JSPCA conducts hasty surgeries on animals as they prepare to relocate

Administrators at the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (JSPCA) say they are working speedily to complete well-needed surgeries on animals as they prepare to relocate from their long-time home on Winchester Road in Kingston.

At the same time, friends of the organisation have started GoFundMe pages seeking donations to assist with the relocation of Jamaica's premier animal rescue and shelter facility.

Already, more than a dozen surgeries, some major, have been carried out on animals in the last two weeks, offered Pamela Lawson, JSPCA's managing director, who in a recent Sunday Gleaner expose bemoaned a $200 million price tag to relocate to lands set aside on Hope Road in Kingston by the Ministry of Agriculture.

"We have been trying to get off as many of the surgeries as possible. That way when we really run out of time, we would have gotten those out of the way," Lawson told the newspaper, explaining that the process of relocating the JSPCA, which houses dogs, cats, snakes, and other animals is akin to relocating Jamaica's largest adult hospital.

"Our biggest problem is that when we adopt our animals at JSPCA, every animal has to be spayed or neutered. We cannot send it away from here unless it has surgery, and that's a problem, but it has to be done," she said.

The JSPCA must relocate after the property it now occupies was sold to the National Health Fund (NHF). NHF's directors say they plan to erect the Fund's head office there, and ultimately amalgamate all its services under one roof.

The $200 million needed for the JSPCA's new location will go towards erecting the physical facility, however, there is still much work to be done to clear and prepare the land for usage. As a result, a group of environmentalists, who dub themselves Friends of the JSPCA, have been soliciting financial and other assistance to help with the move.

"We are doing a GoFundMe, and we are also gathering a list of people who can help. It's not everybody who can give money. So we are also looking for persons who can give labour when they are moving the animals," said Damion Whyte, biologist and University of the West Indies lecturer.

Whyte said, already, there are some 30 people in the group, and more persons are reaching out via his social media platform, Roosters World Ja, asking how they can assist with assuaging the JSPCA predicament.

- Corey Robinson

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