The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Humane Society President Kim Aranha said claims by a Canadian news site that dogs in the local shelter have a life expectancy of “only two to three years” are “absolute nonsense”.

On December 21st, the Peterborough Examiner reported the successful delivery of 10 puppies from the Bahamas Humane Society to the Peterborough Humane Society through a global animal welfare partnership.

When contacted about this exchange, Mrs Aranha praised the partnership and noted it’s the first of it’s kind for the Bahamas Humane Society. However, she countered the report about the dogs’ life expectancy.

The Peterborough Examiner article stated: "Currently the small shelter in Nassau is providing shelter to more than 200 dogs, and because of the limited resources in the area, most dogs there have a life expectancy of only two to three years.

"The puppies were brought to Canada with the hope they will enjoy a longer life here."

Mrs Aranha described those remarks to the Tribune as “absolute nonsense”.

"I have no idea what they’re talking about saying that their life expectancy is 2-3 years,” she said.

"The only thing I think that that might come from is we had said that if dogs live on the street, they probably won’t live more than 2-3 years.

"But once they get to the Humane Society and they’re taken care of and they find good home, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t live 12-15 years.”

“I read that in the Peterborough (Examiner) and I thought, ‘what are they trying to say?’" Mrs Aranha continued. "It’s absolute nonsense.”

When asked how long dogs live in the Bahamas Humane Society if they are not adopted, Mrs Aranha said they haven’t had any animals who have stayed longer than a year and a half before they’ve found a home, but noted they can live “as long as they have to” at the Humane Society.

"There is no finite number…a dog in the shelter, as long as he’s happy, will live as long he will live anywhere else,” she said.

The Peterborough Examiner article noted that 24 puppies total travelled to Nassau to Peterborough.

Mrs Aranha clarified that the additional dogs came from Claire Cash, who has a rescue called Puppy Palace.

"Claire takes a lot of our puppies for us, because we get overflow,” Mrs Aranha said. "So that’s where the fact that some of these puppies were ours, some of them were her’s.

"It was a collection of puppies from her organisation and ours and some of them were ours that had been at her place for some time.

"She organised the whole thing…Obviously I knew about it, I was supporting it, but I was not an organiser.”

Mrs Aranha also provided some background on the global animal partnership.

"It’s just a group of humane societies around the world that are trying to help each other out and place animals or puppies especially.

"There are a lot of refuge centres in a lot of cities that actually don’t have very many puppies. And so they’re looking for puppies.

"So we have too many puppies, they don’t have any puppies, the idea is to try and (send) these animals around the world so they’re at the right places for the right homes.”

When asked how often this kind of exchange takes places from the Bahamas Humane Society, Mrs Aranha said: "It’s the first for us. So hopefully it will happen more often."