Category: Animal Rights

Let me start by stating the obvious: Animals are not mere ‘things’ that should be bought, sold, traded and then exploited for money and entertainment. The veganism movement is gaining a lot of ground. Therefore, in the future I hope the exploitation of animals will have its’ curtain drawn to a close so people can find other ways to ‘entertain’ themselves instead of expecting living creatures to be caged for their viewing pleasure.

It is unethical and dreadful to think that anyone would do that… and even more atrocious that people would support these kind of business ventures by paying an entrance fee to visit these places. It does not matter how well the animals are fed or how large their cell / cage is… the point is the animal has no freedom.

Are animal’s lives of such little value that it doesn’t matter if they have lost their freedom of movement because they are sentenced to life in a cage as long as you are profiting from them or you feel they are entertaining your children? Enough is enough! This madness needs to STOP.

There are many business who profit from an animal’s imprisonment. They are under the label of “parks”, “pet zoos” and the like. In some of these places, there is not even electricity or running water. It is inconceivable that a place that has animals there day and night, every single day has no running water or electricity. Who in the world is allowing places to operate legally knowing this and why?

In some pictures I have seen online, some of these animals look clearly unhealthy, some were covered in dirt and mud and they were directly exposed to the elements, particular the hot Caribbean sun. The “shelter” they provide for these animals in some of these business ventures is a partial roof or tent that is clearly inadequate for their needs.

It is absolutely shocking and shameful that animals are forced to live in these kinds of conditions and more shameful if there is staff academically qualified to realize this and they believe it is acceptable. In the petting zoos, animals are carried back and forth and exposed to disturbing loud music in parties causing them to be extremely stressed. Animals are sentient beings, they are not accessories like shoes or handbags.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

You might be wondering: Who is the entity responsible to oversee these places and ensure the animals are treated properly? Where are the inspectors? How can these animals be living in this manner?

And you know why? Let me tell you why, because no one cares. Because when it is about money and profit, animals’ lives doesn’t matter. And this is the reason why places that exploit animals for profit and entertainment should cease operations immediately. In fact, they will have no choice but to do so if people who truly care about the welfare of animals would stop supporting them financially by not visiting these places. They shouldn’t exist because we have no right whatsoever to deprive animals of their right to complete freedom and as long as we do not fully understand this concept, places like this will continue their operations.

TIME FOR CHANGE

It is time to EVOLVE. Real change can take place ONLY if you are willing to be part of the change and I KNOW we all can do our part. You can start by NOT patronizing these kind of establishments that exploit animals for profit. You have a great opportunity to teach your children about compassion and animal welfare and why you are no longer going to support these places from now on. That’s the first step towards creating permanent winds of change.

Animals deserve freedom and you can help them achieve it. NO MORE ANIMAL PRISONS, NO MORE ANIMAL EXPLOITATION.

The death of an 18 months old baby Kangaroo (along with birds) at the Emperor Valley Prison sparkled a national debate over the use of Fireworks.

This poor animal has been at this prison for 3 weeks (along with other kangaroos) in a place that could be described as a shameful playpen with a wall in the background painted like it was a real green landscape. Even though, I fully agree with the ban of fireworks because they affect animals and humans immensely, the conversation should also be shifted to the fact that this prison is keeping animals hostage that should be roaming free.

The death of this baby Kangaroo and these birds are added to the list of Marty, one of the baby zebras (under one year old) that was held hostage at the Emperor Valley Prison and died just short of three months after its arrival. Simba, the lion who has also died in captivity after spending his entire life behind bars.

We can find a million reasons to justify this practice but all of them will fall short because deep inside, we all know that holding animals hostages until they DIE… for the purpose of profiting FROM them is a heartless act.

All around the world, zoos are slowly but surely fading away and animals are being sent to sanctuaries where they can spend the rest of their lives playing in huge and open spaces without cages and in peace. Animals were not born to be captives so no, they are not “taken care of” just because they are fed every day and “cute” pictures of them are posted on social media. There is no amount of money, food, or large cages that can be traded for FREEDOM.

The news about 40 cats found brutally murdered outside the Caroni Bird Sanctuary caused chills down my spine. There are SERIAL KILLERS in broad day light among us in T&T, people who walk down the road, eat their doubles, go to the beach, lime with you… and then take their precious time to mastermind mass murders. They take poisoned food and feed it to innocent, abandoned and hungry little animals whose only “sin” is to have been born.

What have these animals done to deserve such a slow, painful and torturous death??  Hoping a KIND human for once can have compassion on them and bring them food so they don’t starve to death? My goodness, this is so disturbing, disgusting, sickening that it is hard to fully understand the extent of this evil. Speciesism is a hell of a thing!

People who hurt and kill animals in this manner are not afraid to do the same to humans. We know through research that mass murderers start by hurting and killing animals before they do it to people. This is not the end but just the beginning of things they might do in the future. They have also killed other animals that ate the poisoned food or attempted to consume the deceased cats such as agoutis, hawks and raccoons.

According to the Guardian Newspaper, last week, while dis­cussing the con­di­tions of the Ca­roni Vis­i­tor Cen­tre sev­er­al stake­hold­ers com­plained about stray cats liv­ing at the site. It seems like someone took matters into their own hands and a week later they decided to murder all the cats.

You cannot call yourself a Trinidadian, a patriot, a HUMAN and murder innocent beings in this manner! You are nothing but a monster in human form. I hope a full investigation takes place and those who have done this can be held accountable in the strongest terms and pay for their crimes (no fine and no bail) but JAIL time for a VERY LONG TIME. A strong message needs to be sent! LEAVE THE ANIMALS ALONE AND STOP KILLING THEM! STOP IT!

I also hope that cameras can be allocated and placed all over the area so these animals can be somehow protected so no one feels they can do this again. Trinidad & Tobago needs to understand that animals are NOT things; they are NOT items that we use and destroy whenever we feel to. Time to STOP! You don’t pick and choose the animals you wish to protect and the animals you wish to murder. Can’t you see the psychosis and hypocrisy in this?

And if murdering innocent animals makes you feel “powerful” then you have SERIOUS issues that need to be addressed by a professional before you continue hurting other animals or people.

The Ca­roni Bird Sanc­tu­ary is an ecosys­tem and pro­tect­ed area. Dozens of endangered species live there. The perpetrators committed a CRIMINAL ACT and they MUST pay for it.