St. Maarten Private Eye

Animal Rights fight is not over.

(Image from SXM Martini - Hope she doesn't mind!)

Some of you out there will remember the first anonymous email they got last April informing them about a new blog site called sxm private eye, they will recall that at the time, the planned Dolphinarium was one of the prime reasons I started it and why I use the alias Flipper.

The news (unofficial) that the plans for the Dolphinarium have been scrapped is therefore very welcome. But the fight to protect animals from abuse and exploitation is not over, far from it.

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Since that first post on the old SXM PE blogger site, we have grown just a little, averaging over 200 individual visitors and 1200 pages read daily.

One of the reasons that spured me to start this blog was the Dolpinarium plans, not only the fact it was a dumb plan anyway, justified by arguments full of holes, but also my observations that Mercedes De Windt appeared to be fighting the battle all on her own. We have two animal welfare organizations on the island, however the noise they were making about the plans was muted and rather insignificant compared to what Mercedes took on. I wanted help her, to support her fight.

I am sure she has no interest in getting a medal or award, she is a modest lady who didn't want to be a public figure in the way she has become on this issue, she had no choice in the end, there was no one else. What she does fully deserve is the respect, thanks and admiration of all those who were also against the plans, those that supported her and those that sat on their ass and muttered about it. She reads (I think) this site so you can leave messages down below.

But as I said in the introduction, the fight has not ended for animal rights, nor against dolphinariums here in St Maarten, it must go on. Although the plans have been scrapped, there is nothing to suggest that new ones can't be drawn up in the future and with New Status the conditions laid out by the Federal Govt may beome obsolete. We dont know and I for one will remain cautious and watchful.

St Maarten Animal Welfare and Animals R Friends should take note, and inspiration, from Mercedes, she fought their fight for them. This is not to suggest that they did nothing, they have worked hard for years running spay and neuter programs, collecting, feeding and promoting adoption of strays and homeless animals. However it's time to get just a little bit more confrontational with Govt about the issue of animal rights legistlation which is desperately needed, as well as land for an animal shelter.

Surprisingly, they may now find they have a supporter for both of these issues in Roy Marlin, it was his dog that was killed by other dogs earlier this week. I understand he even expressed concern to several people about these dogs, including being worried for his own safety.

This poor man probably has something so say about it too.

It's time to push for legistlation and the animal welfare organizations need to take up that battle, not let others do it for them. It's time for laws to stop dog fighting, it's time for laws to ensure neglect and abuse is punished, it's time for an animal shelter and it's time to consider licensing and fines which will pay for the shelter and enforcement of these laws.

For those of us who have dogs or other animals as companions and family members, we understand how Roy must be feeling and although we criticize his environment record, we must surely sympathize with his loss. The silver lining, unfortunate but true, is the hope he now understands the reasons for legistlation and will push his fellow ExCo members to move on it.

For those of you who want to continue to support the ongoing campaign to protect all animals from exploitation and abuse we encourage you to make a donation via this site, in exchange you will recieve one of our newly designed Free is Best T - Shirt. All proceeds will be made available to Mercedes to continue her campaign for animal rights and legislation.

Flipper

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