The relocation of the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (JSPCA) is closer to reality, as Cabinet recently approved the entity’s move from 10 Winchester Road to a section of 193 Old Hope Road in St Andrew. 

Robert Nesta Morgan, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) with responsibility for information, told journalists at Wednesday’s (April 6) post-Cabinet press briefing that the approval for 193 Old Hope Road was done recognising the accommodation ‘limbo’ faced by the JSPCA. 

“There was also the approval for the relocation of the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to part of the premises at 193 Old Hope Road,” said the minister.

“And this was done because of challenges the JSPCA has been having with their current location,” Morgan explained further.

Based on geolocation, the approved spot falls on land belonging to the Government of Jamaica, specifically the Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

An estimated timeline for the JSPCA’s relocation was not immediately specified. 

The development effectively ends a nearly decade-long struggle for the JSPCA, which was handed a notice to vacate the Winchester Road property in 2013.

The locale, home of the island’s lone animal-exclusive shelter for stray and abandoned pets and one of the largest operational veterinary clinics, has been part of the landscape of Half-Way Tree, St Andrew since 1991. 

Its veterinary clinic, which is open to the public, also deals with more than three hundred charity cases per week.

In a July 2015 editorial published in the Jamaica Observer, Dr Paul Cadogan, chairman of the Jamaica Veterinary Medical Association (JVMA), further hailed the JSPCA’s pivotal work in advancing domestic animal welfare issues as well as animal rescue and rehabilitation. 

The JSPCA is a registered charity that was founded in 1904.