“We Speak for Those Who Can’t Speak”

“We Speak for Those Who Can’t Speak”

Cuba Against Animal Abuse:
“We Speak for Those Who Can’t Speak”

By Thalia Fuentes Puebla, Student of Journalism of the Department of Communication of the University of Havana. On Twitter: @ThalyFuentes and Ismael Francisco

April 7, 2019

Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.

Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate

If we mention stories that touch the heart, we cannot forget Rinti, a dog that after his owner died, threw herself at the feet of her protector’s grave until she died, after refusing the food and water offered by the cemetery keepers.

This love was mutual, just a page from Jeannette Ryder’s work in defense of animals. Precisely under her motto: “We speak for those who cannot speak”, hundreds of people arrived this Sunday at her tomb in the Columbus Cemetery to make people aware of the importance of fighting animal abuse.

“Violence is one, it doesn’t matter against what,” quoted one of the many slogans that demanded sensitivity to protect animals. These were attached to orange ribbons, pets of different breeds and sizes along with their owners and posters and T-shirts with inscriptions such as: “Protection for our animals” and “Animal abuse is a crime.”

The animalists pledged to continue to promote pet adoptions, mass sterilizations and deworming. Waiting for a law, they must act in the order of conscience and appeal to civic, individual and social culture.

Jeannette Ryder was an American philanthropist who lived in Cuba at the beginning of the 20th century. She founded the humanitarian organization Sociedad Protectora de Niños, Animales y Plantas, also known as el Bando de Piedad.

She was buried in the Colón cemetery in Havana. Her pantheon is known as the tomb of loyalty. A commemorative sculpture depicts Rinti resting at the foot of the tomb.