Managing Director at the Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (JPSCA) Pamela Lawson has outlined that the organisation is still far from reaching an agreement with the government.

In 2022, the government announced that the relocation of the JSPCA was closer to reality and outlined that Cabinet had approved that the entity be moved from 10 Winchester Road to a section of 13 Old Hope Road in St Andrew.

In an interview with Our Today, Lawson said that the JSPCA is nowhere in terms of relocating. “We’re up nowhere. We’re squatters, and we’re proud. We have nowhere to go yet. We have nowhere to go,” she said.

Lawson also outlined that the agency hasn’t heard anything from the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Floyd Green. “He has not even responded to our letters. I don’t think we’re in his good books, actually,” she said, outlining that the JSPCA wrote to Green in January.

What will happen to the JSPCA?

However, Lawson said it’s difficult for anybody to evict the JSPCA “because if it was just people, it’s one thing, but we have so many animals. We turn no one away. We allow everybody to [bring] their animals. The people who need the land are the National Health Fund (NHF), so what will the government do about us? We’re not a part of the government, you know. That’s the problem. People think we are because we’re named JSPCA, but we’re not. We are a charity,” she said.

The JSPCA is a non-governmental organisation that takes in animals whether owners are able to pay for their care and treatment. “We deal with anything animal-related. I mean, I just don’t know; we work with the police. We work with the military. We work with every organisation, Ministry of Health; we work with public health.

“I mean, it almost feels like they’re just throwing you some scraps and saying, okay, here, have that. You give me a piece of land that I have no access to yet. Well, I do have the lease, but I have no proper access. It’s undeveloped land, full of bush, sinkholes, and everything else brought to flooding. That costs a lot of money to develop. Where am I supposed to find the money? I’m a charity, so I’m not going to come up with a plan overnight,” Lawson continued while expressing disappointment in the government.

However, she stated that there haven’t been any negative or positive words from the Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, or Minister Green but outlined that the agency has made certain recommendations for their consideration. “We haven’t received anything yet, [but we made] recommendations for alternate property that is within the ministry’s ability to grant us, but we haven’t had any joy with that. There is property at the ministry, and we were seeking for them to allow us to lease it for a time until we could slowly but surely develop the property that was granted to us.”

Difficulty relocating the JSPCA

Lawson states that the organisation has been in this situation with the government for decades because it has been difficult to relocate the JSPCA. “I suspect that half the problem we’re having is that there’s some resentment. Why you never move before? But we have tried to move before over the years, but every time we’ve identified a location, oh, it’s not in a good place; it’s not this.”

She further highlighted that the location provided by the government requires a lot of development efforts. “It’s in the middle of everybody, so there’s no clear access. We have to cut an access road and everything, and they feel that they did make an effort, but they didn’t; they gave us something that nobody would really put static over anyway. It’s not developed, so we have to develop everything from scratch. If we had that kind of money, wouldn’t we have bought somewhere that we like in the first place? We just don’t have the money.

“Wherever we go, we have to build kennels; we have to build catteries; we have rabbits; we have cats; we have dogs; and we sometimes have goats; we have snakes. There’s no animal that has never been at the JSPCA, kangaroos; we’ve treated everything at JSPCA. We treat all the JDF animals; we treat all the JCF animals. We assist them by going on operations, so we can ensure animals are not hurt while they go on operation,” she added.

Lawson has been at the JSPCA since 2001, but the agency has been at 10 Winchester Road since the early 90s.