xlarryhowardx

My wife and I recently returned from St. Lucia and we were appalled at the number of homeless dogs. We checked our Fodor's Caribbean 2009 guide but didn't see any information on animal shelters, vet's, or local initiatives. I'm thinking of contacting Fodor and suggesting they include such information for each of the Islands. Anyone have experience in getting changes incorporated into their guide?

sassy_cat

Do you want to improve conditions for the animals or do you want to have information on which islands have better conditions for animals so you can avoid seeing the homeless dogs, etc on your vacation?

If your answer is the former perhaps writing to the tourism minister Allen Chastanet would help.
St. Lucia has a 25 year plan to improve tourism. I'll try to find an article I just read on this and post it here.

If you want to get this information in guide books then writing to the editors would be a good start. They do respond to their readers and the guides are updated regularly.


Meanwhile, how was St Lucia? Can you write a trip report?

sassy_cat

Here's the article from Travel and Leisure magazine (dec2009)

http://www.travelandleisure.com/arti...omments_page=1

doug_stallings

We do actually cover dog rescue organizations in a couple of destinations, including the Turks & Caicos. I'm also aware of a dog rescue network in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and I believe also in the Out Islands of the Bahamas. I'm not aware of one in St. Lucia, but we generally cover such topics if they are of interest to the authors. But it's not something we do comprehensively.

xlarryhowardx

Thank you so much for replying. My wife did contact Fodor on the subject, but never received a response. Thank you too for the name and the link....our goal really is to advance some change where possible.....not just avoid the problem....obviously its a cultural and economic issue.... not that much different from here in the US. I haven't looked at the hyperlink yet, but will this evening. Also, the information from Mr. Stallings sounds promising too!

xlarryhowardx

Mr. Stallings,
I'm assuming you are affilated with Fodor?

doug_stallings

Sorry, I haven't seen your email yet, but it will probably find its way to me next week. We're a bit short-staffed right now with the Thanksgiving holiday.

And yes, I'm an editor here, and I edit most of our Caribbean coverage. I was just editing the manuscript for our new Jamaica guide, which will be coming out next year, and I noticed that the writers added information on several dog-rescue organizations there.

We'd never have room to cover these kinds of organizations in our Caribbean guide because it's so stuffed to the gills, but many writers are becoming interested in pet rescue and have added coverage in individual island books, where we have more room to expand into less absolutely essential categories of information.

And if anyone knows about a dog rescue organization in St. Lucia, I'd be happy to tell my writer about it. Just let me know.

Weadles

A quick search online shows that there IS a "St. Lucia Animal Protection Agency," which seems to offer foster homes and rehabiliation for dogs. Good luck with your efforts!