Animal help in the Dominican Republic - for a better cooperation between humans and animals

Our dear friends, hard-working helpers and generous donors,
there are times when it’s so easy to help and then there are times when you find yourself at your limits, confronted with resistances and above all so much misery, that it is hard to bear... And another thing has to be taken into account – we are not getting any younger and need longer to recharge our “batteries”. On top of that, after every castration campaign some of our patients “stick” with us, so that in the meantime our pack of dogs has run up to a total of 16. Therefore please excuse my long silence.

As usual I would first of all like to announce the numbers and facts of the castration campaign in May/June 2011:

• 216 castrated animals (in 12 workdays) – of those 133 were female dogs, 32 male dogs, 40 cats, 11 tom-cats – of course, as usual, all animals were treated against parasites as well
• 14 other operations such as amputations, umbilical hermia, bladder-operations, eye-removals and the likes
• 68 further consultations/medical treatments
• 5 abandoned animals were adopted by new owners
• 78 kg of medical material was used – many thanks to all the generous donors/supporters B. Braun Vet Care GmbH,Martin-Luther-Krankenhaus/Paul Gerhardt Diakonie, Vétoquinol GmbH, cell pharm GmbH, Albrecht GmbH, Wahl GmbH, Bayer Health Care AnimalHealth Dom.Rep., WAHL Agrar-Fachmarkt, Wilhelm Voigt Apotheke Berlin-Köpenick and Tierarztpraxis Maurice Bob
• 798 kilometres were driven
• 4 additional cars were in action along with fantastic helpers picking up patients and dropping them off again
• 39 washing machine loads of towels, op-shirts etc were washed
• 10 days of tropical, torrential constant rain, meaning that we had water up to our knees and had to take care that the dog crates didn't turn into boats and drift off ...
• 12 delicious luncheons prepared with much love by our hard-working helpers
• 5 days of selling from our flea-market stall with the proceeds going to the benefit of the animals (thanks for all your great donated items!)
• 1 nicked photo camera – that is to say mine – so that the choice of photos is a bit poor this time...

Goodbye-party with our hard-working helpers (12 different nationalities!) in Las Terrenas – and of course it is raining again...

Our castration campaign was ill-fated this time, even though we had ensured the financing beforehand (thanks to you). Yet again our first problem was getting the medicines and materials through customs. Our lawyer and the Vice-President of the Asoc. Amigos de Lucky was technically supposed to have arranged the permissions weeks before – TECHNICALLY... So again some of the medicines got held up in customs, thank God this problem was solved within a couple of days with the help of kind people: Cecilia, Leo, Mary and taxi driver Ferrer. 
The next problem was the distemper epidemic that was spreading in the country... some of the infected dogs survived the distemper-virus, but we had to put some to sleep which wasn't an easy task for our vet Nina (Schöllhorn from Tierärztepool) and us. After all we want to save lives with our work, but sometimes – when there is no chance of survival – there is only one way left to „help“ suffering animals. This way their pain won't last and they won’t infect further dogs. We grieve for each and every one of those little souls – maybe there is a better life waiting for you now...

Often Nina and I would just think: „Sometimes it’s like a war...“ - those who know the circumstances here might be able understand.

First thing in the morning the cats got castrated, because they need more time to come round after the narcosis • The black female dog came through the op well

Buschi preparing a female dog for her op • Our well-practised dream team

We had thought that after the numerous castrations we have already performed in Las Terrenas (about 900) there couldn’t be many uncastrated females “left” – but far from it, from day one of the castration campaign we had our hands full... Because Nina had come all on her own this time, Buschi unceremoniously became her medical assistant and was therefore responsible for laying vein catheters, giving narcoses, injecting medicines etc. (Nina wanted to woo him away for more operations abroad straight away – but no way, he’s staying here..), I was a “stand in”, i.e. I took care of all kinds of things such as receiving patients, after-care, general organisation etc., I was the contact person for the voluntary workers and mostly took over informing the owners about what was going on with their animals. Due to the trust the Dominicans have in our work by now, a lot has changed for the better for the animals.
Our workdays started very early and often only came to an end at night; sometimes 18 strenuous hours lay behind us, when we finally fell into bed exhausted.
And then there was the weather... there were only two conditions – either it was boiling hot or torrential rain was pouring down on us, e.g. we were always wet, be it due to sweat or due to the rain. In Las Terrenas we were able to work on a little estate with a tiny hut (the op-room for Nina), but at our outdoor missions we were dependent on our op-tent, which wasn't all that funny what with all the rain.

