A Bill which, among other things, is expected to address the problem of stray dogs and improper care/ownership of dogs should have had its first reading and then put to the select committee stage, when Parliament met on May 9.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves speaking on radio on May 8, said that there was a serious problem with dogs in the country and that a lot of people were getting dogs, but not keeping them.
“And they are roaming all about, and they are killing animals,” he said, adding, “…. we have to deal with it.”
There were also some dogs that warranted special consideration, he said.
“Fellas walking these huge dogs, some of them because of their owners, could be problematic,” the prime minister suggested.
Dr. Gonsalves explained that the Bill dealt with dogs, however owners of dogs were also included because dogs were not recognised to be as dangerous by nature compared to other wild animals.
“It is the problem of owners, how they deal with their dogs; how they control them; what they encourage them (dogs) to do and not to do; how they train them…. So, we have to address that,” Dr. Gonsalves said.
The problem of stray dogs was recently highlighted when classes at both the Thomas Saunders Secondary School and the Girls’ High School had to be temporarily halted because of an infestation of fleas on the schools’ premises, which are located at the site of the runway of the decommissioned E.T. Joshua Airport at Arnos Vale.
Curtis King, Education Minister, in addressing the issue said that it was not the first time that the said locations had become infested with fleas and he also attributed this to the prevalence of dogs in the area.
But despite efforts to deal with the issue, including appeals to dog owners to tie their animals and the erection of a fence, challenges remained.
