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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Project Fidelity

Project Fidelity

Some animal rights people object to making dogs into servants of mankind. Seeing the use of dogs on chores for men as a form of slavery, they speak against seeing-eye dogs, St Bernard rescues in the Alps, or guard dogs—all long time jobs for man's best friend. But now that we know more about the many ways dogs can help us, the question of ethics in making them work for us is even more important to answer. Now dogs can sense the onset of an epileptic seizure, tend to someone with a PTSD episode, sniff out drugs and many other types of contraband. In short, dogs doing chores for a living is a much bigger subject than it was even a few years ago.

I started thinking about this ethical question years ago sitting in the lounge of a cruise ship preparing to float us from Miami and off to some island. Lined up on the dock were rows of passenger luggage and cargo. Men with handsome dogs loosed them on the cargo, and the dogs gave every item on the dock a thoroughgoing olfactory inspection. On detecting the scent of drugs, their training would have them signal their handlers to make a search of the bag or box. Fortunately no drugs were detected in the cargo that day.

OK, those dogs weren't being paid, and paying them would not help them. All they need is food and medical care and human companionship. Dogs will learn to do a huge variety of chores for people only because they have evolved to live in symbiosis with mankind.

Yes, since that day thousands of years ago when wolves found food after overcoming their fear of men as they drew near to the garbage dumps of people, wolves have been evolving into dogs and developing a mutually beneficial relationship with people.

How can putting dogs to work be slavery? Are not all creatures placed here for them to earn a living somehow? By finding ways for them to earn a living, isn't humankind actually helping his canine friends? Of course taking care of them and treating them as dear companions goes without saying, but that is all but assured by the natural affinity between the two species.

Given humane treatment for the dogs, which arises naturally in normal people, training and using a dog for service to humans is not cruel, not unnatural, and not unfair. It's really part of the natural evolution of both species. Thus, for me, I settled an old niggling ethical question that has consumed the thoughts of many animal rights people.

More recently, through our website, I met Davis Hawn, a most unusual man with a consuming interest in service dogs and service dog training.. He was planning his first trip to Cuba and had many questions about taking his service dog, Booster, to Havana with him. I could help a little, and Davis got his best answers from Bahamas Air which flew him to Cuba with an education exception to the Cuba travel restrictions. I helped him to meet Nora Garcia, Aniplant's President, and she helped him to publicize his ideas about service dogs and their training—something he calls Project Fidelity. Nora had connections to help him produce an informative, professional video piece on CD about Booster and service dogs in particular, and he appeared on Cuban television with Booster.

While in Cuba Davis found a stray dog on Obispo street in downtown Havana and decided to adopt him. He arranged for someone to foster him during the long wait for medical tests, paperwork, and shipping arrangements. Knowing some Cubans have cheated some traveling dog lovers out of money while providing poor or no foster care, I talked Davis into having Nora inspect the foster family and their home. Nora arranged for a different foster family and began the involved process of generating inoculations, medical certificates, and shipping arrangements to send the dog out of Cuba. Davis met Fidelity after a flight of a few hours to Toronto. They flew on to Chicago and then New Orleans area, their home.

And what is Project Fidelity, you ask? It's Davis' masters degree from Bergin University. Davis is proposing granting scholarships to Cubans to support sending young Cubans to Bergin University for an intensive course in training service dogs. These students, on completing their training would return to Cuba, each with a puppy for training, set about training other dogs and the people who need them. Training of people's pets could be undertaken too. Their new positions would be as paid employees of Aniplant. Davis has selected Aniplant to operate the program in Cuba. An ongoing program of training and encouraging the expanded use of service dogs is foreseen.

All this was packaged into a Master's Degree Thesis by Davis and submitted to Bergin University, and I, along with others, was asked by the University to review the thesis and offer comments. Needless to say, Davis got his Master's Degree, and he and Nora are now in the early stages of this exciting program. Scholarship recipients have been tentatively selected, and it appears their training will take place this summer.

I believe this program, Project Fidelity, will offer opportunities for useful, happy lives for many Cuban dogs, and the presentation of this program to the Cuban people by Aniplant and Nora will help assure that success.

Thanks Davis, Nora, Bergin University, and the scholarship recipients for your collaboration in this exciting program.

Les Inglis

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Vedado

Vedado

In the early history of Havana, keeping a lookout for unfriendly ships was a key part of defending the city. In those days there were no air forces and armies were no threat to the island nation. So ships and defenses against them were threats until proven otherwise.

