Allen Lockington is a self-employed customs agent and business consultant who has regular articles published in www.connectme.com.fj/news/opinion. I thank Allen and Connect for permission to reprint some of them in this political blog. They remind us that life goes on, whatever the political situation. And it's good to know that.
Trapping Dogs
I congratulate the Nasinu Town Council for its initiative in once again trapping stray dogs. But guess what? Many stray dogs are not really strays. They have homes. They should rightly be called street dogs and their owners called street dog owners. In Lautoka we have stopped trapping because we have run out of euthanasia medicine. Well, looks like the medicine is back in stock and hopefully we may soon be trapping again. If not can the army lend us a hand or should that be a arm.
Ed. Note. For readers unfamiliar with Fiji or other Third World countries, Allen's remedy may seem unfeeling but there are many "stray" dogs and most are diseased and undernourished.
4 comments:
Bula vinaka and thank you for you footnote Croz.
The poor dogs are not to be blamed. Its the owners who neglect them that causes them to go astray, run wild and become nuisances. But its them or us. However, the stray dog problem is not unique to Fiji. Just Google "Stray Dog Problem" and you will see what I mean. If I had my way I would, and I wrote about it and it was published in the local news paper, put one of those collars on every nuisance dog owner so that when his or her dog barked they would get a little reminder, perhaps a few volts or so to remind them that their dog just barked. I do believe some dog owners in Fiji can't hear a dog bark.
India has the biggest stray dog problem, well, according to the Internet that is. I have written so much about stray dogs and dogs that have normal homes and done a lot of reading on it. I usually wonder if I was the only one who is affected by a dog barking incessantly in the middle of the night, or when I go to the shop in the morning, just before breakfast, and our road it looks like a sewage system gone wrong. A mine filed would look more inviting. Dog owners let their dogs out at night to do their business and they do it where they please. We have a Dog Act in Fiji Croz ... and I will be brave and say that it is all bark and no bite. Maybe not even a bark just a wimpier. Just like the wimps some dogs belong to.
The Ministry of Agriculture has begun a campaign going house to house to get all dogs licensed. They will do the licensing in the suburbs ad the City Council will do the city area. But you know what, you can license a dog, but does it know? Does it know that it should not go next door and tear up garbage bags, does it know that it should not bark at people walking and minding their own business on the road? Does it know that it should not leave waste right in the middle of the road?
Now it will be licensed to bark and run all over the place.
I read a little Flotsam and Jetsam article in the Fiji Times published in 1966 which said that a resident of Suva must have had enough about dogs barking and disturbing him at night, because when the people woke up on a certain Monday morning and all signs that said NO PARKING had been changed, yes the person had changed them and they all read NO BARKING.
Croz, I can write a book about stray dogs I have being doing so for a few years now. And I have had many people call to tell me to write about the problem in their area. But it would be interesting to learn what people do in your corner of the world.
And I am always humbled when I see an ad in the newspaper that says a family was giving a reward for the return of their pet dog tat had gone missing.
I have been talking with the SPCA and the Lautoka City Council about the problem SPCA has lent a sympathetic ear and I am running out of bark, I will soon bite someone if nothing is done. By the way, the SPCA has limited powers in the West.
I append one link from the Internet to start you of if you so wish to check on the stray dog problem:
http://www.wspa-usa.org/pages/2688_suffering_in_slums_the_global_stray_dog_problem.cfm.
THIS IS THE LINK TO PACLII
http://www.paclii.org/
from there go to the Fiji Dog Act to read it.
The people of Fiji and not disciplined. To fix the problem requires d-i-s-c-i-p-l-i-n-e and I fear that's something unexistent in Fiji.
Allen:
You want to know how to rid stray dogs in and around Lautoka just ask your uncle Tom.
He has the answers.
Who is this uncle Tom?
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