Press Release

This press release was sent out to media in Puerto Rico concerning our spay and neuter event next week. Representatives from the Governor's office, Representative Luis Fortuno's office, the PR Health Department, and the Yabucoa Mayor will all be present as well as various media:

"To all media people who are interested in exposing politicans who make empty promises, an important event will occur at Dead Dog Beach in Yabucoa on July 19 and 20. We are contacting politicians from the Governor’s and the Mayor’s offices to attend and we will try to lure the Mayor of Yabucoa to come out personally so that you may interview him.

Citizen animal protection groups will be working together, rounding up female and male dogs which have been prolific reproducers. We will trap them, spay and neuter them, board them till they are healed at our own cost and then put them back on the beach, a situation that the Mayor of Yabucoa said he would eliminate long ago and has since reneged - hoping that we would just “go away”.

We need media coverage of this event - to show the government how private citizens are doing the job for which the government is already paid by us to do. We need media coverage of this event. The Puerto Rican public must see that the government is taking our taxes and they are not protecting us from health hazards that these animals cause; it is against the law, cruel and unjust for the animals dropped off there to die or to be inhumanely killed.

After the Mayor of Yabucoa promised $1000 per month last year at an open press conference, to put a shelter in Yabucoa for these animals, he went back on his word. He lied. We are holding him responsible for the continuous dumping of dogs at ‘ Dead Dog Beach ’. It keeps the tourists at the hotels from seeing the inhumane and ugly part of Yabucoa. The Mayor turns a blind eye and allows citizens to brutally kill them because it saves him from paying for a shelter. You’ve seen this story on the news because Susan Soltero and Channel 4 both did pieces on it. We need news coverage of this event in order to shame the Mayor into affecting the change he promised long ago. We promise you an exiting news story.

I reiterate, we want to oblige the Mayor of Yabucoa to follow through on his promises of providing an animal shelter and also to provide signs on the beach prohibiting the dumping of animals there. The sign needs to mention Law 67 and make it clear that the public should be taking their unwanted animals to the closest shelter. Education is the key.

Thank you and hope to see you there.