Montego Bay Animal Haven

CATEGORY: Special Award: Voluntary Service & Other

A successful surgical operation on an abandoned mongrel dog with a broken back, to a spay-neuter programme, and a busload of dogs from Negril, Westmoreland, gave birth to the Montego Bay Animal Haven – a non-profit organisation that has been rescuing and providing a home for stray and abandoned animals over the last 13 years.

That task is being guided by Tammy Browne, managing director of the organisation that has been providing joy and warmth, locally and overseas, bringing together rejected animals with families.

The charity organisation, which now operates on 20 acres of land space in the hills of Hopewell, Hanover, joins the elite list of Jamaican companies and individuals who have earned the RJRGLEANER Honour Awards over the years for their outstanding contribution to nation-building.

The Montego Bay Animal Haven is being given a Special Award in the category of Voluntary Service & Other for its role in the protection and treatment of stray animals, supplementing veterinary care capacity, and providing animal therapy for children.

Browne said her charity started in 2009 to raise awareness of the plight of stray and abandoned animals that were seen roaming the streets of the northwestern region of Jamaica, and has since earned the support of corporate Jamaica.

The animal haven and its team of volunteers have rescued several different types of animals, including horses, donkeys, pigs, and thousands of dogs. There have been a few pedigree dogs, but mongrels outnumber those abandoned and left to starve and fend for themselves on the streets.

Thanks to Montego Bay Animal Haven, they are now enjoying life in a comfortable, loving home here in Jamaica or overseas in the United States, Canada or Germany, by way of adoption.

Browne said she started rescuing animals, as she was heartbroken by the lack of compassion and care for them, not necessarily through cruelty, but persons not realising their value through the warmth that animals bring to families and the wider society.

Determined to bring animals and humans together in a loving relationship, the animal lover embarked on her rescue mission. Her initiative eventually saw the coming together of friends to do a massive save-the-abandoned-animals programme, with a spay-neuter component, involving veterinarians from around the world after she saw a dog with a broken back on the street and everyone was just passing by without any care.

“I could not leave it like that. The surgery was a tremendous success, many people turned out; people understood and wanted to help. People also knew it was important, but they weren’t in a position or able to afford the treatment, the spaying and neutering, which is so expensive but so necessary, because it stops dogs and cats from breeding,” said Browne.

“One day I was actually left with a busload of dogs from Negril. Somebody had hired a bus, filled it with dogs and brought it to the clinic and then off they went, and the Haven was born,” the beaming veterinarian technician said of her charity.

“It’s been one heck of a rollercoaster ride, that’s all I can tell you. You see some horrendous things, and you meet some truly incredible people. I didn’t ever think I would be doing something like this. I’m a veterinary technician, I work with horses; that is what I came here for,” Browne noted.

Not only has the Montego Bay Animal Haven founder been rescuing and caring for animals, but the experiences garnered from growing up in an animal-loving home environment in Mandeville, Jamaica, and England have taken the work of the animal angel a step further by using dogs from the charity to provide therapy for children at the Mustard Seed Communities.

INTERESTING FACTS

• Tammy Browne is crazy, in a good way, about animals.

• She loves to promote Jamaica.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS

• The Montego Bay Animal Haven chartered a flight to transport 140 dogs from Jamaica to Canada.

• The charity has done school tours with animals.

• The work of the organisation has given birth to several animal lovers.

BUCKET LIST

• Tammy Browne wants to establish an attraction where locals and tourists can visit animals from the Montego Bay Animal Haven and take nature walks.

• The charity hopes to acquire a bus that will aid in rescuing and transporting abandoned animals, as well as its school tours.