Animal help in the Dominican Republic - for a better cooperation between humans and animals
A Year of hope comes to an end ...
Dear animal friends, sponsors, generous donators and hard-working
helpers,
as the year draws to an end we would like to draw a balance – a
balance that we, as such a tiny organisation, can be proud of. We certainly
don't have to hide behind any of the big organisations…far from it!
Castrations
During the last 12 months (including the last 11
working days in December) we were able to castrate 740 animals altogether:
- 550 female dogs
- 80 male dogs
- 86 cats
- 20 tom-cats
- 4 male rabbits
- 337 abortions during the castration
Other operations and medical treatments
- 81
other operations
- 1264
other medical treatments
Pet adoptions
- 31 homeless animals have found a caring family to look after them
Food
- ca. 1,3 tons of food have been fed to the stray dogs/animals in need
Incomes/Expenses 2010 (to make it more transparent, I converted incomes US$ or RD$-Peso into Euro)
- 8.875,29 €/11.770,12
US$ donations
- 1.000,- €/1.326,- US$
prize money from TASSO (Golden Paw 2010)
- 15.616,94 €/20.711,92
US$ expenses for castrations, medicine, op-materials
- 1.248,- €/1.655,- US$
for food
Unfortunately a deficit of deficit of 6.989,65 €/9.270,80 US$ remains for 2010 as well as the deficit of the year before of ca. 9.550,- €/12.664,- US$ for e.g. the purchase of our mobile animal hospital, shipping of donation containers etc., which we paid out of our own pocket... We won't give up hope that some more donation money will come in in 2011 :-))
We should not forget that behind all of these dry numbers there is always an individual fate. Every animal, that passes our hands, gets treated as an individual – we share its pain and happiness, give it our love and affection, we fear about its recovery and mourn, when we cannot save it. 2010 was a very demanding year for us both physically and emotionally...
At this point I would especially like to thank my husband Buschi – without his help, patience and commitment I would not have been able to cope. It is first and foremost due to him that our marriage is still working – he is my pillar of strength. And a great thanks to our great veterinarians, our voluntary helpers on site, our tireless supporters who helped with such things as our homepage and translations, the generous donators (not only those who helped with money, but those who gave donations in kind) and all the nice people, who believed in our cause and supported us mentally – yes, without you all we would never have been able to accomplish this success. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and hope I will be able to count on you again next year.
An annual balance should not end without a foresight
into the next year. Fortunately I can forward you the happy message, that we are
planning the next big castration campaign for March 2011, in
collaboration with Tieraerztepool and our Dominican veterinarians Angel and
Romy (Angel's medical assistant, who already helped us with the last two
monthly campaigns and will have finished his studies in March).
Our goal is to castrate 270 more animals in
about 11 working days.
During the campaign we will be taking our mobile animal hospital to some
of the surroundings, very poor villages, and we will be operating directly on
the spot, tending to sick animals and providing some educational services.
Unfortunately our own funds are exhausted, so we will be needing your support in the form of:
- donations
- taking over or giving away sponsorships – soon we will be offering castration-sponsorhips (for a female dog 25,- €/34,- US$, for a cat 20,- €/27,- US$, for a male dog 15,- €/20,- US$, for a tom-cat 10,- €/14,- US$)
- organising a flea market in favour of this campaign or auctioning your things at ebay in the name of the Dominican animals
- winning a company (in which you are employed or with whom you are friends) as a sponsor for this campaign (donation receipt is possible)
- and much more
I will go into more detail, also about the pending campaign, in the New Year. Sponsorships (castration-sponsorships as well) can be taken over immediately or e.g. as a christmas present for your friends/family. Those who are interested: an email to info@amigos-de-lucky.org is enough.
I would like to finish off my review of the past year
with the following pictures – each month is documented with a picture that will
hopefully offer you a little insight into our work.
And before I forget, I have a little Christmas
present for you... Buschi and I have decided to keep Mäuschen (Mousie) for
good. Her brain damage is indeed getting better, but she will be a nursing case
for the rest of her life. She needs a lot of time, love, sympathy, care and
medical treatment – which we will give Mäuschen in your name.
I wish you peaceful holidays, time to spend with your loved ones and maybe some contemplative thoughts about how we can help the animals of this world. Thanks for your support.
Kind regards, yours
Miriam
January – Prieto (renamed by us as „Warzenschwein“ (warthog)) was brought into our clinic by children during our castration campaign. He had Canine Papillomatosis (Papilloma-Virus), a virus disease that is rather common over here – but none of us had ever seen it on such a scale! His whole oral cavity and his nasopharyngeal zone was so full of warts, that he hadn't been able to eat for days and suffered of shortage of breath. Moreover the warts had caused a severe inflammation. He was treated by us every second day. Without our help he would have died. Today he feels great, he is nice and tubby again and totally healthy.
