The Editor, Sir:

After reading the Jamaica Kennel Club's (JKC) article in The Gleaner of September 21, I feel compelled to make a few comments.

While I understand that breeders are in the business to make money, and everyone has to make a living, I am having a little difficulty with the JKC's stated goal of "promoting in every way the general improvement of dogs".

There is not a street in Kingston (except possibly in the elite residential areas) where you can drive and not see one or more stray dogs. In fact, in the city, there are tens of thousands of dogs that are hungry, thirsty, lonely or injured either by careless drivers or as a result of deliberate cruelty - all of them frightened and traumatised. These dogs will die lingering deaths from starvation or from ailments which could easily be treated with a little care, and their numbers increase every day.

To compound the problem, with the economic situation as it is, more and more people are realising that they can no longer afford to look after their pets, and they are given up for adoption or simply abandoned. As evidence of this, these days there are noticeably more strays with a variety of pure-bred looks or characteristics, and there are owners, in fact, who find it quite amusing when their pooch goes out for a night on the town, blissfully ignorant of the number of beautiful but unwanted puppies that will be born, will struggle to survive for a while, and die on the streets as a result.

Look a little further

If the kennel club is serious about its goal of the "general improvement of dogs", I would like to challenge it to look a little further afield than registration certificates and observe the dogs suffering all around. We are living in difficult times, and rather than encouraging further breeding and catering to the Jamaican weakness for 'name-brand' or designer clothes, shoes and dogs, it is time for those who have the influence and power to inspire more compassion and a deeper awareness to make a concerted effort at canine population control.

I would like to see the kennel club publicly throw its weight behind the current Jamaica Veterinary Medical Association/International Spay Neuter Network projects to spay and neuter street dogs with the ultimate aim of reducing the numbers, and the suffering, of Jamaica's strays.

Then I would agree that they are "promoting in every way the general improvement of dogs".

I am, etc.,

CINDI SCHOLEFIELD

cindischo@cwjamaica.com