Sending dogs to the metropolis is no longer enough, local associations are calling for a large-scale castration strategy
The proliferation of stray dogs causes great damage in Guadeloupe. Protection associations may well send thousands of animals to the metropolis to be adopted. This does not solve the problem. “It is very difficult to fully estimate the number” of stray dogs, explains to AFP Miguel Soussaintjean, director of the island’s pound, which works by agreement with communities to reduce the number of dogs.
Stray dogs are part of the landscape in Guadeloupe, despite the work of around twenty associations recovering stray dogs or cats, to have them adopted in metropolitan France. Every month, hundreds of animals leave as freight, via the main airlines that serve the island.
A well-oiled adoption network
“The association sends around 2,000 dogs a year to be adopted by families in France,” confirms Cécile Vaisse, president of the Overseas Collective for Guadeloupe Animal Protection and Dependency (CopaG). “Locally, there are not enough suitors for adoption”, even for puppies notes Rachel Leblon, founder of the association Les Truffes du Soleil, which sends “30 to 50 animals” each month.
The associations operate in a network, with relays in France, according to a well-oiled mechanism. Adopting families undertake by contract, with a deposit check, to have the animal sterilized once it reaches the required age. They reimburse the veterinary costs incurred by the association, as well as the price of freight calculated “by weight, at the rate of approximately €3.50 per kilo, plus the cost of returning the freight of the cage”, explains Cécile Vaisse. According to Air Caraïbes, the company most used by associations, these shipments represent 37 T annually, on average.
“Stray animals wreak havoc”
An “aberrant” situation for the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which recalls that France is the European country which abandons the largest number of animals, which often end up euthanized. And these air shipments do not solve the problem of proliferation on the spot.
The foundation has started an audit in the overseas territories. “The goal is to have data to consider large-scale sterilization policies”, the only solution, advocated by all, to initiate “a global plan for the management of stray animals”, recalls Christophe Marie, the spokesperson for the foundation. “It’s a question of public health, public safety and also the preservation of local biodiversity: stray animals are wreaking havoc”.
Farmers regularly see their herds attacked by packs of dogs. A few weeks ago, the garden of Valombreuse, a private domain, paradise of fauna and flora, lost its Caribbean pink flamingos, a protected species, decimated by a pack of dogs, which many insiders attribute to owners’ animals left to wander.
Five hundred births a day
As part of the France Relance plan, an envelope of €250,000 has been allocated for animal sterilization projects, 50% paid for by the State. “A straw”, according to several associations, which indicate that “it will only help individuals to have their animals sterilized, but that is only part of the problem”.
The mandatory animal identification law is poorly enforced because it involves legal liability if the animal creates a problem. And many strays actually have owners who let them roam. In addition, “people come to feed stray animals at several points on the island, but without ensuring their identification, this encourages proliferation”, explains Miguel Soussaintjean.
“Between the beginning of the 2000s and today, we have reduced the herd of Gabarre [la plus grosse décharge publique de Guadeloupe] from 15,000 to 8,500”, he estimates, while the number of births per day is estimated at more than 500 (dogs and cats combined) on the island.