In Sanchez puppies die in the open street, a condition we can hardly bear...

After spending five days in Las Terrenas we went to the poor and small seaport town of Sanchez. On Arrival, we only found a couple of male dogs waiting for castration – which is nice and fine – but much more important after all are the females. I nipped down to the harbour and straight away made a find. Several stray female dogs and cats were romping around; some of them were in an absolutely horrifying state. It was astounding, that the people there didn't have the slightest idea how to tell male and female cats apart. So I showed them a pair of cats and explained: bolas (little balls) equals male, no bolas equals female – one owner who had brought her cat, held it up and proudly said “no bolas”. Unfortunately the alleged cat was a bilateral cryptorchid, meaning both its testicles had lowered and lay in the groin area. But we castrated him anyway.

Work in Sanchez took us to an emotional low, because we were only able to castrate a fraction of the local animals.
In Sanchez alone there would be enough work for three or four vets and that for weeks on end...

Our little “church-clinic” • The patients are already waiting in the church

Coson was next on our agenda. Funnily enough, we worked in a church there – which was a one-off...

Then we went to Barbacoa for two days and to Aqua Sabrosa for one day, our team was wistfully awaited everywhere...

Our last day of work was in La Yagua - kids4dogs, the school company of the special-needs school Sulzbach/Murr, paid the costs for all of the castrated animals. A big thank you to all of you!
(Click here to see the extra report about La Yagua.)

By the way we also had work to do on our days “off”. Mainly we performed time consuming operations like leg-amputations or dental operations.

One day on our way to the clinic a heavily pregnant dog nearly ran into our car – of course we “bagged” her right away and castrated her as well.

We also had a female dog with Sticker-tumours (Canine transmissible venereal tumour – a contagious tumour on the outer sexual organs that is unfortunately widely spread over here), which we were able to treat with repeated chemotherapy.
Additionally we had to look after a couple of dogs with strong nose bleeds – suspected ehrlichiosis...
Then there was a horse with a big wound on its leg, we treated that as well.
What are days off work for after all...

What I have always feared is now coming true... gradually we are facing an overpopulation of cats, as well. A couple of years ago cats were still classified as “food”, in other words they were eaten. Nowadays they are kept as pets, with the result that unwanted offspring are abandoned. We are working on not letting the population escalate.

I probably won’t have to tell you again, just how essential and effective our castration- and educational work is. Most important is that we continue this work regularly – therefore we are planning another campaign with our vet Nina for the end of this year. And still, think of all those animals in Sanchez... maybe we – or you – can find generous donors, who would take over the costs of a campaign there. That would be fantastic!

I get more and more e-mails from pleased tourists from all over the world, who notice the difference between Las Terrenas and other Dominican locations, e. g.:  “I was in Las Terrenas and was very pleased to see happy, healthy dogs thanks to the work you do. Keep doing what you're doing.”
Wouldn't it be a dream come true, if one day all the animals in the Dominican Republic would be that well?

Thank you to all of our donors, helpers and supporters – our work wouldn't be possible without you – stay true to us and the animals, so that we can go on working together as successfully as we are doing now.

Now I would like to introduce you to some individual cases. Of course every animal is near and dear to us, but some animals or incidents stick in your mind...

Sending their love from Las Terrenas
Miriam & Buschi

Peppy and Leon – two poor guys

Leon and Peppy freshly castrated and exhausted...

