Kali­fa Clyne

In light of re­cent an­nounce­ments re­gard­ing the Dan­ger­ous Dogs Act, two pri­ma­ry school teach­ers are call­ing on the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to bring back the top­ic, Car­ing for An­i­mals, to the pri­ma­ry school syl­labus. The teach­ers, Noreen Ra­goo­nanan and Gabrielle Kow­lessar, said this dur­ing an in­ter­view.

"We be­lieve change must start with the young ones in so­ci­ety so the top­ic should be brought back to the syl­labus," said Ra­goo­nanan. "Peo­ple treat an­i­mals with dis­re­spect in this coun­try and there is no body to mon­i­tor how these an­i­mals are treat­ed," said Kow­lessar. Both women be­lieve that an­i­mals con­sid­ered dan­ger­ous on­ly be­come vi­o­lent when treat­ed in­hu­mane­ly or trained bad­ly.

"The an­i­mals them­selves are trained vi­o­lent­ly. They are giv­en al­co­hol, drugs, trained to kill hu­mans and beat­en in­to sub­mis­sion. What can you ex­pect but for them to at­tack hu­mans?" Kow­lessar asked. Kow­lessar be­lieves that an­i­mals, es­pe­cial­ly dogs, in T&T, were not giv­en the pro­tec­tion and the re­spect that they should.

"Even in the pounds these dogs are treat­ed bad­ly. We need to set up dog pounds with prop­er­ly trained staff and vets, and al­low on­ly peo­ple who gen­uine­ly care about an­i­mals to get on board," she said. Ra­goo­nanan felt an­i­mal pro­tec­tion rules should be es­tab­lished.

"Peo­ple should be pe­nalised for aban­don­ing their an­i­mals. We need or­gan­i­sa­tions oth­er than the T&T So­ci­ety for the Pre­ven­tion of Cru­el­ty to An­i­mals (TTSP­CA) as they do not both­er with an­i­mals that are on the street," she said. Kow­lessar added it was com­mon for on­ly "pedi­gree dogs" to get at­ten­tion.

"What about com­mon dogs? Aren't they dogs to? What about mon­grels and pothounds? Is it okay that we dis­crim­i­nate against dogs even?" she asked. The teach­ers be­lieve Gov­ern­ment need­ed to con­sid­er all fac­tors, in­clud­ing the treat­ment of an­i­mals, be­fore im­ple­ment­ing the Dan­ger­ous Dogs Act.

Last month, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan re­vealed that Cab­i­net had agreed that the act would come in­to force on Au­gust 1. The act im­pos­es cer­tain oblig­a­tions on the own­ers or keep­ers of three breeds of dogs.