Michael Ram­s­ingh

michael.ram­s­ingh@cnc3.co.tt

“Don’t shop, adopt.”

These are the watch­words of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Paw Res­cues (TTPR), a four-mem­ber or­gan­i­sa­tion con­sist­ing of a moth­er and daugh­ter duo of Janelle Ram­sa­roop and Cin­tra Ra­moutar.

The ma­jor aim of the TTPR is to re­duce the stray an­i­mal pop­u­la­tion through­out T&T by an in­ten­sive spay­ing and neu­ter­ing pro­gramme for both dogs and cats.

Present­ly the or­gan­i­sa­tion does not own a shel­ter, but that has not stopped them from do­ing all they can main­ly out of their own pock­ets to find homes and as­sist the fos­ter­ing process for the an­i­mals who are main­ly strays.

Cin­tra, one of the founders of TTPR said, “Even though I have all these an­i­mals here if I see an­oth­er an­i­mal on the streets how could you leave that an­i­mal there?. The or­gan­i­sa­tion was cre­at­ed to as­sist an­i­mals in dan­ger who were in­jured, not be­ing fed, and those that need res­cu­ing be­cause of abuse and ne­glect by own­ers.”

Stray dogs at Ramoutar’s home in Tunapuna.

KERWIN PIERRE

The TTPR’s main in­ter­ac­tion with the pub­lic is through its Face­book page, “Trinidad and To­ba­go Paw Res­cues (TTPR)” which is used to show­case is­sues con­cern­ing an­i­mals as well as the res­cu­ing of an­i­mals made by the as­so­ci­a­tion. In the ear­ly stages, TTPR main­ly fed strays.

How­ev­er, ac­cord­ing to Cin­tra, “I quick­ly learnt that these an­i­mals have feel­ings. They get sick, they need vet care, they need shel­ter more than a shel­ter they need homes”.

Af­ter find­ing homes for a few an­i­mals the idea for the TTPR be­gan pick­ing up mo­men­tum and has been slow­ly grown with an es­ti­mat­ed three hun­dred an­i­mals helped since its six-year in­cep­tion.

Cin­tra re­count­ed some of the hor­ror sto­ries seen by the res­cue team.

“We have had an­i­mals tied to trees, left with­out wa­ter, left with rot­ting wounds with mag­gots we post most of the sto­ries on Face­book to help raise the plight of these an­i­mals which are ne­glect­ed by the wider so­ci­ety in or­der to get them help and safe homes by will­ing vol­un­teers who meet our strict cri­te­ria.”

Ramoutar with some of the dogs she saved.

KERWIN PIERRE

Cur­rent­ly, be­cause of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, the TTPR which is based in Tacarigua fo­cused its ef­forts in the Cau­ra area be­cause of the re­stric­tion placed by the gov­ern­ment.

“When we re­alise peo­ple were not feed­ing their an­i­mals, we jour­neyed up there every day to help fed an­i­mals.”

When they start­ed pick­ing up an­i­mals to spay and neuter they were met with some re­sis­tance by res­i­dents who claim the dogs were for hunt­ing. “A lot of in the area peo­ple don’t want to spay. The rea­son be­ing they want an­i­mals to hunt. Why are you not feed­ing the an­i­mals? If you feed the an­i­mals they will not hunt. They can look for its own food,” Cin­tra said, re­count­ing an in­ci­dent with one res­i­dent of the area.

The one ma­jor chal­lenge for the TTPR is find­ing ap­pro­pri­ate homes that are suit­able for their res­cued an­i­mals.

“We do have our cri­te­ria and guide­lines which is the Ben­ny and Buster guide­line to adopt.”

This fol­lows five main steps:

View­ing avail­able pets.

Com­plet­ing an adop­tion ap­pli­ca­tion

Meet­ing with staff for up-to-date med­ical his­to­ry and hous­ing ac­com­mo­da­tion

Com­plet­ing adop­tion

Tak­ing the an­i­mal home.

Saira Moosai with some of the dogs she adopted from the TTPR.

KERWIN PIERRE

Among the many ser­vices of­fered by the TTPR are re-hom­ing of pup­pies, vac­ci­na­tions, pay­ing for vet ser­vices for se­ri­ous­ly in­jured an­i­mals, own­er-re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and train­ing for care, and the do­na­tion of food to own­ers who can­not af­ford to feed the an­i­mals.

Cin­tra re­it­er­at­ed, “We want to teach own­ers how to care for the an­i­mals if you can’t af­ford vet care. Reach out to some­body am not the on­ly res­cuer who of­fers to help peo­ple am sure some­one would try to help.”

One pet par­ent, Saira Moo­sai said, “I al­ways like dogs, but see­ing the work of the TTPR an­i­mals need help they can’t help them­selves, but I al­ways chose to help res­cued dogs be­cause they need car­ing homes. By do­ing this, I am try­ing to help make a dent on the num­ber of strays across the coun­try.”

She lament­ed the need for own­ers to change the idea of pet care through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“These an­i­mals bring me a lot of joy, this is my whole life right there,” she said, adding, “but they need the love too.”

Any­one will­ing to as­sist in forest­ing, board­ing or po­ten­tial­ly res­cu­ing an­i­mals can con­tact the Trinidad and To­ba­go Paw Res­cues TTPR via its Face­book page or its web­site https://ttpawres­cues.wee­bly.com.