Time to fill you in on the events of July in Yabucoa
I was in Yabucoa the week of July 23 for my job, but I stayed a few days later to work on some "dog stuff". Danielle, vet tech extraordinaire from Jupiter, met me down there and spent 5 days of her personal vacation to work as well. On Thursday and Friday, "coalition forces" gathered up as many dogs at Dead Dog Beach as would be gathered and they were taken in to local vets for spay and neuter. Individuals from various groups, or even unaffiliated with groups, joined in the efforts. I want to personally thank the following individuals:
Adri Gellar (Amigos de los Animales)
Christy Hoffman
Danielle Woodell (Manos por Patas)
Jessica Jimenez
Keishya Salko (Four Paws at a Time)
Mary Eldergill
Sandra Cintron
Susanna Rodriguez
Dr. Miguel Alverio (San Lorenzo)
Dr. Elvin Reyes (Humacao)
A total of 18 dogs were taken from the beach. Unfortunately, 6 of them were just too feral and aggressive to be adopted so they were spayed/neutered and returned to the beach. It's sad to have to do that but we are doing everything we can to reduce the growing PUPulation (that was originally a typo but i decided to leave it!) at the beach. Dana, Rachel, Morgan, Roxanne, Ruby and Darlene are just too used to life on the beach and actually even caused some injuries to those who captured them. The event was a great success because Dana, Rachel, Darlene and Ruby are prolific puppy-makers. Dana just had a litter of 10 a couple of months ago. Roxanne and Ruth were already pregnant and Ruby, who just had a big litter 2 months ago, was caught "inflagrante" with a rather smug little guy mounting her when the rescuers nabbed her.
The other 12, Cara, Cole, Scarlett, Sherman, Delia, Ruth, June, Oliver, Sophie, Wilson, Goliath, Paola were all spayed and neutered but have been either placed into foster or shelter care or have already been adopted (Cole and Wilson). Goliath, Ruth and June all have heartworm. Adri is looking for a sponsor for his treatment. Ruth and June will be coming to Treasure Coast Humane Society where they have a program called "Tracey's Rangers" which provides treatment to heartworm positive dogs. The rest will be coming to TCHS as well. This is a shelter that has a really fast adoption rate so I know these little angels won't stay around long.
We also spoke to some media, government, and local business individuals as well. A woman from AP (Associated Press) did phone interviews with Liz, me, and a couple of other people and also came to the beach to get photos and interviews. Channel 4 also did a story on the spay/neuter efforts. Omar Negron from Representative Luis Fortuno's office came by and got the tour of the area and we discussed important issues and ways to make significant changes made from the government. XXXX from U.S.P.S. also spent a couple of hours with us, watching the events and talking to us about how they can help. And I met with David Amaro and Andrea Lebron from the Shell facility about how Shell can help alleviate stress on the problem. David is responsible for calling the "dog catchers" who come to take dogs found on the plant; the dog catcher is paid $50 per dog and it is well-known that animals captured by these organizations are invariably euthanized, and usually not humanely (a bullet is cheaper than an injection or gas). I talked to him about working with us to call a rescuer instead to catch the dog - Shell could pay a non-profit the money and the dog would be taken care of humanely (cared for and placed up for adoption or humanely euthanized) and Shell would then reap the benefits of a tax write-off. Andrea Lebron is in charge of community affairs at Shell and she asked me to submit a proposal of how Shell can help us. I'm working on putting something together proposing a Shell-ter that would be a temporary place to house animals in the 2-3 week period from beach to airplane ride to a U.S. shelter.
So it was a very successful event in many ways. The momentum needs to keep up steam, however. I sort of "dropped off" for a bit b/c the day after we returned from PR, I closed on my very first house and have been in the midst of plumbers and title companies and tile installers and U-Haul trucks and mountains of cardboard boxes. I can see light at the end of the tunnel now so hopefully I can get cracking on following up.
Here are some photos of the very successful goings-on in July.
Adri Gellar (Amigos de los Animales)
Christy Hoffman
Danielle Woodell (Manos por Patas)
Jessica Jimenez
Keishya Salko (Four Paws at a Time)
Mary Eldergill
Sandra Cintron
Susanna Rodriguez
Dr. Miguel Alverio (San Lorenzo)
Dr. Elvin Reyes (Humacao)
A total of 18 dogs were taken from the beach. Unfortunately, 6 of them were just too feral and aggressive to be adopted so they were spayed/neutered and returned to the beach. It's sad to have to do that but we are doing everything we can to reduce the growing PUPulation (that was originally a typo but i decided to leave it!) at the beach. Dana, Rachel, Morgan, Roxanne, Ruby and Darlene are just too used to life on the beach and actually even caused some injuries to those who captured them. The event was a great success because Dana, Rachel, Darlene and Ruby are prolific puppy-makers. Dana just had a litter of 10 a couple of months ago. Roxanne and Ruth were already pregnant and Ruby, who just had a big litter 2 months ago, was caught "inflagrante" with a rather smug little guy mounting her when the rescuers nabbed her.
The other 12, Cara, Cole, Scarlett, Sherman, Delia, Ruth, June, Oliver, Sophie, Wilson, Goliath, Paola were all spayed and neutered but have been either placed into foster or shelter care or have already been adopted (Cole and Wilson). Goliath, Ruth and June all have heartworm. Adri is looking for a sponsor for his treatment. Ruth and June will be coming to Treasure Coast Humane Society where they have a program called "Tracey's Rangers" which provides treatment to heartworm positive dogs. The rest will be coming to TCHS as well. This is a shelter that has a really fast adoption rate so I know these little angels won't stay around long.
We also spoke to some media, government, and local business individuals as well. A woman from AP (Associated Press) did phone interviews with Liz, me, and a couple of other people and also came to the beach to get photos and interviews. Channel 4 also did a story on the spay/neuter efforts. Omar Negron from Representative Luis Fortuno's office came by and got the tour of the area and we discussed important issues and ways to make significant changes made from the government. XXXX from U.S.P.S. also spent a couple of hours with us, watching the events and talking to us about how they can help. And I met with David Amaro and Andrea Lebron from the Shell facility about how Shell can help alleviate stress on the problem. David is responsible for calling the "dog catchers" who come to take dogs found on the plant; the dog catcher is paid $50 per dog and it is well-known that animals captured by these organizations are invariably euthanized, and usually not humanely (a bullet is cheaper than an injection or gas). I talked to him about working with us to call a rescuer instead to catch the dog - Shell could pay a non-profit the money and the dog would be taken care of humanely (cared for and placed up for adoption or humanely euthanized) and Shell would then reap the benefits of a tax write-off. Andrea Lebron is in charge of community affairs at Shell and she asked me to submit a proposal of how Shell can help us. I'm working on putting something together proposing a Shell-ter that would be a temporary place to house animals in the 2-3 week period from beach to airplane ride to a U.S. shelter.
So it was a very successful event in many ways. The momentum needs to keep up steam, however. I sort of "dropped off" for a bit b/c the day after we returned from PR, I closed on my very first house and have been in the midst of plumbers and title companies and tile installers and U-Haul trucks and mountains of cardboard boxes. I can see light at the end of the tunnel now so hopefully I can get cracking on following up.
Here are some photos of the very successful goings-on in July.
posted by Ginny at 2:43 PM
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