You couldn't enter the Bay of Havana with bad intentions except at your own peril. At the mouth of the Bay across the water from the city itself is El Morro Castle, a huge stone structure with thick walls, canon, and a commanding view of anything on the water.

Across the water on the city side is a smaller fort, the San Salvador Castle. Both these forts were finished at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Any invaders by sea would face withering canon fire from opposite directions if these forts wanted to deny them entrance to the bay.

Today, El Morro Castle and its mate, San Salvador still stand watching the entrance to the city. El Morro has a distinctive appearance familiar to many. If an illustrator wants to evoke Cuba, or more specifically, Havana, that fort's picture is often selected.

Another tactic of the city's defenders was to use local high ground for lookouts. Being elevated afforded longer views, which provided more warning of the approach of the enemy. Old Havana with its waterfront is low lying. Moving westward you're in Central Havana with a little more elevation. Westward still brings you to Vedado, a section of the city purposely kept undeveloped for decades. "Vedado" means "prohibited" and building anything there was what was prohibited. The high land in the southern part of Vedado made a great lookout for approaching ships, so the city prevented blocking this view with new construction.

As time passed, reliance on men with telescopes waned, and pressure to build so near the growing city combined to end the prohibition. IT was a golden age, and construction of some of Havana's most elaborate structures began, and a new "embassy row" appeared. Today a walking tour through Vedado is an architect's dream. While many Vedado buildings are not in good condition, Vedado buildings in general are in better shape than other, older parts of the city. The few restored buildings are masterpieces.

My hotel is in Vedado, and embassies and ministries are its neighbors. The very large old homes there are taken over by courts, museums, schools, etc. The truly chic place to live these days is Miramar, further to the west, a suburb reminiscent of some American upscale neighborhoods.

It doesn't take much to entertain me in Havana. Stepping out and walking around the area near the hotel will do it. I don't think of Vedado as a tourist area, at least not the part near my hotel. So, mercifully, there are fewer stray animals on the streets. They prefer more restaurants, parks, etc. as discarded food is a magnet to the "satos" or strays.

Perhaps when I am in Havana, I'm also a "stray." I don't seek food, but to soak up the local ambiance. I could say it's almost European in mood. Anyway, strolling through this special part of town has occupied many happy idle hours over the last several years.

Les Inglis.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Casa de las Americas

Casa de las Americas

My hotel in Havana is hardly two blocks from the Florida Straits, which separate Cuba from Florida. To get to the water's edge, you leave the hotel, walk north along Avenida de los Presidentes for two blocks, cross the Malecón, Havana's seaside esplanade, and you're there.

The first time I took this walk, I had gone one block, and I was in front of a truly remarkable Art Deco building about ten stories high. It looked like a big temple with a steeple or tower, and there was no cross on top. There seemed to be a bookstore on the first floor, but it was closed the first evening I saw the building. A huge replica of North and South America in relief filled a plain space above the main entrance. I learned its name was Casa de las Americas or The house of the Americas.

Havana, like Miami has a fair number of Art Deco buildings, and some in both cities are really good examples, and many of those in Havana are deteriorating. But this beauty shows no neglect, and it's a pleasure to see when you pass by. It intrigued me, so I set out to learn what I could about it. I found out it opened in April 1959, four months after Castro's Cuban Revolution was won. It was one of the first buildings to be finished after Castro came to power, and one of a relative few to be built in the 63 years since. Its purpose was to house a center to promote Cuban and Latin American Culture and literature. This organization was founded by Haydée Santamaría.

Haydée was one of two women in the little band of revolutionries which attacked the Moncado, one of Batista's military buildings in Eastern Cuba in 1956. She survived their one-sided defeat, was captured and sent to a Batista prison where she was tortured. In Cuba there is no status higher than to be one of the original revolutionaries. Haydée was one before Castro went to Mexico, came back in the boat Granma, lodged himself and his platoon in the eastern mountains, and began to take over the country.

After victory one of Haydée's rewards was the Casa de las Americas. There she changed from political warrior to culture warrior. She established an annual prize for literature Called the Casa de las American Prize, and many famous Latin American authors have won that prize.

Havana has bigger, taller, more celebrated buildings, but this one has lodged in my head.
Every time I walk by it, I reflect on its role in promoting culture. Cuba has an old, interesting culture, but it has no humane laws, no municipal humane shelters, and a not-well-developed humane ethic. Perhaps the animals of Cuba deserve a book about them—perhaps one good enough to win the Casa de las Americas Prize.

We'll have to start talking this up.

Les Inglis