it isn’t the intention of Cayman Free Press or the Caymanian Compass to push lawmakers to adopt legislation making pet ownership illegal.
That wouldn’t be fair to the thousands of people who are responsible pet owners.
But something has to be done about those pet owners who don’t even give their dogs or cats a second thought.
It starts with licensing.
Unlike most places in the world, dog licences in the Cayman Islands are free.
But even that isn’t encouragement enough to get many dog owners off their duffs to register their animals.
Maybe its time for government to rethink the free licences and put a fee against them.
In addition to a licence, pet owners should also equip their pets with collars that carry identification tags so the owner can be found if the dog or cat wanders or in the event of an emergency.
It would seem that we all learned that lesson after Hurricane Ivan when many pets become homeless and disoriented.
This country of kind and generous souls should have no need of animal control officers, but we do.
They are kept busy daily picking up stray and trying to find pet owners.
Theirs is a hard job made even more difficult when unwanted animals have to be killed. To say that the animals are put down or euthanized is like putting sugar on a bitter pill. Unwanted animals that find their way to the animal control and rescue centre in Lower Valley face death if they’re not reclaimed by the rightful owner.
Animal abuse is widespread in the Cayman Islands and must be stopped.
A simple definition of animal abuse is socially unacceptable behaviour that intentionally causes unnecessary pain, suffering, or distress to and/or death of an animal.
Animal cruelty can be broken down into two main categories – active and passive or rather acts of commission or omission.
Passive cruelty is typified by cases of neglect, where the crime is a lack of action rather than action itself. Examples of neglect include starvation, dehydration, parasite infestations, allowing a collar to grow into an animal’s skin, inadequate shelter and failure to see veterinary care when an animal needs medical attentions.
Active cruelty implies malicious intent, where a person has deliberately and intentionally caused harm to an animal.
There is too much abuse of animals in the Cayman Islands. For those who can offer a loving environment for a pet, visit the Department of Agriculture’s animal control and rescue centre in Lower Valley or the Humane Society and rescue a homeless animal.
But remember, pet ownership is a huge responsibility, but done properly can offer huge rewards.
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