As we sit waiting, the German woman and her two children tell me about the puppy they rescued from Mt Irvine Bay in 2013 and took back to Germany. Many tourists, mainly Europeans, fall in love with one or more “Tobago terriers” or cats and spend thousands of dollars to fly them back to their country to live lives of love and luxury.
From her iPhone the woman shows me photos and videos of the pup, now a dog, lounging in a designer dog bed, sleeping with the children, curled up on a sofa, playing outdoors with their other dog (adopted from the streets of Croatia), going for walks in a park, running in the snow. “What’s her name?” I ask. “Puppy,” the woman responds, smiling fondly.
We are at the Canaan/Bon Accord Community Centre for the T&T Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ (TTSPCA) annual free SPOTT clinic (Spaying Prevents Overpopulation in T&T). Almost a dozen vets and vet students from Trinidad are in Tobago to operate on the pets being brought in by owners. I am there with my dog. Others are there with dogs and cats in various stages of drowsiness. Some pets are already spreadeagled on the table, knocked out cold, oblivious to the scalpel.
In addition to health benefits for animals, the importance of spaying/neutering becomes evident when statistics like these are considered:
In six years, one un-spayed female dog and her un-spayed offspring can theoretically produce 67,000 dogs. One un-spayed female cat and one un-neutered male cat and their offspring can result in 420,000 kittens in seven years. A female cat can have 29 litters in ten years. A male cat can sire as many as 2,500 kittens in a single year, and a male dog can sire almost as many puppies. (Source: the Watauga Humane Society, USA.)
A woman and dog approach the front desk. The representative in charge of registration asks the dog’s name. “Puppy,” the woman responds. As the day unfolds, four other dogs named “Puppy” are brought in. Three of them belong to the same owner. One man’s canine has a more mature name—“Dog.” “I never really named him,” he tells me when I ask. Two people register their cats simply as “Kitty”.
Pets with less species-specific names include Tiny and Tom (cats), Molly, Patches, Prince, Bear and Fatty (dogs). “How you could name the dog Fatty?” one woman calls out to the owner upon overhearing the name. “She was fat as a puppy. She only now getting slim!” the owner calls back.
“Millie,” the name given that day to the homeless dog from Milford Court, is in a recovery cage, slowly emerging from drugged stupor. She has been picked up by an animal lover who brought her to be spayed—a responsible thing to do for even (or especially) a “stray” animal.
After years of giving birth to countless offspring, Millie can finally retire from her unwitting job as a puppy factory. She will be housed at the TTSPCA for recovery and, in a few days, returned “home” to Milford Court, where she will be fed by members of the public who know her.
Esther Waldron, a die-hard animal lover, is there with three dogs. One of her other dogs at home (the mother of Prince, featured in the photo) is due to give birth any day to Prince’s future siblings. Esther is hoping to find loving homes for all of the pups and, once they are born, will advertise them via the TTSPCA. “A dog’s love is unconditional, just like the love of God,” she says.