Animal Rights Activist, Shari Rodrigues, is a ‘Special Person’

Oct 20, 2019 News, Special Person

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“If you leave back good food, don’t throw it way. Don’t throw it in the garbage. Feed a stray, give a hungry dog. Too many times, I see animals hungry in a community and people are throwing food in the garbage.”

By Kemol King

When Shari Rodrigues went to school, as a child, her teachers would notice her day dreaming. They’d ask “What are you daydreaming about?”
And she would say “My dogs! I miss my dogs.”
When she’d get home, instead of playing with the children in the street, Rodrigues would roll and play with her dogs.
“However they play, that’s how I would play.”
Those were just a few of the first signs that Rodrigues, who is now an animal rights activist, loved animals dearly.
But the first sign came much earlier in her life.
“Once, when I was just a few months old, I was upstairs [at home],” Rodrigues recalled, warmly.
“My mom, downstairs, saw one of the dogs bolt up the stairs. A big dog, a doberman. She was obviously very afraid because they’re an aggressive breed. So she ran up behind the dogs and there I was, just sitting, playing. The dog was licking me, I held its face, and I was looking at the dog. She said that she could see the love in my eyes.
“From there on, it was established that I had this great love for animals, when I was only a few months old.”

That love, with a strong moral upbringing, would see Rodrigues go on to teach the world about what it means to love and care for animals, even though they’re not human beings.
There’s no difference, for Rodrigues, after all, “they have feelings too. They feel things, emotionally and physically, just how you would feel.”
As a carer for animals, she’s had firsthand experience with how deeply emotional animals are.
“I’ve had three of them, where the owner went away… and they cried a lot. They weren’t eating, so we had to comfort them, and you know, it’s the same way that a human would feel if they lost another human.”
“When I leave the country… they cry for me, you know? They miss me. So I think that people should realise that animals are family, and they have feelings too.”
Rodrigues grew up with pets all her life. At any given time, she said, she had no less than 15 of them, including dogs, cats and birds.

And while the average Guyanese pet owner may cage a bird or pen a dog, this animal lover has taken a kinder approach to her relationship with them.
“I don’t believe in caging birds. That’s cruelty.
[Dogs would be in the house] with me. They’d sleep on the bed with me, or else I wouldn’t go to sleep. That’s how obsessed [I was].”
Most of her pets are rescues. Rodrigues said that she has never bought a dog.
“I have 10 dogs of my own, I don’t keep cats right now because my dogs, they are not having it. But I foster cats at the shelter.”
Rodrigues’ love for her pets is endless. She loves them as they were her very own children.
She spoke glowing about her husky, Storm.
“That’s my daughter… I know you should not have favourites when you have children but she’s my baby,” Rodrigues laughed.
Before, Storm has been unwell, and so Rodrigues did a whole lot to make sure Storm would get better.
“She was sick recently, under the weather. To comfort her, I bought toys for her, special food for her, anything that she wanted. I had her with me all the time, just to reassure her that she’s going to be okay.”
At 33, Rodrigues has been an animal rights activist for just a few years, but she has been an animal lover her entire life.
She is a founder of Paws For A Cause, a non-governmental organisation formed earlier this year to advocate for animal welfare. The organisation has mainly been focused on rehoming, rescuing, fostering, spaying and neutering of animals, since its inception.

She, as an individual, also works collaboratively with the Guyana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA), the Rosewood Foundation, and many other animal activist groups across the country.
“The GSPCA, they provide us with a lot of spots weekly for spaying and neutering.”
Rodrigues said that this is vital to control the stray population.
“And [the GSPCA] has campaigns through the Humane Society International” – a global organisation that works to promote human-animal bonds and to prevent cruelty in all its forms.
Even recently, Rodrigues said, that body was here to train them about how to effectively trap, spay and release stray animals.
With all of those groups, Rodrigues provides a range of services for animals, including going into schools to teach children about the importance of being kind. They also talk to parents and teachers because, for Rodrigues, kindness to animals goes a very long way.
“We’re trying to show individuals why it’s important to just be a kind society, because there are more gains to being kind.”
“We’re trying to deal with this generation now that is coming up, to make an impact.”
Rodrigues said that if children are exposed to kind attitudes from early on, they will grow up to be better, warmer adults.

“[But if] they’re growing up with hostility, then more than likely, they’ll grow up being mean to other adults, even children, or their spouse. So if you’re seeing those characteristics in children, then more than likely, you can expect them to be cruel to even mankind too, to their own people.”
People would call her the crazy dog lady, Rodrigues explained in jest. She has very strong convictions about how animals should be treated.
There are laws in place for the humane treatment of animals, but Rodrigues said there’s a lot more that has to be done to enforce them.
She said that there also needs to be stricter rules and inspectors across the nation to ensure those rules are being followed.
“Through activism and collaborations with other organizations and individual activists, I am sure that we can approach the Government and show them what we think would be a right approach and try to work along with them.”
She said that professions like police also have a very important role to play in the fostering of a society that is kinder to animals.
“Children look up to the police, [nurses and teachers]… Many times, children would grow up saying I want to be a police… They’re like role models so I think that [those professions] should be educated and we can start from there… It’s a wide loop. It doesn’t just start with activists.”