This castration campaign Nina and I had hoped to castrate some of the poor, thin, scarred and mangy stray dogs from the street to give them the chance to become healthy and strong. Right at the beginning of the campaign our little helpers Pat and Jörg brought us a male dog (Peppy), who had given up on life. He was in a pitiful state and more dead than alive.
We found another skinny specimen (Leon) running past opposite our clinic. Patricia grasped a collar and a leash and brought him to us. Since we had 5 days at our disposal in Las Terrenas, we dewormed the two of them to start with and then fed them up on food and vitamin pills. Peppy found himself a dog crate, lay down in it and more or less slept through the first 3 days. Leon found his sleeping place in the ambulance – neither of them made a move to run off.

Peppy can't walk anymore

After they were castrated we were able to find a new and caring home for Leon with Brenda, a Dutch woman. Peppy stayed on the street for the time being, but still got fed regularly. But after two weeks he got very ill all of a sudden – we saw him staggering over the street as if he were drunk, he couldn't move one of his hind legs anymore, he had heavy convulsions in his face and was very apathetic. Since a clear diagnosis couldn't be made (after all those cases of distemper you get slightly hysterical), we brought him to our friend Nicole for monitoring. His condition didn't get any better so we eventually took him in at ours and treated him homoeopathically.

Today Peppy lives with our friend and tenant Pat on our estate – and finally he’s doing his name justice: he’s peppy and wild while he jumps through our entire garden :-))

Dulci will be healthy again, soon...

Jamonita lives at the Carwash and she was shy, thin and mangy. Swiss tourists asked us to administer us to the little thing's needs, which of course we did (Thanks to family Füllemann for the generous donation!). After a couple of weeks of good food and medical treatment Jamonita turned into a cuddly and life-loving beauty, the only thing missing was her castration. When we brought her back to the Carwash after the castration, the people there took her on board – she is now a communal dog at the carwash and everyone loves and feeds her.

Dulci wasn't that lucky. She was abandoned during the castration campaign in Las Terrenas. Since there are (near to) no miserable street-creatures around, a dog like that attracts everyone’s attention: only skin and bones, no fur, covered with wounds, infected with the papolloma-virus (Canine Papillomatose) and yet open-minded and tender in nature.
Dulci as well as Peppy and Leon stayed at our clinic – her favourite sleeping place was the tiny bathroom on the grounds. Unfortunately the first foster home wasn't very good for her, her condition hardly got any better – but a couple of days ago we were able to persuade Brenda (the owner of Leon) to take Dulci in temporarily, because it will be hard to find her a new home as long as she is covered with warts...

Salomon's tumour keeps on growing • Self-service at the kitchen counter, no problem for Salomon...

On the first day of the castration campaign the Dominicans brought the male dog Salomon (see report of 11^th February 2010) from the river to our clinic. His state of health had worsened, he had a bleeding wound on his back – that just wouldn't heal – was exhausted and his skin was in a catastrophic condition. Since Salomon is very near and dear to me and the people were afraid that somebody would poison Salomon out of disgust, the decision was made: Salomon would come to us...

Salomon is not a dog, he's an alien! I know thousands of dogs, but not one of them is like him. Not only does he think our house is a self-service shop (he climbs onto the kitchen counter to nick food or opens the fridge to get to the groceries), he also looks at you omnisciently with his wise eyes and of course he understands every word you say to him.

Unfortunately his heavily bleeding wound developed to a large tumour. When his skin was no longer that dry and parchment-like, we decided upon an op. But the tumour is malignant and is already growing again; it has also spread to other spots. Our homeopathic vet is trying hard to save his life and we are giving him all our love. Up to now he's still in high spirits and is in no apparent pain; let’s hope it stays that way for a while longer...

Puschel with deep wounds...

Puschel, the old street chow chow (see Sponsorship) suddenly had a gaping hole in his side! Since he had to be treated daily and the street filth was disastrous for his wound, he, too found his way to us...
Because Puschel lives at a “Ferreteria” (a kind of building material shop) and likes to lie on the gravel there, his deep wound was full of gravel – we were able to remove the larger part, but some of it wandered down into his abdomen and two new abscesses formed, when they popped open, all the gravel came out.

