Many of you will not like what you are about to read. Many of you will disagree completely. However, I have decided to play devil’s advocate and step on some very sensitive toes today. As a dog owner and human being I am strongly against murder and the murder of dogs. Sadly, workers at the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of CRUELTY to Animals (JSPCA) have seen it fit to euthanize three pit bulls involved in the mauling of a St Richard’s primary school teacher. Let me take a moment to acknowledge that what happened to the teacher was terrible and avoidable. I cannot imagine the physical and psychological pain she has to go through and she should get justice for what happened to her. With that being said, how dare you kill three dogs for what was clearly the owner’s failure to properly train and control three out of his four animals. Mind you, I did not say how dare you punish these dogs. Obviously both the dogs and the owner are in need of facing a penalty for their actions. But to kill them? Why? Because they’re dogs? When last has the Jamaican judicial system sentenced a person to death as punishment for their crime? When have you ever heard; anywhere in the world; that a human being who was sentenced to death, was killed on the very same day as their sentencing? Now I am not saying that a dog is a human being but let me put things into perspective for you. As a dog owner, if my dog one day escapes my yard and bites a neighbour on the leg, I will be responsible for paying that neighbour’s medical bills. It is my responsibility to ensure that my dog is trained properly and if I know that he isn’t, I must ensure that my yard is secure so that he cannot cause any harm to those outside of it. I hope that the owner of the pit bulls steps up to pay for the teacher’s expenses and if he doesn’t there is a case that can be made in civil court. The dogs however, have lost their lives for doing what comes as instinct to them and the Jamaican government needs to re-evaluate it’s stance on animal rights in the country.
Did you know that in England, if you want to get a cat, there is an agency that has to come to your house and decide whether or not you are fit to own a cat. But in Jamaica you can leave your house with $80,000 and come home with a pit bull. Many people don’t understand the potential for danger that a pit bull posses especially in the hands of an owner who doesn’t know how to train one. Yet still anyone is allowed to have them. Can you see how ridiculous that is? No? What if instead of a pit bull I got up one morning and bought a tiger. Do you think I would be allowed to keep it? Then why would you allow just anybody to keep a pit bull. Just as how you need a license in order to get a firearm you should need a license in order to get a pit bull. Finally, the pit bulls that were murdered could have been rehabilitated. If we don’t see that potential as a country then I will have to refuse to see a human’s potential for rehabilitation after committing a crime.
Jamaican Wanderer 