An Effort in Cuba to be as Civilized as the Animals

An Effort in Cuba to be as Civilized as the Animals
August 16, 2013
By Veronica Vega

HAVANA TIMES – Of all the problems Cuba has, the one that strikes me
most when I go out on the street is the number of animals that are
abandoned. Behind the impotence we feel at their suffering is an
alarming lack of social consciousness and the absence of an Animal
Protection Act to call a halt to all the sadism and irresponsibility.

The veterinary clinics that exist are not only inadequate but they are
only open to the public for a few hours a day and that often means the
death sentence for some poor animal.

So when I witness an initiative benefiting animals in this country, I
get a sense of relief and a breath of optimism.

Fernando Gispert, a veterinarian and specialist in acupuncture and
homeopathy, whom I interviewed for HT, notified me a free mass-scale
deworming activity being held in the Plaza Belen in Old Havana.

When I arrived at noon they had already de-loused about 500 dogs. The
scene was like a fair with music, parasols and promotional posters.
Among all the barking and the smiles, were the dog owners looking
pleased as punch and just as excited as their pets.

HT: How did it all come about ?

Fernando Gispert: It started in 2006, initiated by the Aquarium of Old
Havana and we all joined in out of pure enthusiasm. You have to have
organizations willing to join in and and work together for a worthwhile
cause like this. Top of our list is the Historian's Office which always
supports us with chairs, tables, the radio set-up .. this time there was
a gift from Bayer Animal Health

Then there was the Spanky Project Organization, led by Terry Shewchuck,
a Canadian animal lover and a lover of Cuba. Their challenge in life is
animals so they don't get into conflict with the government. They
support us with parasiticides, anesthetics, antibiotics, instruments
etc. And we must not forget either all those low income people who help
us as volunteers.

But there's also Heritage, Community and Environment, the Institute of
Veterinary Medicine, the Animal Welfare Commission, the Scientific
Veterinary Council, the University of Havana, the Convent of Bethlehem
which lends us its square, and many more. And of course there's also the
Laika Veterinary Clinic where I work.

HT: As far as I can see, people are very ethusiastic …

FG: People appreciate these events because they love their animals and
cherish their wellbeing. I always point out to people that when an
animal is sick it affects the family, people get stressed, depressed,
it's a serious social problem like any other. Not realizing it, is
short-sighted.

But in conducting these campaigns, we hope people will include stray
animals and we even reward those cooperating in this by giving them
products for their pets like the one we're using today: "Advocate" made
by Bayer Animal Health, which attacks fleas and nematodes (round worms).
You can how well they're behaving (the animals).

HT: How do you spread the word?

FG: Through the Havana Radio station, the Canal Havana TV channel, the
Tribuna de la Habana weekly paper. This is the task of Community and
Environment, who are the ones who organize the activity.

HT: What chance is there of spreading the initiatives to other
municipalities where many animals are suffering on the streets?

FG: First of all you have to get together. There is a big discrepancy
between NGOs and government organizations, between those who protect
animals and those who don't…There are those who want no part in these
campaigns because they cost money for the economy and then there are
those who want more free deworming and sterilization…they are two
extremes that can't come to an agreement.

But we must stop bickering, put aside ideologies or any other kind of
differences to work for some objective good cause. Being able to
visualize, as if we're going through a tunnel, that there's the animal
at the other end who will benefit, and by extension society.

HT: Something that worries me a lot is the number of dogs I see run over
on the streets. It's a terribly depressing spectacle.

FG: What we need are campaigns so people don't abandon their animals on
the streets, so they sterilize the females before they go in heat for
the first time, neuter the males when they're six months old and forget
all this macho nonsense about the "poor males … "We need to get it into
our head that sexuality is a natural reflex, but not one that's
essential for life. Nature provides it to perpetuate the species, but if
you've got overpopulation, you can do without it and it doesn't make any
difference. The animal is actually happier.

HT: I've noticed in several municipalities that the animals killed on
the streets are not picked up with the dead bodies slowly creating a
dreadful stench so bad the air is unbreathable. Who is responsible for
seeing to that?

FG: Animals that get run over and killed are supposed to be collected by
the city's garbage service. Only sometimes they do not. Of course it's a
health problem.

But making sure there are no animals roaming the streets is the task of
Zoonosis. Although it is a much criticized and maligned institution (not
only in Cuba but throughout the world), it prevents epidemics and health
disasters. The only difference being that in Cuba the way it collects
the animals is inhumane as is the way it puts them down. There is a
difference between "Sacrifice" and "Euthanasia".

In other countries they pick them up with a control rod that is
expensive ($250.00) and they put them to sleep with expensive products
($80.00-500.00). In Cuba there are no such products so they get picked
up in a horrible, brutal way, get tossed in the back of a truck, get
taken to Punta Brava where people let their sadistic imaginations run
wild, give them strychnine if they have it, kill them with clubs,
shovels, electric current, suffocate them with carbon monoxide or water
and other secret methods that don't bear the light of day…

Our struggle today, when we admit there's no other solution but
collecting them from the streets, is for organizations to donate to Cuba
euthanasia products approved by the OIE. The Charter of the Rights of
Animals, conceived by the UN in 1976, emphasizes the right of animals to
be treated with respect.

Animals live in herds, but man lives in a community, in other words with
other herds of men, dogs, cats, birds. Unfortunately man doesn't know
how to live in harmony with the community. Animals can.

I do not understand why humans don't understand they are just another
animal, why they think they are superior when animals are superior to us
in many ways: there vision is better than ours, they can run faster than
us, hear better than us, can even feel better than we can.

We only surpass them in intelligence, and that itself is questionable …
What could be more stupid than destroying ourselves, destroying nature
and causing wars? That is why I understand Roberto Carlos when he sings
"I would like to be as civilized as the animals".

Source: "An Effort in Cuba to be as Civilized as the Animals" -
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=97959