Unfortunately we can’t teach an old dog new tricks - additionally Puschel is a typical chow chow – and has his mind set on eating our cats, ducks, chickens, geese and rabbits. Although he has been hit by a car several times in his life and his legs are crooked and bent so that he hardly moves in the streets – here he hunts at full speed! Therefore the poor fellow has to be kept on a long leash at our place. Unfortunately we couldn't find anybody up to now to look after Puschel for his last days...

Sol after being castrated – on the picture she looks “fatter” than she is... • Sol and her puppies getting food from us

In Aqua Sabrosa the people are very poor; therefore it is understandable that the dogs are thin. But what we had to witness there deeply shocked Nina, Buschi and me. You cannot see it well on the picture, but she-dog Sol was absolutely emaciated, she was thinner than the thinnest stray dogs in Las Terrenas!!! And she had two puppies, of which the smaller one was very apathetic so that we didn't think he had a chance of survival. We castrated Sol despite her bad health condition because she surely wouldn't have been able to cope with another pregnancy. Additionally we gave them all the vitamins, electrolytes, strengthening agents and food that we could get so that they could recover.

When I went searching for her owner, I got really angry... I found her sitting idly and totally overweight (that's not to say FAT) and stuffing a grilled chicken into her throat with greasy fingers. I got very loud and said it would be better if she only ate ¼ of the chicken and gave ¾ to her dog, because she herself was really in need of a diet and her dog one step away from starving to death!!!

A friend of ours now sends a bag of dry dog food every week, but if Sol really gets some of it??? In any case we will try to find a new family for her. Her two puppies didn't make it...

Lucky with his pressure bandage • The curious bull • Better to do a runner, you never now...

Lucky was one of 8 puppies of a stray dog that we brought up and found a home for. Lucky’s owner is a very nice Dominican from Barbacoa, who also helped us with the organisation of the castration campaign there. We castrated Lucky and when placing her ear tag, Buschi hit an artery and it wouldn't stop bleeding. We then applied a pressure bandage and asked his owner to inform us, if it didn't get better.

The next morning it started bleeding again, so Nina and I loaded Lucky into our car on our way to Aqua Sabrosa to treat him medically and to monitor him. There Lucky lay with his head bandage outside of our op-tent, not meaning any harm, when all of a sudden a bull came along, for one to get a closer look at the “turban-dog” and for another to assure itself that we were working hard. When Buschi peeked out of the op-tent, the bull hastily disappeared – probably fearing that we would castrate him, too ;-)

Orchidea and Maria – true friendship • Nina having easy time with such good help

In Sanchez the Dominican, Maria brought us her she-dog for castration. Orchidea was very well groomed and well fed; nevertheless she had a Sticker-tumour. Orchidea received her first dose of chemo-therapy on the day of her castration, one week later Nina and I drove to Sanchez to undertake the second chemo. Usually I help Nina place the vein catheter by holding the dog and calming it, because most dogs are scared or better said who actually likes being pricked with a needle? To insert the catheter neatly and in a way assuring that it doesn't shift, you need a second caring staff member to hold the dog. In the case of Orchidea I had no job to do... Maria treated her dog so well, held her tight, spoke tenderly into her ear, that Nina finished the treatment in a jiffy. One week later Orchidea got her third chemo from Buschi and again everything went smoothly – thanks to Maria's help.
These are moments that make us very happy!

Manuschka after the op • 3 little kitty cats sleep off the narcosis • “I am just hanging around...”

As already mentioned, the cat population is increasing dramatically and more and more kittens are being abandoned. When we drove to La Yagua to operate there for two days – it was pouring with rain again – Buschi saw a cast out and drenched little thing on the way. Without hesitation he took the little one with him. On the second op-day we castrated her and our Haitian worker looked after her fondly and gave her the beautiful name Manuschka.

