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Friday, September 24, 2010

Machismo

Machismo

I’m a firm believer in spaying and neutering all your dogs, but I wasn’t always so sure. I can recall the years right after we bought our farm in Indiana. The ink was hardly dry on the paperwork when a stream of abandoned dogs came by the place, and we began to collect our menagerie. The first was a young female Beagle who stole our hearts. Before I knew it she was our house dog when I never before had plans to have another dog. Of course it made sense to me to have her spayed and of course we did.

The second dog was more problematic for me. Boy was a down on his luck German Shepherd who had mange, not enough to eat, no owner, and had taken up living in one of our barns. Charlene immediately wanted him neutered, but I had a few doubts. She knew the drill far better than I did, and she recited the better disposition and better health we’d notice after neutering him. But I was thinking he won’t be as good a guard dog, and anyway it almost hurt even to think about ending his manhood—or doghood, if you will.

Well. Charlene settled it by explaining that if we didn’t do it, I wasn’t going to have any use for my own manhood. Boy was neutered with dispatch, and immediately we could see the improvements in his life. He was then about 2 years old and lived twelve more years in robust health. That’s a good long run for a 72 pound Shepherd. He was a super guard dog who always protected the farm. I learned a lot about my ignorant prejudices and became a big proponent of neutering all dogs and cats, male or female.

In Latin America the word for the way I used to be is machismo, related to our “macho.” We don’t have an exact equivalent except what we borrowed from the French, “chauvinism.” Well, whatever you call it, it abounds in most parts of the world. It contributes to a general male reluctance to sterilize male animals. They even go further south of the border with men in a group tending to talk louder and longer than the women. Men somehow seem to try to play a more powerful role in everyday life.

This attitude is one factor to combat in getting the maximum number of animals neutered, but even so, I’m impressed with how many men show up with their dogs and cats in their arms for the free or low cost sterilization clinics Aniplant operates every weekend in Havana and other cities. Nora Garcia has found the key to building a demand for the sterilization service—and that key is education. In one television show and two radio shows every week, she exhorts the Cuban public to sterilize their animals, and she’s effective and convincing in this important public program. Just note that last year the number of cats and dogs Aniplant did was 4 times the number of dogs and cats they did just three years before. Progress like that doesn’t happen by accident; it comes from good planning and hard work.

Oh, and it comes from our donors too. Most of the anesthesia medicines used in the Aniplant clinics are paid for, purchased and shipped out of funds donated to The Aniplant Project, Inc (our new corporate nane).

So, thanks for your support and keep striking a blow against chauvinism. We’re all better off when you do.

Les Inglis

Friday, September 10, 2010

A House in Central Havana

A House in Central Havana

Let me describe for you a typical small home in Central Havana. The street in front is narrow, but two cars can pass each other with no problem. Narrow sidewalks help make this possible. It doesn’t happen often because there is little auto traffic on this street. The lot width is about 25 feet, and the house is built right on the lot lines so the houses on either side touch the next door neighbor. The only way to the small patio at the rear is through the house.

The living room is the largest room in the house, about twenty feet square, and it sits just behind the front wall. The front door and a large shuttered window open to the street. If the family is sitting in their living room and a neighbor walks by, they can carry on a conversation through the window without leaving their chairs. Like many places in Latin America, the window and door are fitted with iron bar grates—the one on the door is hinged and used much as we would use a screen door. But there are no screens and no air conditioning. Except in storms, the door and window shutters are swung inside to provide air circulation.

The living room has a tile floor and a beamed 16’ ceiling stained a dark wood color. Behind the living room along one side wall is a wide, open air hallway giving passage to the rear of the house where it ends at a small bathroom. As you go down the open passage, you pass two small bedrooms on the right. Doors between all the rooms allow you to move through the house without using the open air passage in the case of rain.

The largest room in the rear is the kitchen which has a small refrigerator, but its single most noticeable feature is a built in wood grille about six feet wide covered by a hood and chimney. Yes, cooking is over a wood or charcoal fire, but this family also has an electric hot plate next to the grille.

The back door opens onto a 20 by 25 foot open patio with vines on the walls and a large tropical fruit tree from which melon sized bright green fruits hang. The patio is completely enclosed by the walls of adjacent houses.