And while she doesn’t see Guyana currently being at the place it needs to be, in that regard, she has acknowledged that there has been considerable progress.
“I think that it has to do with [the fact that] we have a more Americanised culture now, especially with the influx of foreigners… I think that Guyanese people are more exposed now to how people really treat animals and have them apart of their family.”
The goal, Rodrigues said, is not necessarily to make everyone an animal lover, but to help them realise and respect the dignity of animals.
Where other people may be quick to respond in anger about cruelty to animals, Rodrigues knows that that approach isn’t always the best.
If she approaches someone who isn’t as sensitive to the needs of animals, Rodrigues said that there are good, non-confrontational approaches to pointing out that the animal is getting too much sun or not enough water.
“Obviously, I would have a friendly approach, not an aggressive one… So I would approach them and, [then] you would have more of a [willing] response from this person, wanting to be educated.”
And with this approach, she notices positive changes most of the time, “where they would probably construct a kennel and have them out of the heat, and off of a leash depending on the situation.”
“So I think, now, in these times, it has changed in that sense where people are more accepting now that, you know, you shouldn’t treat your animal [cruelly].”
Rodrigues, in her work, also performs rescue operations for animals, mainly focused on cats, dogs, horses and birds.
“If somebody makes a report to me – and reports come through to my phone everyday – that a bird is caged up, we’ll go and look into that situation. If we find out that a horse is being brutalized, or if a doggy has a hole or a wound, we go and we treat them. That’s our essential focus.”
Rodrigues runs a shelter in Eccles for animals who don’t have anywhere else to go. It houses about 40-60 animals at a time. That includes many strays and pets that families have to give up for one reason or the other.

“We rehome, we rescue, and we rehabilitate.”
Rodrigues said that she’d often get calls from people, crying because they’d have to give up a cat or dog, after a landlord says they no longer want pets in the home. This stems from a certain mentality of people not appreciating the relationships people can have with animals, she posited.
“So what we’re trying to do through activism is to change this mentality.”
The shelter would also receive animals from owners who are migrating who would prefer not to stray their pets. People would contact the shelter and ask them to foster those animals until they can find them new homes.
That’s a job the shelter places a lot of emphasis on.
Rodrigues said that she would do inspections to make sure that the pet’s prospective home is accommodating. They would interview the family and ensure that the children respect animals. They would also make sure that the animals are vaccinated to prevent them from contracting certain airborne diseases, like distemper.
Rodrigues also seeks to provide euthanasia services for animals who may need to be put down.
“Euthanasia, that’s the humane thing to do, given that an animal is ill and that it cannot be treated… We would ensure that we humanely euthanize the animal.”
In the shelter, she said, there are four sections.
The first is what the staff there call ‘The Best Friends’ Club’. There rests the very loving, kind and playful pets. Then there’s the second section for the pups, the third section for the very aggressive animals, and the last one, for most of the other dogs. In that last section, she said, there are some dogs who may not necessarily be aggressive but display some signs of aggression and may need to be kept apart for the safety of the other animals.
Rodrigues explained that finding homes for animals can sometimes be very heartwarming.
While, in some cases, people like to adopt the most fluffy pups or the animals with colourful eyes, she loves them all the same.
“I see no difference. For example, I have mixed breeds, what Guyanese people would call common breed, which I don’t like to refer to them as because they’re not common. They’re exquisite and exotic to me. I don’t see beauty in the colour of their eyes or their fluffiness. It’s how they interact with me; the way they show me love – and they have a lot of love to give.”
On the other hand, “I’ve come across a lot of kind people that would call me and say ‘Hey, I want to adopt the least adoptable dog/cat,’” Rodrigues said.
Just recently, someone adopted a cat who only had one eye.
“She was in love with him. He only had one eye and she wanted to take care of him.”
In another instance, there was a semi-paralysed dog, who someone wanted to adopt because that person was sure that nobody could love the dog like they would, and give that dog the therapy it needed.
Rodrigues said that it makes her happy to think about how much more humane society is becoming, because she comes across people who want to assist the most vulnerable animals.
The animal lover was keen to talk about giving animals the right nutrition.
“I don’t believe in chow. I think it has limited nutrition. I give them rice and meat, and I’ll change it up. One week. I’ll be like, ‘I think they’re tired of beef now.’ I‘ll give them chicken with vegetables… [and] they love coconut milk.”
On the other hand, she said that there are foods that shouldn’t be given to dogs.
“Like, grapes are bad. An excess amount of garlic is bad. Chocolate can cause seizures.”
“So you always have to check and see what you need to give in limited amounts and what you don’t need to give them at all.”
Rodrigues said that it’s important to research and know what is acceptable for pets to eat, so they’re getting a nutritious diet.
“[Also], ensure that there’s always water accessible for dogs and cats. Don’t leave them in the heat.”
She also said that people should foster the practice of feeding strays in their communities.
“If you leave back good food, don’t throw it way. Don’t throw it in the garbage. Feed a stray, give a hungry dog. Too many times, I see animals hungry in a community and people are throwing food in the garbage.”
With everything Rodrigues does for animals, she still manages all her activism, plus work.
“I’m a businesswoman, I export. I’m into real estate and I’m also opening a [manufacturing] factory before Christmas. So I do a lot of things. I have a very busy schedule.”
But she still finds the time.
It’s not often you find someone who dedicates their time and energy so selflessly to a good cause. Rodrigues is working to make society a warmer, brighter place, not just for animals, but for everyone. That’s why Kaieteur News has chosen her as this week’s ‘Special Person’.

 

 

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