It surprises us again and again how trusting and relaxed most cats are around here – they run around between all the dogs, often the owners carry them to our clinic and they take injections patiently, some even purr in the process...

Buschi picked up the children and their animals with the ambulance • Chiquita fell asleep well sheltered

At the castration campaign in La Yagua many children brought us their animals, often they were accompanied by friends, because so much action is interesting for all children and gives me the chance to show the children how to take loving care of their animals...

I was especially touched by the following story:
The owner of a little female dog didn't have the time to wait during the operation, which wasn't really a problem because I was going to bring the dog to her house later on. Chiquita wasn't shy and so she waited patiently in her crate til it was her turn. It was only after the op that she started to whimper pitifully, she didn't know what had happened to her. To prevent Chiquita from making the other dogs that were still waiting anxious, I took her out of her crate and found myself a boy, who hadn't brought an animal himself and was therefore “free” to look after the little one. He tenderly took Chiquita into his arms, cradled her like a baby and sang a little song to her – after 10 minutes Chiquita was calm and she fell asleep in his arms. At the sight of that tears of affection and joy came to my eyes...

What became of Calypso

Calypso – proud and strong sitting on his feeding-branch But in some situations my head is favoured despite everything...

Many of you are surely wondering what became of the hawk Calypso, who I introduced to you in the last newsletter.
Calypso flew further and further away from our estate, but returned a couple of times every day to get his food. Then all of a sudden he disappeared for two days – we hoped that he would now be able to cope on his own in natural surroundings. On the third day we suddenly heard the screaming of two hawks, then there was a thud on our patio –Calypso had crashed into the patio window, he had been chased by another male (and big) hawk!!! I panicked, because it didn't look good for the little one, he was in shock and we suspected that he had a heavy concussion and a dislocated wing. We instantly called our homeopathic vet who administered a remedy. The first day we desperately feared for his life. He couldn't move, only sat on the floor in the hay in his cage and didn't want to eat. On the second day his condition improved, he started to take nourishment, got a bit more lively, but still wasn't able to hop onto the branches in his cage.
After two more days he was strong enough for some first flying attempts. Indeed, one of his wings was still a little lopsided, but he didn't want to stay in his cage any longer.
Little by little his flying circles got larger and he slept outside in a tree and enjoyed his freedom. One day I heard the screams of the other hawk again, ran into the garden and - lo and behold - the big hawk had returned and was chasing Calypso in wild flight manoeuvres between the trees. In panic my little Calypso fled and perched on my head, his pursuer settled down in a tree nearby and watched us with Argus-eyes. To see a wild hawk that close really is a special experience.
Every day Hurricane – that's the name I gave the big hawk – would come back and fly his hazardous manoeuvres through our garden. Slowly it dawned on me, that Hurricane wasn't chasing Calypso, but trying to teach him the tricks of the trade. And then the next surprise came up: not only did Hurricane come to our garden, he also brought a grown female and a little male along that was of about the same age as Calypso. Now all four hawks flew around our garden under big shouts and screams.
Call me crazy, but I had the impression, that they were Calypsos parents and his brother, who wanted to return Calypso to the fold...
Since Calypso can admittedly fly very well again, but still can’t kill his prey himself (on the contrary, he panics at the sight of a little living rat...) I had strong reservations if he would ever be able to cope in natural surroundings on his own again.
And then he vanished again for two days – my motherly heart was filled with worries and distress – until he returned to his “feeding-branch”. There he was, rejecting my offered food and with blood on his leg. But the blood wasn’t from a wound – Calypso was absolutely fine – he must have killed some prey after all!!! 10 minutes passed until the other three hawks landed nearby. One last time Calypso let me hear his “Mummy-cooing” the sound he always made when he wanted to cuddle up to me, then he soared up into the air, joined the other three and together they glided away. That was his farewell.
Sometimes we see him circling high above our garden or settling down on the big bamboo – then he calls for me and flies away again. After all the terrible things that have happened to him, he has succeeded to become one with nature again and to feed himself – a wonderful success and still every now and again a tear rolls down my cheek because I miss the little guy so badly...