February – The little female stray dog Humpi (see report hier) was tended to by us after an accident and we were able to find a caring family for her. She is happy and content with her mate Bonzo – maybe this luck will make her forget the anguish of the first months of her life in the streets...
March – All our animals come from the street, like Lucky and Findus. Findus – back then just a hand full, totally starved and on the brink of getting driven over by a car – found in our dogs loving partners to cuddle up to and to play with. How well the different animal species get along together here, astonishes us again and again.
This tolerance and love as well as mutual trust, should be an example to us – we can learn so much from animals...
.
April – In April the female dog Isabella and her puppies were found in an abandoned hotel (see report hier). Back then little Chivi had an uncertain future. Was her young life to come to an end in the streets, unloved and – as so many of her fellows in misery – always pregnant? We were able to find a home for Chivi, she was castrated, medically treated and regularly gets food from us because her owners are very poor.
May – stray dog Ivo (see report here) was castrated and medically treated by us in December 2009. The hard life in the streets had scared him and as sources of food he only had waste at his disposal. When I met Ivo on the street in May, he looked great and was very happy. I followed him and was able to observe how he got his food at different places, e.g. at a Colmado (little supermarket) from the Dominicans. The understanding of the population towards animals has improved, not only because of our work, but also because the dogs are in a much better health condition. The Dominicans are not disgusted by them anymore or afraid of infectious illnesses.
June – Together with veterinarian Angle we decided to undertake a small castration campaign. We can only prevent unwanted offspring (that mostly ends up on the streets) if we operate regularly. We have no access to many animals that belong to Dominicans because they live somewhere in the nested huddle of houses of Las Terrenas. But because most people cannot afford a castration for their animals our help is so important.
July – River dog Mäuschen (Mousie) (see report here and here) came to us. At the beginning, her chances of surviving were not very good, but when the worst was over, she slowly started to learn to walk again. Today she is wandering around our whole (mountain!)plot! (though still a bit shakily). She showed us how strong her will to live is and she showed us that you can enjoy life with a handicap.
August – Despite our inexhaustible castration and educational work we still find a puppy on the street from time to time. This little starving creature was running through Las Terrenas in a daze and nearly got under the wheels of a car. Naturally we took her in as a foster dog. Only after three days the owners got in touch with us – the little one had been able to escape under a fence and probably hadn’t been able to find her way home again. It's a good thing that this story had a happy ending.
September – When stray dog „Katastrophe“ (see report here) came to us, we were more than shocked about his terrible condition. After four days of tireless fighting – which also meant that my husband and I had to take turns to look after the poor guy around the clock – he fell asleep peacefully in our arms, forever...
Even today we still fight back tears,
when we think of him, we would have dearly loved to give him a new life.
We succeeded in doing that with Negrita – when we
found her in September she as well was only flesh and bones and she had severe
mange. She was treated by us, provided with good food and finally castrated.
Today she is a beautiful, healthy dog. When she was still ill, her owner
wouldn’t touch her – for fear of infection. Now she is a full family member,
cuddles included...
October – Fortunately we were able to help stray dog Onyx, who had already come to us in September (see report here) to get healthy again. We dedicated ourselves wholeheartedly to his care and the result speaks for itself... He is still with us, because we couldn't find a suitable family for him yet. And again I discovered a small uncastrated female stray dog. We gave her food and she began to trust us so that we were able to castrate her at the beginning of December.
November – By chance I found a stray dog with 8 puppies under some stairs. We fed her regularly so that she would have enough milk to get her puppies through. Ever since I am trying to find families that are prepared to adopt babies – no easy task... Every Saturday we organise a stall and information stand, to get some donations into our (empty) cash box. I went through a tedious and time-consuming search at ebay for things for the stall and asked for the things to be shipped here. Additionally we put up a showcase, in order to display the stray dogs free for adoption in a better way.
December – The year shall end with the
following happy story: I was at my Swiss friends’ house to treat her tom-cat
and she told me that she and her friend were considering to adopt a dog, this
of course was music to my ears and I immediately thought of my 8 puppies.
Hardly had I stepped into my car, when a desperate call came in. Friends had
found a tiny puppy at the beach on this cold and rainy day. Despite intensive
searching we couldn't find any sign of its mother or siblings – so I had to
assume that the little one had been abandoned. And he was only two weeks old
and badly needed mother's milk. I thought about who would be able to take the
time to bottle-feed him and had the idea to ask my Swiss friend what she
thought about her idea of adoption becoming an instant reality, since I now had
an absolute emergency on my hands. So the little nameless baby became „Whisky“,
because my friend immediately agreed to take him in.
Since Whiskey has already decorated the tree, I only
have to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!