Dear Editor,
During this holy week one should give some thought to man’s feelings toward animals. In the Christian Bible, Proverbs 12:10 states that: “A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast,” and Psalm 145:9 teaches that “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion rests upon all his creatures.” The Bible forbids cruelty to animals in Deuteronomy (22:10, 25:4) and says they are to share in the Sabbath rest (Exodus 20:10, Deut 5:14). The Psalms even have the animals praising God -148:7-10: 150:6.
And it is written in the Koran “God will not be affectionate to that man who is not affectionate to God’s creatures.”
After reading such thoughts and then getting into my vehicle and driving around Georgetown, I cannot help wondering what God is thinking. On every street or corner horrific sights: Horses and donkeys forced to carry huge loads of materials, beaten mercilessly or tied in the hot sun with no water; dogs looking through garbage, competing for their daily snacks; dogs chasing dogs in heat, sick dogs licking their wounds, scratching their mange, or just lying in the shade waiting for the next set of garbage to drop on the street. Sometimes I think the more fortunate ones are those lying along the roadway, already flattened by the increasing pressure of speeding cars and minivans. I ask myself, Where are God’s Angels that watch out for God’s creatures in Guyana? Almost immediately, I smile inside, realizing I know a few right here in Georgetown.
There is a fairly large set of nameless Angels who may feed from a few dogs to dozens, each day, depending on the amount of cash they have in their pockets.
Then there are those spotter Angels who are watching out for animal abuse and use the telephone to communicate the abuses to individuals and organizations who can take action.
Next, I thought of the “barefoot vet” Angels who spot a sick or hurt bird, cat, dog, donkey, sloth, anteater, or other helpless creature and take action to get it to a vet or give it some simple remedy that gets it on its way again.
I even thought of a couple of international Angels I know; while residing in North America, they are constantly on the lookout for ways of assisting domestic pets in Guyana, by sending pet supplies, medicines, and animal food, among others.
There is a small, but growing, group of Angels here in Georgetown that help to rescue and re-home stray dogs.
These are my favourite Angels because they do great work, seldom get credit for what they do but they make the biggest impact on the animals they help by getting them into a real family environment.
As I thought about it, I realized that we not only have an abundance of Angels in Georgetown looking out for God’s creatures, we have a whole Team of Angels. We even have an Archangel, to provide guidance to the other Angels.
This person, Noreen Gaskin, works full time at a private business in Georgetown and is constantly looking for ways of improving conditions for stray animals or animals owned by people.
For example: supported by her company’s staff, she feeds over 30 dogs every day; finances vet services for sick and injured dogs, cats, donkeys and horses, pays for spaying and neutering of dogs and cats with potential to be re-homed, and she provides transportation and workers to go into unsafe areas to carry out animal rescues.
Georgetown and other towns across Guyana need more Teams of Angels and Archangels to win the war against animal cruelty.
Yours faithfully,
Syeada Manbodh