Kati – the blind cat from Punta Cana

I got these photos from tourists via e-mail – Kati at the hotel resort, her eyes one big disaster

Again and again I receive desperate e-mails from tourists who are on holidays in Punta Cana and are having problems with animals there. Please understand that I cannot help everywhere, especially since Las Terrenas and Punta Cana are about the same distance apart as Garmisch is from Flensburg...
In this emergency case we were able to find a solution anyway. Several tourists told us about a cat from the hotel Catalonia Bavaro that had red, inflamed eye sockets instead of eyes... After many phone calls I found our friend Liana from La Romana (which is also far away...), who was ready to make the drive to Bavaro and fetch the cat from the hotel. Unfortunately – and we experience this over and over again – All-Inclusive-Hotels are unwilling to let people from outside into the hotels, most of the time the security guards can get pretty aggressive...
Liane didn't let that disturb her and went to search for the cat. Thank God she was not very shy due to her blindness and since she was used to being fed by tourists, she let herself be caught without problems. Liane saw other cats with the same symptoms, but they were not to be captured...
Liane brought the cat to a couple of vets in La Romana, because I had explained to her beforehand, that it was essential that the eyes be operated. Now this isn't a frequent operation over here and therefore only one vet was prepared to perform the op. Kati – that's the name Liane gave the cat – first of all got some antibiotics (tablets as well as eye drops), to make the inflammation go away, so that the eye lids could be stitched up afterwards.
Those who want to know where the illness comes from – again it's the tiresome subject of the careless handling of pesticides, insecticides and other toxic poisons that are happily sprayed around in these parts.
Next problem – Kati was pregnant and the vet unwilling to undertake a castration under these conditions. Is it worse to perform an abortion or to let the kittens end in the streets and die painfully there???
Liane and I decided to put the castration prior to the eye-op and to let Kati be castrated by another vet – silly, to expose the poor cat to a narcosis twice, not to mention the double vet-expenses, but unfortunately the only way.

Kati today – Sunbath with her new friend Ginger and totally relaxed after the eye-op

According to the statement of the (eye)vet, there were four weeks left till birth. One hour before Liane wanted to leave for the castration, Kati had her kittens – one was stillborn, the other 4 only lived for 2 minutes, because of the harm caused by the toxins these cats didn't stand a chance to survive. Maybe it was “good” in this case, because how should the blind Kati have been able to look after her babies and who would have looked after 5 cats afterwards???

A couple of days ago her eyes were operated, the castration will follow soon. Initially Liane was looking for a family to look after this nice cat – because the option of taking her back to the poisoned hotel was simply not an option! - but Kati swept Liane clear off her feet and is now allowed to stay with her. 

Edith – shock, sadness and rage

Edith and Nina at our goodbye reunion – it is the last photo of her...

And now something, that not necessarily has so much to do with animals, but shocked us very much and maybe explains my long silence a little...
Our Swiss friend Edith helped us very much during our castration campaign in Las Terrenas. She was a huge animal lover and had 6 cats and 4 dogs herself. Unfortunately her male dog was infected with distemper and there was no saving him, so that Nina had to put the poor guy to sleep. Also one of Edith's tom-cats was feeling very bad; he had urinary tract constipation and couldn't empty his bladder anymore. For three days Edith brought him to us in the clinic and on all three days Nina removed the constipation – but since it always returned, there was no hope left for him. Experiences like this naturally bind us animal owners even closer, you suffer together.
Before we went to La Yagua, we met up with all the helpers for a little amicable drink, as well as to talk about the – not always nice – experiences during work and to digest them. Edith talked to Nina for a long time and was already looking forward to being able to help actively at the next campaign.
One week later she was found dead in her house, her murderer hat tortured her for hours on end.
Until today we haven’t really got this out of our systems, we are trying to help Edith’s animals as well as we can and hope that Edith is now some place, were she can be together with her beloved animals.