This Petition is designed to advise the Bahamian authorities of the need to put into place a sufficient and permanent stipend for animal welfare costs for all of Grand Bahama before it is too late and we are again overrun by animals, cases of cruelty, disease and death. Enact the Animal Protection and Control Act 2009, which was passed by Parliament in May 2010 but has yet to be implemented. Help us show that the people of Grand Bahama are capable of love and care for Gods creatures by signing this petition.
- 2010 Statistics: 1647 dogs and cats taken in, 279 local adoptions, 131 returned to owners, 374 to U.S. rescues/adoptions, 1044 euthanized. 2011 figures trending upwards. Current population of shelter is over 400 dogs and 80 cats. Capacity is 200 dogs and 60 cats.
- Funding: GBPA funds a portion of “animal control” for Freeport only. The balance of our operation costs amounting to approximately $500,000 per year we must raise via donations and fundraisers. No funding is received from Government and the HSGB is no longer serving the out areas due to funding deficits. Those areas are now reporting widespread nuisance animal problems, overpopulation and cruelty/neglect issues.
- Further Crisis: 10 weeks long country wide shortage of euthanasia solution resulted in current overcrowding at the HSGB shelter and further restricted our ability to respond to complaints even in the Freeport area.
- Tourism is affected adversely, seeing abused, abandoned and diseased animals again without help. Sightings of suffering, diseased neglected animals are not appealing to tourists or prospective investors and make us appear uncaring as a nation.
- Spay/neuter efforts halted in the out areas of Grand Bahama. Government will no longer allow foreign vets to donate their time to help HSGB proactively address pet overpopulation in the worst areas via sterilization.
We ask again how we are to rectify the problem of unwanted animals when Government does not support us financially and never has. We ask again when Government plans to enact the new Animal Protection and Control Act, which might actually help abused and neglected pets before the animals get to this sad state. Government has done nothing for animals in the past 40+ years on Grand Bahama, and seems content to leave it all on the shoulders of our overwhelmed and under-funded humane society. We cannot shoulder this burden alone anymore, plain and simple.
We need all animal advocates to advocate! By this Petition to Government officials, Ministers, your M.P.s, your local government, we must illustrate that we are not just a lone wolf crying in the wilderness - we will never be taken seriously until the general public gets behind this cause. This issue needs genuine activism.
Please help. Animals in desperate need are running out of time, and the HSGB is running out of resources to help them. Sign this Petition in support of Government support.
