Parliament member Daisy Coffie make petition to change Dog Ordinance

Bonaire’s Dog Ordinance dates back to 1998 and island parliament member Daisy Coffie wants to replace it. Island council member for M21, Desi Coffie in a letter to the executive council points out that in the Insular Ordinance of 25 June 1998, no. 2, replacing the Dog Ordinance (A.B. 1961, no. 14, article 3 paragraph 1 and 2, it reads:

Paragraph 1: It is forbidden for owners of cages to leave them unattended on public roads or on land that is accessible to all.

Paragraph 2: Dogs that are without supervision on public roads or on land that is accessible to all, or on land that a person with the right to do so has made accessible, are captured by the police or by persons designated by the Executive Board to do so.

Article 12, paragraph 2, of the same ordinance states: A violation of articles 3, 8 and 9 of this ordinance is punishable by imprisonment of a maximum of 2 months or a fine of a maximum of 5000 florins ($ 2793.30).

From Article 1 we can deduce that a person who removes his dog for a short time outside of treatment without supervision to satisfy his needs, is punishable. Then we have the dogs that run away from the hospital and the supposedly ownerless dogs that terrorize the neighbors and kill the neighbors’ animals. Unfortunately there is NO maintenance of this law. If this law had been properly enforced since 1998, there would have been fewer unwanted pregnancies among dogs and certainly fewer or no actual biting incidents and also fewer problems with dogs killing goats. It is therefore a problem that the government itself has created and perpetuated because of its negligent attitude of not paying attention to law enforcement over the years. When there is a molester, it is certainly much easier to put the dogs to sleep or to shoot them, since the problem is then solved immediately.

In Article 477 of the Penal Code BES stands for:

Punishable by a maximum of one month imprisonment or a first-degree fine:

Summary 1: A man without restraint causes pain or injury to an animal, a man without restraint tortures an animal, or a man without restraint harms the health of an animal.

Subsection 2: A person who is unable to care for an animal is unable to care for an animal that is wholly or partially owned by him and is under his supervision, and that he is obliged to care for.

In the current situation on Bonaire, when an unattached fish is left without food and malnourished, in most cases this fish is confiscated. However, there is no punishment for the person who caused the beast to die, and often after a short time another attack occurs.

In 2016 there were several meetings with the Public Entity of Bonaire because various animal organizations had heard that the cages were being put to sleep, without the owners being aware of it. However, after a year and a half the sticker was removed from these consultations. The governor at the time, however, suggested that the animal organizations could not work together and that for this reason not

It made sense to continue. The truth was, the Public Body of Bonaire could not do what it wanted, which was to issue a press release about all that it had accomplished. However, nothing was accomplished. Each time, the Public Prosecutor’s Office changed its mind and broke its promises.

To this day the animal organizations work fairly together. Due to the increasing number of complaints in recent years, at the end of March 2022 the Public Entity Bonaire created the so-called “Cachos Working Group”. This task force would give advice on how to deal with the problems of molesters. Up to this point, a year and a half after this work group was formed, nothing has been cleaned up. As the working group conducted in-depth research into how the problems arise, they found the problem to be complex. Remarkably, after a plea for access to the minutes or to see the report on the findings, the task force was unable to produce anything.

This should be very clear: if a year and a half ago they had started with a clear campaign via social media, radio, television, house-to-house leaflets etc., then they would have had visibly less problems. This working group probably considers the problem to be complex, because there is a need to maintain the law, but the relevant authorities cannot make decisions about who is going to do this.

The problem of dogs (molestation of stray dogs, incidents of biting and the like) is getting bigger every day, now that every reception area is full. The proverb “mop with open cranks” applies here: organizations mop, but governments with closed cranks look the other way and let the water run.

Using article 45 of the regulations of order and Insular Council, the M21 faction wishes to receive oral answers from the Executive Board on the following questions at the next public meeting of the Insular Council.

1. Why isn’t the investigation of the Cache Working Group public?
2. Where can I get a copy of the survey and its results?
3. Why is it not possible to look into the investigation of the Cache Working Group?
4. Where can access be had to a look at the research and its results?
5. Why didn’t the promised campaign on land ownership start immediately at the end of March 2022?
6. Why during all the years after 10-10-10 did not begin with the adaptation of legislation related to animal welfare? The current coalition has been confronted with this many times, in other coalitions as well.
7. Why not set up a so-called beast police, so that action can be taken immediately?
8. Why does the Political Corps of the Caribbean Netherlands not have the means to capture dogs and why do they not have adequate knowledge about animal behaviour?
9. Since the Public Entity is not obligated to do extra to host, what will be required when you start maintaining the law in a proper manner?
10. Why not investigate possible biting incidents, but immediately assume the dog is the culprit?