Dear Editor,
I remember switching channels one night, a while back, and stopping on Channel 9 when I saw a good-looking, well-spoken young man holding 2 puppies, one in each hand. The asking prices were $35,000 for the Pitbull and $50,000 for a Pompek. Several young people called in saying they were enjoying the show but the prices for the dogs were too high. Several of the callers seemed to be going crazy over the cute little foreign Pompek. The marketer then said “the offer expires if they are not sold on tonight’s show,” but not wanting to miss a sale added, “but I might negotiate if you call after the show.”
When I read the January 25, 2008, Kaieteur News article “Guyana’s next top model: can Anthony Snow be the one.” I realized that TV marketer I had seen was no other than Anthony Snow. In this “good boy-bad boy” article promoting his career, several statements caught my eye (some good and some bad): he owns 16 pitbulls; he’s working on becoming a veterinarian; he’s president of “the Breeder’s Club for dog owners in South America, and he has arranged for more than one hundred dogs to be paraded on the streets of Georgetown on February 22 as part of Mash activities.
If Anthony Snow and others like him want to be role models for today’s youths and if they are serious about “becoming vets” then a good way to begin is to spend a few days at the local animal shelter (GSPCA) seeing how many animals are taken in there (over 4,000 in 2006), the condition in which they arrive, and the many forms of brutality they suffer before being euthanized (over 3,000 in 2006 because sufficient good homes were not available to take them in).
Once role models see and understand the reality of how most dogs and cats really live and die in Guyana, hopefully they will work to educate the public to stop breeding animals that end up in dog fighting rings (where a high percentage of pitbulls end up) and reproduction of imported breeds of cute doggies just to earn a few dollars.
Everyone loves a parade and parades with dogs are no exception. Hopefully the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports and the Ministry of Tourism will take note of the planned February 22, 2008 “parade of 100 dogs down the streets of Georgetown” and lay down the appropriate rules to ensure the health and safety of the animals and the human spectators.
Yours faithfully,
Syeada Manbodh
