Lagie 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
The foreign vets that came in for Operation Potcake are all experienced in high-volume spay and neuter. The vet who was scheduled to come for the cat clinic calculated she could perform up to 100 surgeries a day if we could provide her the cats. Many of the Bahamian vets are unable to do the numbers in a day that any one of these vets can accomplish. The previously mentioned 7,000 animals over ten years works out to only 700 per year. Operation Potcake in January did over three times that number in ten days (2,315) with vets who donated their time, paid their airfares to come here, took time off work, and gifted us with their skills. Are our local vets so afraid to accept help that they cannot allow these people who are willing to donate their time, money, and energy to assist them?
PT 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
That would be AMAZING Bizzell... but why not do that AND let the foreign vets come in February and do as many as they can? Say these vets were permitted to come next year and are able to perform 1000 spays & neuters on top of the 3000 you are projecting Bahamian vets will do - would sterilising 4000 dogs & cats be somehow worse than doing 3000? What is the real problem here, I don't get it? To me it seems like a non issue, if the goal is to prevent further overpopulation & suffering...
JohnDoe 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
@PBizzell and others, I have read your posts and unfortunately there is nothing contained therein deserving of an apology. I don't condone personaI attacks and I am certain that local vets are as qualified and dedicated as vets anywhere in the world, however, your rationale and logic on this matter is far from obvious. My understanding is that Operation Potcake is a charitable undertaking whereby all expenses for labor and materials are either freely volunteered or covered by donations. I also understand the proposal of the local vets, and correct me if I am wrong, to be that local vets would freely volunteer their time and would request reimbursement of $50 for materials used. My question to you is who do you expect to pay this $50. The reason they are called stray dogs is because they are not readily attached to an owner or an owner that gives a damn. Therefore, it would seem to me that at a charge of $50 the only persons you are likely to attract are persons who are already your customers or potential customers. In either event it does nothing to substantively address the stray dog epidemic. Further, assuming that we all can agree that we do have a stray dog epidemic in the Bahamas, why can't the local vets perform their initiative in conjunction with Operation Potcake if the local vets are truly sincere about addressing the stray dog epidemic and not motivated by greed. Operation Potcake can perform their services with costs borne by donations and the local vets can perform their services charging their $50. Why are the local vets taking the position that these initiatives must be mutually exclusive if their only interest is addressing the stray dog epidemic? Do you think the dogs or cats have a preference whether the surgery is done by local vets or Operation Potcake? This problem did not magically appear overnight and I am afraid the business as usual approach that the local vets appear to be adopting will do little to make this problem disappear.
JackG 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Well deserved and about time it would seem to me.
B_I_D___ 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Ok...let's take out the free concept for just a second...why block the foreign assistance? Answer me that...what wrong are they doing to you to block them...why?
B_I_D___ 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
'Shirley you can't be serious!!??' Do you honestly think that anything the crew from Operation Potcake does is taking money out of the local Vets businesses? Have they ever...and I would like the to comment on this...have they ever gone out if their way to try an initiative of this sort, gone out of their way to help dogs in need for no $$ in return...no, they sit in their offices and wait for sick pets or pets needing attention by caring owners. The majority of the charity to animals is done by people like the Bahamas Humane Society or other similar organizations. The Operation Potcake crew are zero threat to the livelihood or salaries of the local vets, and they ought to be ashamed of themselves for not joining forces with the team and giving of their time...giving back to the community, helping animals in need that have no owners or $$ to pay for services...in this case, just a simple spay or neuter. Give up their salary for foreign workers...you are as bad as them...they are not here to start up some clinic to compete with the local vets. Idiots...the lot of you and them that think that way.
B_I_D___ 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
My brain is short circuiting...it makes absolutely no sense to obstruct it. Unless of course the locals can bring up their numbers to the inclusive numbers with O.P. Heck...even if the locals get up to over 5,000, STILL do a drive like OP to get up over 7,000. There is no logical reason to kill it, except some misguided pride amongst the VMAB.
banker 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Sadly, the Devil is in the Details as previously stated. The other headlines are "Two Shot", and the plane is bust so the Haitians cannot be rescued. In addition, infant mortality rate in this country is out of control; we are plagued with vibrio vulnificus flesh eating bacteria; cruise ships, our bread and butter couldn't dock because the tug is broke and shop owners lost $600,000; there is a flight of capital from the country; crime is out of control; robberies make living unsafe; the economy is spiraling downwards and we have a host of plagues upon this nation.
So why do foreigners take an interest in the potcakes, instead of say, the AIDS camp, or the literacy problem, or the endemic poverty and unemployment? Because when it comes to people, we have self-governance and we as a nation should take care of that. We have a voice. But the potcakes do not have a voice, and it appears that nobody cares for them. These actions show, that we are so base as a nation, that we do not even want to care, unless we are paid to do it. The moral fabric of our nation has rotted, and it is unraveling to reveal ourselves as animals. We have lost our way as a people.
PT 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
maybe you should be shot too - your words are more violent than the actions of any potcake or dog that I've ever met. You are exactly what is wrong with our country - stupid yet proud, and without a lick of compassion.
shantelle 11 years ago on It's about animals, not vets
It's about animals, not vets
Id like the know who will pay for the vets 'intended' plan to spay/neuter 3,000 per year. They are certainly not going to finance these surgeries themselves.
Currently it is dedicated volunteers of the local animal organizations that work tirelessly to raise these funds for spay/neuters along with generous donors that believe in the cause.
The most effective use of this hard earned money is to perform as many spay/neuters for the least cost possible which is what will happen at Operation Potcake where they provide the materials, buy in bulk at minimal cost and vets donate their time.
Allow the foreign vets in, let them do another 1,000 spay/neuters and believe me there will still be enough dogs and cats left if local vets still want to carry our their proposed plan as well.
When you have starving and suffering animals on the streets there should be no time for pride, egos and a need for power or control. Arguing politics is taking valuable time away from helping the animals, the volunteers certainly would rather be spending their time being proactive - why don't the vets?
TERRI 11 years ago on It's about animals, not vets
It's about animals, not vets
It seems pretty simple to me, the foreign volunteers would be here for 5 days under Operation Potcake. Last time I checked that would leave 360 days for local vets to continue on with the spay/neuter programme and gain the respect they are looking for.
JohnDoe 11 years ago on Local vets say Operation Potcake row result of a ‘misunderstanding’
Local vets say Operation Potcake row result of a ‘misunderstanding’
It is obvious mistakes were made, maybe on both sides, but suffering earned or unearned should be redemptive. Let's now encourage both sides to fight the real problem and not each other. Instead of criticising them we should respect them for being big enough to go back to the table because showing humility, especially from our politicians and intelligentsia, has almost become an extinct trait in the Bahamas.
Lagie 11 years ago on Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
Operation Potcake cancelled after local vet opposition
7,000 animals divided by 10 years is 700 a year by my calculations. Operation Potcake did three times that amount in ten days.