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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Service Organizations
Nassau, Bahamas - For the third consecutive year, local non-profit organization Baark! (Bahamas Alliance for Animal Rights and Kindness) joined in with hundreds of Spay Day events around the world during the month of February. World Spay Day is an annual campaign that creates a worldwide wave of spay/neuter awareness and promoting spay and neuter as a proven, effective means of saving animals’ lives.
Funded by a grant from
The Pegasus Foundation,
Baark’s Spay Day took place on Saturday
February 18th and consisted of two different projects, a
community walk making appointments for spay/neuters and an education
program for 35 children. President of
Baark!
Laura Kimble, spoke of her excitement about taking part in this event
“
Baark! was proud to join in with World Spay Day” she said
“it provides a unique opportunity for everyone who cares about animals
to come together towards a common goal – a global, united solution
to end the euthanasia and suffering of homeless animals, feral cats
and street dogs”
Following a pre-spay day community meeting, Baark! volunteers walked around the St. James Road area, off Mackay street, talking with residents about responsible pet ownership and the importance of spay and neuter. Shelley Hardman, a Baark! volunteer explained the key facts “spay/neuter is the ONLY way to prevent so many unwanted animals from suffering and roaming the streets” she said “ it also keep dogs and cats much healthier, a neutered pet is less likely to mark his territory and roam away from home’. With the help of Dr Dorsett from Nassau Pet Clinic they made appointments for FREE spays/neuters, each animal will also be de-wormed and vaccinated. They also ‘stray busted’ roaming dogs in the neighborhood by using the TNR (trap-neuter-return) method, for a total of 44 spay/neuters completed. Mr. Gibson of the Kemp Road Community Center said "we really appreciated Baark! taking an interactive approach to the problem that members of the community face. Getting the children involved is key and they were very enthusiastic about taking part."
The education
portion of the event consisted of a field trip for the children to The
Bahamas Humane Society courtesy of
Dan Knowles Tours.
There they were
given a tour of the
facility, educated about the different animals housed within and learnt
about proper animal care.
Dominos Pizza provided lunch and each
child was given a gift bag to take home full of
Baark! goodies
and flip-flops donated by
Contrax
and
Windermere Spa.
Baark! believes education about
animal welfare is vital for future generations in The Bahamas,
“a
society that places a value on all forms of life and minimizing suffering
is, generally, more humane. Such societies therefore experience less
violent crime” said Ms Kimble “We hope that through teaching and
hands on experiences, these children will grow up being proud of and
taking care of their countries animals”.
Baark! is an entirely
voluntary organization with no government funding. Earlier this year
volunteers traveled with their van to Eleuthera to assist with a spay
and neuter clinic, helping to sterilize 118 animals. If you would
like to be a volunteer or can donate to
Baark! Information can
be found on their website www.baarkbahamas.org
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