Both the Trinidad and To­ba­go So­ci­ety for the Pre­ven­tion of Cru­el­ty to An­i­mals and the An­i­mal Wel­fare Net­work are very con­cerned about the poor treat­ment of dogs used for se­cu­ri­ty du­ties at Car­ni­val events.

We re­ceived a re­port that a dog was tak­en on du­ty at a neigh­bour­hood fete and left on the site over-night, af­ter the fete was over. The dog was con­fined to an in­se­cure cage so small that it could not even stand up and turn around. It was still on site, in the cage, at 10.30 on the morn­ing af­ter the fete.

It is pri­mar­i­ly the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the se­cu­ri­ty firms to en­sure that their an­i­mals are prop­er­ly pro­vid­ed for while on du­ty at an event. How­ev­er, those hir­ing the se­cu­ri­ty firms can­not ig­nore the treat­ment of an­i­mals sent to their premis­es.

Those who en­gage se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­nies should in­sist that their an­i­mals are pro­vid­ed with shel­ter (par­tic­u­lar­ly trav­el­ling cages of ad­e­quate size and strength). The an­i­mals should al­so be re­turned to base im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the event ends. Cus­tomers should en­sure that the an­i­mals are pro­vid­ed with wa­ter at all times. If the cus­tomer is dis­sat­is­fied with the treat­ment or con­di­tion of the an­i­mals sent to his premis­es, he should com­plain to the se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­ny from which they came and, most im­por­tant, refuse to do busi­ness with that com­pa­ny in the fu­ture. On­ly by cus­tomers tak­ing a firm stand on these mat­ters can the lot of se­cu­ri­ty dogs in this coun­try be im­proved.

Si­ta Ku­ruvil­la

Pres­i­dent, TTSP­CA

Pa­tri­cia A Green

Chair­man, AWN