This home could be up to 200 years old, so the water, electricity and bathroom are all later additions. You can see all the wires and pipes which run from the roof down the inside walls to the faucets, switches, or receptacles at useable levels. A large plastic tank of very recent vintage on the roof is fed by the municipal water system.

This family loves animals and has a couple of dogs. If they’ve taken the precaution of neutering them, (which service can be had for free from Aniplant), they can be let out in front to relieve themselves. If not, their female dog soon would end up pregnant, and they’d soon have to find homes for or abandon the puppies. In this case, neutering has been done, and the worst that is likely to happen to their pets is to get into a fight or be hit by a car. But these dogs are wise to the dangers and come back to be let in after a while.

One other hazard is they can be mistaken for strays and rounded up by anti rabies teams. Too bad nearly no one uses collars and tags for their dogs. I suppose it is possible to tell strays from family dogs, but it isn’t easy. Family dogs, as a rule, look nourished and healthy and keep their fur looking good. But mistakes happen and they are sometimes are swept up and taken away by the municipal authorities. To read what a pet-loving family must do then, see my blog of June 4.

I’ve written this to help understand a little of the way our Cuban neighbors live. It’s quite different from our lifestyle here at home. The common element, a love for animals, is shared by many on both sides of the Florida Straits.

Les Inglis

Friday, September 3, 2010

Similarities and Differences

Similarities and Differences

As the first country in the Western Hemisphere to proclaim, fight for, and win independence from European colonial powers, the United States became an example to emulate for the countries of Latin America. During the 1800’s, the US example prodded most of Latin America to break the bonds of Spanish and Portuguese rule. Many countries had to fight for their independence, but for some, particularly in Central America, merely proclaiming independence won it.

Cuba had a tougher time throwing off the Spanish yoke than any other Latin country—not surprisingly as it was thought of in Spain as the richest prize delivered by the Conquistadors. Not for nothing did they call it “The Pearl of the Antilles.” Cuba fought three wars of independence with Spain, losing the first two in the 1860’s and winning the last one (with American participation on Cuba’s side) in 1898. The result of what we Americans call the Spanish American War ended once and for all Spain’s dreams of having an empire in the Western Hemisphere.

Cuba established a democracy with a political system much like ours. Ties between the US and Cuba were many and strong, and the two nations became major trading partners. When it was time to build a new Capitol building in Havana, it developed into an amazing look-alike for our own Capitol

The Capitolio, built between 1926 and 1931, housed Cuba’s House of Representatives and its Senate. Its tall dome looks a little skinnier than ours, but none the less elegant. If anything, the semi-circular halls of Congress at either end are more tasteful appendages than our enormous rectangular wings. Today the Capitolio is a museum. Inside you are met with the Statue of the Republic, a bronze, gold leaf coated reminder of our Statue of Liberty, 50 feet tall, and the third tallest indoor statue in the world. She even has her right arm raised like Liberty’s. A replica of a huge diamond is set into the floor at the center of the domed hall. The real one was stolen years ago, and recovered, but never reinstalled in the floor.

It’s amazing to compare the past fraternity of Latin and North American nations with the mutual suspicion that seems to reign today. Amazing, yes, but not surprising when we realize that every nation must find its own way in the world. I’m as much a patriot as the next guy, but I don’t believe that just because something is American (meaning of the US) that it is therefore better.

Still, in the animal protection realm, for all the puppy mills, factory farms, industrial fishing, and hunting abuses we have in this country, animals here are much better off than they are there. Aniplant and The Aniplant Project are working to make the Cuban animals’ world better. But stray and even sick animals can be found in disturbing numbers in Cuba. Efforts to improve the animals’ lives there are growing, but they are still in the early stages of development. And while the average Cuban is at heart an animal lover, household pets don’t yet receive the respect and attention they need and deserve. Part of the problem is economic, of course, but there is a need for much more humane education and a general elevation of the regard in which the family holds its animals.

The optimist in me thinks we’re making progress for animals in Cuba. You can learn more about our efforts at a new website, http://theaniplantproject.org . Please visit it and make up your own mind about the value of the work we are doing for the animals of Cuba.

Les Inglis