TREASURE CAY GOES TO THE DOGS
by Ellen Bird
This tale is written with quotes from John Steinbach in Dawson City.
During spring and summer in particular, Treasure Cay goes to the dogs! Packs of wild and domestic dogs roam the area hunting for food and sometimes searching for careless owners who purport to want them but leave them to fend for themselves.
These dogs are often orphans adopted when they are winning little whiners, but as they age and become a responsibility they are dumped in a likely looking yard. Many Bahamians and tourists have a cavalier attitude to dogs and refuse to leash or fence their animals. This attitude is not admirable and makes walking the streets or beach, playing golf, or riding a bicycle or gardening a sometimes frightening experience for the unwary.
When dogs gather in packs they become territorial. Usually their aggressive behaviour is restricted to other dogs which makes for unpleasant fights and serious maiming of each other. There is also a threat of attack to humans trying to intervene.
Cat owners are nervous, with justification. The villa area has lost three cats to foraging dogs since last winter.
We, as residents and visitors, are faced with a health hazard because the dogs prey on garbage and deposit a remarkable amount of waste of their own on the landscape.
Up to now rough justice has been applied and poisoning has become the usual method of reducing dog vagrancy. This is not good enough: poison is a danger to children and other animals. Also, there is no formal set up to collect dead doggies' corpses bloating in the sun. They are seen by the side of the road and on the golf course and really no-one wants to be responsible.
I would like to see the scalpel used to reduce the population. Animals
should be trapped and those not claimed after their pictures are displayed
near the post office should face lethal injection. Any dog owner claiming
a trapped dog should be honour bound to have the animal neutered. The dog
- or cat, for that matter - can then enjoy a healthy life style without
further contributing in a negative way to Treasure Cay and its environs.