Angostura aids Jamaica recovery through JSPCA partnership

AN­DREA PEREZ-SOBERS

Se­nior Re­porter

An­gos­tu­ra has pro­vid­ed fi­nan­cial sup­port to the Ja­maica So­ci­ety for the Pre­ven­tion of Cru­el­ty to An­i­mals (JSP­CA) to as­sist dogs in its care and sup­port com­mu­ni­ties still re­cov­er­ing from the im­pact of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa in 2025.

The con­tri­bu­tion will help fund sev­er­al JSP­CA pro­grammes, in­clud­ing vac­ci­na­tion clin­ics in west­ern Ja­maica, spay and neuter ser­vices, and the dis­tri­b­u­tion of an­i­mal food sup­plies to com­mu­ni­ties af­fect­ed by the hur­ri­cane. It will al­so sup­port the pur­chase of med­ical sup­plies and sur­gi­cal con­sum­ables re­quired to pro­vide the ser­vices.

JSP­CA Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor Pamela Law­son wel­comed the sup­port, not­ing that de­mand for as­sis­tance ris­es sig­nif­i­cant­ly af­ter nat­ur­al dis­as­ters.

“We are deeply ap­pre­cia­tive of the sup­port from An­gos­tu­ra. Part­ner­ships like these al­low us to con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing es­sen­tial care to an­i­mals while sup­port­ing the fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties who de­pend on our ser­vices. De­mand for as­sis­tance in­creas­es sig­nif­i­cant­ly af­ter dis­as­ters, and this con­tri­bu­tion will help us re­spond where the need is the great­est,” Law­son said.

An­gos­tu­ra chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Ian Forbes said Ja­maica has been an im­por­tant mar­ket for the com­pa­ny for many years, and the sup­port re­flects its com­mit­ment to com­mu­ni­ties on the is­land.

“The peo­ple of Ja­maica have long em­braced our brands and have been an im­por­tant part of An­gos­tu­ra’s suc­cess in the re­gion. As a com­pa­ny with deep com­mer­cial ties to the is­land, we be­lieve it is im­por­tant to stand along­side the com­mu­ni­ties that have sup­port­ed us, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing times of need,” Forbes said.

He added that dis­as­ter re­cov­ery ex­tends be­yond re­build­ing phys­i­cal in­fra­struc­ture.

“Re­cov­ery fol­low­ing a dis­as­ter ex­tends be­yond re­build­ing homes and in­fra­struc­ture. An­i­mals are al­so among the most vul­ner­a­ble, and or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the JSP­CA play a crit­i­cal role in safe­guard­ing their wel­fare while sup­port­ing the wider com­mu­ni­ty,” he said.

The JSP­CA ini­tia­tive forms part of a broad­er re­cov­ery pro­gramme be­ing un­der­tak­en by An­gos­tu­ra in Ja­maica. The com­pa­ny has part­nered with the Se­prod Foun­da­tion to im­ple­ment ad­di­tion­al projects to as­sist hur­ri­cane-af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ties.

The wider pro­gramme sup­ports res­i­dents in Craw­ford, St Eliz­a­beth, and Seaford Town, West­more­land, through hous­ing restora­tion and com­mu­ni­ty re­build­ing ef­forts.

Se­prod Foun­da­tion Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor Lisa D’Oyen said the part­ner­ship seeks to ad­dress re­cov­ery needs in a prac­ti­cal and sus­tain­able man­ner.

“This part­ner­ship is about re­spond­ing to re­cov­ery needs in a thought­ful and mean­ing­ful way. Sup­port­ing or­gan­i­sa­tions like the JSP­CA helps to strength­en the care sys­tems that many com­mu­ni­ties re­ly on, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter a dis­as­ter,” D’Oyen said.

An­gos­tu­ra said its sup­port through the Se­prod Foun­da­tion re­flects the com­pa­ny’s com­mit­ment to in­vest­ing in ini­tia­tives that im­prove lives, strength­en com­mu­ni­ties, and build re­silience across the re­gion.