Dear Editor,

The Stabroek News editorial of November 11, 2007 captioned `Thunder King’ painted a dismal picture for both humans and animals during the upcoming Christmas Season.The newspaper’s editorial led off with “never mind peace and goodwill, this is the season of noise nuisance and danger, squibs, firecrackers and infernal “bombs”. It mentioned a police source saying that a new “bomb”, the “Thunder King”, had made its appearance in the Corentyne and is very loud and dangerous.

I have the bad luck to live next to some uncaring neighbours and experienced first hand what dogs and other animals should not have to. Two days before Diwali, around 7 pm, neighbours kids and adults began to light off firecrackers.

My elderly dog was going berserk and I asked them to stop but they did not. In fact, they made matters worse by throwing firecrackers in the empty lot next to my house. Being Hindus, religious and having dogs of their own, I was surprised by their unconcerned cruelty to both animals and humans.

I called the Alberttown Police Station and they promised to send out their patrol. I retired to bed hoping for their success. The following morning I made formal reports to the GSPCA and the Alberttown Police Station. Officer Dale Ramsay took my report and was extremely helpful, he immediately sent 2 officers to warn the perpetrators to desist from lighting off firecrackers, the GSPCA Inspector, Colin Piper, arrived at the same time as the police and echoed the warning. While only the maid was home, she promised to pass on the message.

On Diwali day, around 4:30pm, the nightmare continued. My neighbours got more brazen, lighting off squibs, I called Alberttown Station once again and luckily got Officer Ramsay. He immediately called the community policing group and they came within minutes. The perpetrators admitted to the officers they were lighting off the squibs justifying it by saying, “Others are doing it why can’t we?” Thanks to Selvin Alkana, Robert Cheong and others, the perpetrators were warned and my dogs finally got some rest.

I provide this information to the public to show that one or a few police officers can make a difference. And our animals as well as people can benefit from their willingness to enforce the law. However, strict enforcement is required.

Yours faithfully,

Syeada Manbodh