American animal rescuers step in to save 75 abused Dominican cats and dogs from closed shelter

NEWS AND COMMENT: The only animal rescue shelter on the Caribbean island of Dominica closed down. It contained 75 abused cats and dogs who've been rescued by an American rescue organisation. Great work guys.  It made the news bigtime. And rightly so. I find it both a sad and uplifting story. Sad that this 290 square mile island appears to have such a poor history of companion animal welfare and uplifting in that these animals have been rescued by Americans and flown to America for rehoming.

Smiling rescued dog from Dominica. Image: 

I swear the dog in the picture above is smiling! And if he/she is they have a good reason. They are headed for a much better life.

Some more

Here is some added detail. The Dominican animal shelter that closed down was St Nicholas Animal Rescue. They were rescued by the Los Angeles-based charity Wings of Rescue in an emergency rescue mission.

I believe that organisation is the one that provided the aircraft to fly the 75 cats and dogs to Chicago organisation PAWS Chicago. The CEO of that organisation, Susanna Wickham, said: "We just had to step in when we heard what was happening. They need love. Even though these animals have been through really horrific abuse, they arrive here ready to trust and love and they are just wonderful creatures. They teach us so much and we are thankful to be able to help them."

Dominica

I think it's useful to briefly discuss the island of Dominica which as mentioned has an area of 290 mi². It is a Caribbean island officially called the Commonwealth of Dominica. It was initially settled by the Arawak from South America in the fifth century. It was later colonised by Europeans mainly the French from the 1690s to 1763. The French imported enslaved people from west Africa to work on coffee plantations. Great Britain took possession in 1763 and the English language took hold. The island gained independence as a republic in 1978. It is part of the Lesser Antilles Islands.

Animal rescue

Clearly, the island needs another animal rescue organisation to take charge. It appears that the animals on that island do not have an easy life. The current president of Dominica is Sylvanie Burton.

I want to put out a call to this woman to take urgent steps to re-establish an animal rescue organisation on the island and to take wider steps to improve animal welfare generally. It seems to be required.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.