The guiding principle of Saving Animals’ programs in Mexico is to elevate the status of animals throughout the entire country of Mexico. By strengthening the bond between animals, people, and their environments, Saving Animals creates healthy animals and healthy communities. By developing, operating, and showcasing best-practice approaches to the delivery of animal care services, the people of Mexico are empowered to replicate programs and services for animals across their country. Currently Saving Animals operates four distinct programs to help animals in Mexico: a state-of-the-art mobile spay and neuter clinic in Monterrey, a humane animal shelter program in Monterrey, and stationary sterilization clinics at the University of Michoacan and in the City of Juarez.
The border between the United States and Mexico is the only place on Earth where a First World nation borders a Third World developing country. Unfortunately, dogs and cats do not recognize borders; animal suffering knows no boundaries. Monterrey, Mexico, which is the third largest and most modernized city in Mexico, has a human population of 6 million people. It is located about 150 miles from the Texas border in the state of Nuevo Leon, a state which has the third highest incidence of animal abuse and domestic violence in Mexico.
Public health is put at risk not only because of injury but also because homeless cats and dogs have not been vaccinated, especially against rabies, so they consequently spread disease, not just to other animals but also to humans. Even travelers’ advisories recommend “pre-exposure vaccination . . . for persons staying longer than thirty days who are expected to be at risk to bites from domestic and/or wild animals (particularly dogs), or for persons engaged in high risk activities such as . . . animal handling.”
Mobile Sterilization Clinic
The first state-of-the art spay and neuter clinic on wheels opened in Mexico in 2002. The mobile clinic provides free and safe spaying and neutering surgery and rabies vaccinations to dogs and cats living in Monterrey. With the goal of sterilizing as many as 5,000 dogs and cats each year, Saving Animals’ to veterinary medical team performs an average of 25 surgeries every day.
All Saving Animals’ program staff members are Mexican nationals. Trained in modern anesthesia and surgery techniques in the United Sates, Saving Animals’ two full-time veterinarians in Monterrey are supported by two animal health technicians and a community outreach coordinator. To identify neighborhoods served by the mobile clinic, the Saving Animals’ program manager works in Monterrey’s poorest communities to enlist civic leaders and volunteers who become animal ambassadors and who in turn spread the word about dog and cat overpopulation and the free services to be provided by the mobile clinic.
Humane Animal Shelter Program
With no SPCAs or Humane Societies anywhere in Mexico, the poorly run government animal control facilities in Monterrey are basically catch and kill operations without adoption or reclaim programs. Even though Monterrey is Mexico’s most modern city, the government is unable to sufficiently fund animal sheltering and control programs to protect the public health. Frequently roundups of stray and unwanted animals occur throughout Monterrey after an animal attack or publicized animal biting incident. Most often, attacks and bite are inflicted on children or the elderly. With rabies endemic to Mexico, the threat of spreading disease from animals to people is very real.
Roundups result in hundreds of dogs and cats being crammed into one of seven outdated Centro Anti Rabicos (CARs) in Monterrey. There is no money for adequate staffing, proper sanitation, food, veterinary care, or humane euthanasia of unclaimed and homeless animals. The short yet miserable existence for animals in CARs is mitigated only by a torturous death. Because there is no money for drugs to humanely euthanize homeless animals, dogs are crudely electrocuted and puppies, kittens and cats are inhumanely drowned in government CARs across Mexico.
Saving Animals has adopted four of Monterrey’s CARs to demonstrate humane animal care principles. Saving Animals’ veterinarians supervise the overall animal care program in the CAR facilities; volunteers provide regular food and water for animals in the four CARs adopted by Saving Animals, the government workers contact Saving Animals when a sick or injured animal needs to have medical attention, and Saving Animals provides drugs and training for humane euthanasia by injection for animals who are to be destroyed.
Sterilization Clinics at Morelia & Juarez
Since 2004, Saving Animals has partnered with University of Michoacan de San Nicolas de Hidalgo veterinary faculty to provide training, equipment and operating support for a stationary spaying and neutering clinic at the veterinary college in Morelia. The goal of the clinic program is not only to provide top-quality spaying and neutering services for animals in Morelia, but to provide training opportunities for Mexican veterinary students. The stationary clinic in Juarez is staffed by two full time veterinarians and is supported by volunteers from the US-based Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR).
The stationary clinics in Mexico not only provides skills, training and resources to veterinary student in Mexico, but we are helping to elevate the importance of spaying and neutering services for veterinarians graduating from the college of veterinary medicine to carry into their professional careers throughout Mexico.
To support Saving Animals important programs in Mexico, contributions can be sent to P. O. Box 130879, Houston, Texas 77219. For more information, contact Saving Animals at (713) 527-4490.
