Finishing where I left off
Okay, the world has allowed me a few minutes to finish up about our trip to Puerto Rico two weeks ago. We (Christine Driscoll, Liz Kracht, Cynthia Rodriquez, and Yolanda Torres, and Danielle Woodell) all met with Mayor Garcia, Gilberto Torres (the Mayor's personal consultant), Eddie Lebron Carlos (the Mayor's Public Relations consultant), Commander Corea (Police Chief for Yabucoa municipality), Juan Lopez and Jeanette Pollard, the owners of the two hotels by the beach who have been accused of poisoning dogs in that area. The discussions with the Mayor was fruitful. We discussed the need for movement in eliminating the abandonment as well as murdering (poisoning, beating, macheteing) of the animals at the beach. We told him that there were 10 poisonings the week prior as well as two dead horses on the beach, one of which appeared to have been brought there alive, had its legs tied together and then beaten to death. He was saddened although not shocked. We discussed this as not only an animal abuse situation but public health as well.
Aside from presenting our "demands/wishes" to him, he gave us a promise of $1,000 per month in assistance for acquiring and maintaining a facility in which to house the dogs from the beach until they can be rehabilitated and adopted. This weekend, Christine, Liz, Yolanda, Sandra Cintron, and Steve McGarva are all going "house hunting" in Yabucoa to find the appropriate facility. We need a place that's set out a bit from the city and neighbors who might not appreciate the barking dogs. It should have a building or house on it with a couple of acres of land. If the land isn't fenced in, we'll have to do that. We'll get a team of volunteers to assist with putting in dog runs and fenced enclosures in the yard as well as remodeling some of the interior rooms to keep quarantine, sick, pregnant/nursing females, or very young animals. The neatest thing is that one of the long-established rescuers in Puerto Rico, Mary Eldergill, has offered to move from her home in Salinas to the new facility and live there! She would keep up the day-to-day operations of the facility in exchange for rent. This is a HUGE positive to come from the meeting. Anybody got any ideas of possible facility candidates???
The meeting with the hotel owners was less positive. Both of them acknowledged that there are poisonings in the hotel areas but when the questions were raised about the poisonings, neither denied their involvement. In fact, during this trip, we met a man who signed a statement saying that he had witnessed, on 2-3 occasions, a worker at the Palmas de Lucia hotel poisoning dogs. He gave us the name of the worker. I'm working with the mayor on how to handle the situation. I'm afraid the poisonings there will continue - only under cover of night and with the dead or dying animals removed immediately before anyone sees them.
On a positive note, of the dogs we removed from the beach, Nestle, Yoshi, and Rico are all in adoptive homes and Drew (pictured below) is at a shelter where I'm certain she'll be adopted soon.
Aside from presenting our "demands/wishes" to him, he gave us a promise of $1,000 per month in assistance for acquiring and maintaining a facility in which to house the dogs from the beach until they can be rehabilitated and adopted. This weekend, Christine, Liz, Yolanda, Sandra Cintron, and Steve McGarva are all going "house hunting" in Yabucoa to find the appropriate facility. We need a place that's set out a bit from the city and neighbors who might not appreciate the barking dogs. It should have a building or house on it with a couple of acres of land. If the land isn't fenced in, we'll have to do that. We'll get a team of volunteers to assist with putting in dog runs and fenced enclosures in the yard as well as remodeling some of the interior rooms to keep quarantine, sick, pregnant/nursing females, or very young animals. The neatest thing is that one of the long-established rescuers in Puerto Rico, Mary Eldergill, has offered to move from her home in Salinas to the new facility and live there! She would keep up the day-to-day operations of the facility in exchange for rent. This is a HUGE positive to come from the meeting. Anybody got any ideas of possible facility candidates???
The meeting with the hotel owners was less positive. Both of them acknowledged that there are poisonings in the hotel areas but when the questions were raised about the poisonings, neither denied their involvement. In fact, during this trip, we met a man who signed a statement saying that he had witnessed, on 2-3 occasions, a worker at the Palmas de Lucia hotel poisoning dogs. He gave us the name of the worker. I'm working with the mayor on how to handle the situation. I'm afraid the poisonings there will continue - only under cover of night and with the dead or dying animals removed immediately before anyone sees them.
On a positive note, of the dogs we removed from the beach, Nestle, Yoshi, and Rico are all in adoptive homes and Drew (pictured below) is at a shelter where I'm certain she'll be adopted soon.
posted by Ginny at 10:37 AM
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