The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Court Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

AN animal advocate believes successive governments have failed to deal with aggressive animals, and owners of dogs that attack people should be held accountable.

Bahamas Humane Society (BHS) president Kim Aranha spoke to The Tribune after a suspected dog attack left a man dead on the weekend.

 Police said the man’s body was found around 4am Saturday with apparent dog bite injuries. Ms Aranha noted this is the second major dog attack that happened this year after Alicia Barton was nearly killed by a pack of dogs in January. A 27-year-old man was charged in the Magistrate’s Court in February in connection with that dog attack.

 Ms Aranha fears this latest attack will be swept under the rug.

 “And until we make people responsible for their own animals it’s never going to stop. Because if they do pick up the dogs and they take them to the pound and they put them to sleep, the owner doesn’t care. You need to prosecute and charge the owner to the highest possible extent of the law because they are the ones responsible for those animals. It’s too easy to put the dogs to sleep and then the matter is not closed.”

 She said that there has been a trend in people raising aggressive dogs to protect property. She added that if people choose to go that route they need to take the necessary precautions to ensure public safety. The BHS president was also critical of the current and previous government administrations’ handling of aggressive dogs, saying that while legislation exists addressing the issue, it is very rarely acted upon.

 “If we have a dog that we feel is aggressive, if we love them very much we should keep them out of circulation, we should keep them in our property, we should be mindful of it and we should not breed it. Your dog will still protect your property without it being aggressive.

 “I think it’s always been handled very badly by both administrations. I’m not picking on anybody here. I don’t think The Bahamas has ever handled dog attacks properly. You need to start handling this before it happens. You need to have the rules in place, and actually the legislation is in place, but it’s not applied that people must keep their dogs on their property. Now I know that’s difficult because there are what I call community potcakes that wander around and it’s going to take a while for us to get everybody to where they can fence in their properties.”

 She said the BHS can help people with guidelines on how to fence in their properties.

 She also called on the public to be more responsible with their animals to prevent future attacks.

 “This cannot actually go on. People have to be held responsible for what they or their animals have done. And that actually somebody lost their life in this it’s just sickening, it’s sickening and it’s unforgivable and there’s nothing that can ever be said to the families let alone the poor man who’s dead.”

A relative identified Saturday’s victim as 61-year-old Anthony Swan.