Animal rights group intensifies lobby


 for boycott of St. Kitts and Nevis


NORFOLK, Virginia An
international animal rights
group has launched a global
campaign aimed at getting
travel agencies to boycott St.
Kitts and Nevis over alleged
cruelty to animals at the
Ross University School of
Veterinary Medicine.
 The Virginia-based People
for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA) has to date
succeeded in getting at least
two major travel agencies in
the United States in boy-
cotting the twin-island federa-
tion over the alleged mutila-
tion and killing of healthy
sheep, donkeys and goats at
the veterinary school.
 PETA, in a statement
issued last month, said that
while some travel agencies were
"planning quietly" to steer trav-
elers to other destinations, the
Washington-based Green Earth
Travel was the latest in publicly
announcing that it would
encourage its clients not to visit
the Caribbean nation "until the
school ends its cruel and deadly
surgical procedures on ani-
mals".
 In April, the Las Vegas-
based Holiday Systems
International, a high-end trav-
el agency, said it had started
to refuse to book holidays to
St. Kitts and Nevis for its over
300,000 clients.
 Donna Zeigfinger, presi-
dent of Green Earth Travel,
said she was urging clients to
vacation elsewhere "because of


BARBADOS High airfares
are grounding the develop-
ment of future air travelers,
according to a young travel
expert from the Caribbean.
 Javon Griffith, designated
junior minister of tourism of
Barbados 2004-2005, is
lamenting the high cost of
intra-Caribbean travel, claim-
ing it is hindering efforts to
develop a youth travel market.
 "The continuing increase
in the cost of travel is limiting
the ability of the Caribbean to
develop a youth travel mar-
ket," said Griffith, who
believes Caribbean youth need
to be educated early about the
importance of tourism to the
region's economy.
 "They need to understand
that without the contribution
of tourism to the Caribbean
the region would be rendered
economically non-viable," the
20-year-old said.
 "Furthermore, they need
to understand that this is why


the harmful and outdated sur-
geries that are performed on
animals at Ross and the St.
Kitts government's defense of
them.
 "We will only resume
encouraging people to book
their travel to St. Kitts once
Ross University ends the
needless suffering of animals
by using humane veterinary
teaching alternatives recom-
mended by PETA", she said
in a letter to PETA.

ALERT
 Zeigfinger added that
Green Earth Travel had also
posted an alert in its newslet-
ter about the alleged animal
cruelty at Ross University.
 PETA which has affili-
ates in the United Kingdom,
Germany, the Netherlands,
India, and the Asia-Pacific
region said it had urged the
Denzil Douglas administration
in St. Kitts and Nevis to inves-
tigate the veterinary school
for alleged violations of the
United States' Protection of
Animals Act. It said it had
received complaints from
"concerned Ross students"
about "cruel teaching proce-
durLe .
 But PETA said while the
St. Kitts and Nevis' Ministry
of Agriculture had launched
an investigation, the veteri-
nary school reportedly "con-
tinues to conduct needless
practice sessions on healthy
animals that often result in


it is argued so often that the
Caribbean is the most tourism
dependent region in the
world."

IMPACT
 Griffith recently complet-
ed a bachelor of science
degree in hospitality and
tourism management from the
University of
the West
Indies. He has
worked as a
part-time serv-
er at the Fish
Pot Restaurant
in Barbados.
He said
affordable Griffith
travel options
help to shape the youth's
world view and address their
need to understand "the scope
of tourism's impacts, the level
of job creation and the valu-
able foreign exchange to be
earned from the sector.


death".
 The group also called on
the school to establish a vet-
erinary teaching hospital to
help sick and injured animals
instead.
 A St. Kitts and Nevis gov-
ernment statement in April said
"the citizens of St. Kitts and
Nevis are peaceful, hardwork-
ing and law-abiding and do not
condone any acts of cruelty
anywhere to animals or humans
alike. Any insinuation by
PETA that our government and
people think or behave other-
wise is a gross misrepresenta-
tion of our proud Caribbean
culture and traditions".
 The administration said it
viewed the boycott threats as "a
ploy to attract attention by
PETA and to force the inter-
vention of the St. Kitts govern-
ment into a dispute between
two privately-owned and oper-
ated organizations, both of
which are headquartered in the
United States of America and
which operate under U.S. laws".
0


A V EI i i 6 6.od o


 Retirement of U.S. planes


troubling for
ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada,
CMC The director general of
the Caribbean Hotel
Association (CHA) has
warned that regional
economies stand to suffer sig-
nificantly by the third quarter
of this year as a result of the
decision by major United
States airlines to retire dozens
of their planes from
September.
 Addressing members of
the Grenada Hotel and
Tourism Association during
their annual general meeting
last month, Alec Sanguinetti
said that industry analysts esti-
mate that airlines will trim
their fleets because of high
fuel costs and a downturn in
the U.S. economy.
 "Airlines will be trimming
between five and ten percent
of their aircraft," Sanguinetti
told the tourism stakeholders
"...I see serious negative
effects on our tourism indus-
try, serious negative effects on
the growth of the region's
economy and serious negative


region CHA
 effects on our social life."

 CUTS
 While American Airlines
 has declined to provide exact
 details of its mass plane retire-
 ment, the
 CHA head
 said that
 United
 Airlines plans
 to cut 30 of its
 oldest 737
 planes,
 Continental
 will retire 34, Sanguinetti
 and Delta and
 Northwest between 15 and 20.
 "All these major cuts
 mean less seats available, less
 planes available and ultimate-
 ly less persons coming to our
 region. These changes spell
 trouble and it's time for us to
 realize that life is not the same
 and things should not contin-
 ue as we know it in terms of
 travel and tourism."
 0


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 (iaribbs~i n TAA%,Inviesir;l.141~-v
community la Jaii .mLaicatand ke United



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June 2008


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