The Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Project will provide a bed for as many shelter dogs as possible. We believe that a comfortable place to rest should be a right, not a luxury, for a shelter dog.
The only source of funding for the LSDL project is your kind and generous donations. Be assured that your funds will directly change the world for a homeless dog who will be extremely grateful to have a bed to rest, sleep, and dream of his future home!
Reprinted from “Best Friends” and written by Sharon St. Joan
This past Sunday, on May 6, in Tijuana, Mexico, forty-five dogs were spayed or neutered and fourteen more dogs were treated for fleas, ticks, or mange.
The Humane Society of Tijuana, who announce on their website that they are “a Mexican humane organization, organized by Mexicans to help solve the problems in Mexico”, are making a big difference in the lives of animals in Tijuana. Street clinics and spay/neuter clinics are being set up for street animals and the animals of families who cannot afford vet care or to get their dogs spayed/neutered.
Just south of San Diego, what used to be a small border town exploded from a population of 245 in 1900 to nearly two million today. Just as people suffer from trafficking along the border and the high crime rate, animals in Tijuana also suffer greatly.
The Humane Society of Tijuana is responding to the needs of these animals.
Two more projects are planned for the near future: On May 25, a street clinic will be held for de-worming and for treating animals for fleas, ticks, and mange. The street clinic is called Clinica de Desparicitacion, and its nickname is the “Itchy-Scratchy Clinic”! The clinic will be held starting at 9 AM at the DIF Center in Salvatierra, a suburb of Tijuana. This will be run entirely by the Humane Society of Tijuana.
The second project, to be held on June 3, will be a spay/neuter clinic, starting at 9 AM, also to take place at the DIF Center in Salvatierra. This is to be sponsored jointly by United Hope for Animals and the Humane Society of Tijuana.
United Hope for Animals, in Pasadena, California, helps the animals in the low-income areas of Tijuana and Southern California. By forming a positive relationship with the management of the Tijuana dog pound (perrera), they have been able to bring about significant changes there.
In past years, the animals there were “euthanized” by electrocution. Now United Hope for Animals is able to send volunteers into the Tijuana dog pound to euthanize the dogs in a humane way. Becoming no-kill is still a long way away, and, until that becomes possible, this approach provides a much kinder ending for the animals.
Tijuana is a city in which the animals are very much in need of help, and the Humane Society of Tijuana is taking on a huge task.
If you live nearby and you’d like to volunteer, or if you’d like to make a donation, these are the websites:
United Hope for Animals: http://www.hope4animals.org/contact.html
The Humane Society of Tijuana: http://www.hstj.org/
Photo: Humane Society of Tijuana / Leticia Coto, President
Story by Kerry Oldridge
As anyone who as been doing animal rescue for any length of time can tell you, everywhere you look an animal is in need of rescue. Certain areas, just south of the Mexican border, have so many homeless dogs, that people stop paying attention. When there are so many, only the most desperate stand out, and, fortunately for one little Chihuahua, someone finally paid attention to her suffering.
A woman living in an apartment building in Ensenada called 4 PAWS, an area animal rescue, to report an abandoned dog. She told 4 Paws that the people who had owned the dog (and who used to live in the building) moved away and left this dog behind, and the dog had been outside wandering around the area fending for herself for a very long time.
Little Tica had barely survived this long by eating any bit of food scrap that fell from trashcans around the apartment building, or what she found on the street. However, the woman caller told 4 PAWS that she did not think the little dog would last much longer. 4 Paws immediately drove to the address, found the dog outside the building, wrapped her in a blanket, and took her to a foster home for treatment.
Tica had a broken leg, a very painful eye infection, and mange so extensive that in some areas her skin was gone and her flesh exposed. Although she was only 2 years old when she was rescued, it was clear that she had already had many puppies, and, had recently given birth. Although the rescue volunteers searched for the puppies, sadly they were never found. It took months of treatment and care before little Tica would even lift her head.
She was not only near death due to the neglect and injures, but she was depressed and withdrawn. Tica eventually responded to her care, was ready to be spayed, and was taken to the spay and neuter clinic preformed by 4 PAWS, sponsored by UHA and a few other individual donors. She was then taken to Julie Meager in San Diego to complete her fostering, and post her for adoption.
Julie Meagher who has, over the years, fostered many rescued pups for both UHA and AAUS, decided that little Tica had in fact found her forever home. After many months of caring for her, Julie and her family decided that they wanted to adopt Tica. Julie said, “we want to make it up to her, to erase all the suffering she had to endure by giving her love and comfort each and every day.
“She may look like just another ordinary, little brown Chihuahua, but she is special,” Meagher said. “Tica is so very grateful; she is one of the most loving dogs we have met. All she want is to give and receive love, she fills our home with joy, and we feel lucky to have her.”
Although Tica’s condition was extreme, in Mexico, this is the typical condition of the homeless dogs, and sadly there are many thousands of dogs like her struggling to survive.
Every month, United Hope for Animals, (UHA), teams up with Animal Advocates of the United States, (AAUS), 4 Paws, and other individual sponsors, to hold a spay and neuter clinic in Tijuana, Ensenada and other areas in Baja, California. As well as offering this much needed service to pets owners that would otherwise not be able to afford it, the long standing relationship between UHA, AAUS and 4 PAWS also enables us to help owners find lost or stolen dogs, rescue abandon dogs, and ensure that they are spayed, neutered, and find safe, loving, permanent homes.
These clinics provide this very important service to the public, who would not otherwise be able to afford it, and as well, to local rescue groups working to help the abandon street dogs. Please help us get the abandon dogs and cats off the street, and into loving homes, and help us ensure that each pet is safely spayed and neutered. Together, with your help, we can end this tragic cycle of suffering.
Tica was one of the many fortunate recipients of the critical link between UHA, AAUS and 4 PAWS.