Rally for the animal protection law April 6th

For the last 3-4 years different organizations have been working towards the approval of an animal protection law in Venezuela. At this point this law is being discussed within the congress but has not been approved yet. On April 4, 2009 a large group of animal protection organizations and activists gathered in Caracas yesterday with enthusiasm to put pressure for the approval of the law. We visited three main tv stations and drove around the main routes in the city to deliver the message about the necessity of this law.

Margarita Spay Clinic March 26-28, 2009

On Sunday March 22nd my mom and I travelled to Margarita for the second sterilization campaign. We took a ferry in Puerto La Cruz and took Katy with us.
On Monday, we met with Alicia from AAMOR to finalize some last minute preparation things. Alicia was extremely collaborative and helpful the whole time and kindly arranged to bring a lot of supplies including tables, kennels, lamps, surgical material. Later that day, I walked around village talking to the people about the clinic, explaining why to sterilize and making appointments to bring their animals.
On Wednesday, on our way to El Espinal, at a bus stop in Pedro Gonzalez we found a dog that was absolutely covered with mange. He was just a puppy, a very sweet puppy that had been suffering probably all his short life. He was extremely hungry so we fed him and my mom put him in the car and we took him to the AAMOR clinic in Conuco Viejo.

It breaks my heart to see a dog in that state knowing that this is so preventable and easily treatable in the early stage. He probably had a home one day but when he started getting "ugly and sick" his "owner" probably abandoned him in the street.

Later that day, I continued walking around the village to speak to the rest of the people about the clinic.

Thursday, the spay clinic began! We arrive to the location very early to make sure everything was ready for the vets to start the surgeries. We received some animals and very soon all the vets were set up and working on the animals!! That day we sterilize 10 female dogs, 7 female cats, 2 male dogs and 2 male cats.

Friday, on our way to spay clinic we found a dog limping by the road. We stopped to check and found that his leg was completely broken and an open wound on his hear infested with worms. As soon as I reach him, he laid on the road exhausted, like saying "please help me". We immediately put him in the car and drove to the spay clinic. Soon after we noticed that he had die. We were completely heart broken. We believe that he was abandoned in that road as it happens frequently, and who knows for how long he was only waiting for his owners to come back.

That day, a lot of people brought their animals, a total of 14 female dogs, 6 female cats, 1 male dog and 1 male cat were sterilize including a young guy that brought a crossbreed pregnant dog with an open wound in her abdomen. She had apparently hit or kicked in the abdomen and the leg of one of her puppies was literally out of his mom's abdomen. It was shocking to her and her puppy like that, it must have been so painful for both of them and we didn't even know for how long they had been like that.

We immediately took her and one of the vets sedated to begin the surgery. Amazingly, the puppy was alive and ready to continue fighting for his life. It was so beautiful to see the puppy who we name Ody, free from that horror that he had been through to the point where one of the vets fell in love with him and decided to keep him if he survived.

The mom also did great and she has been under the AAMOR staff care until she fully recovers. I am very happy to report that Ody is doing great, he is eating lots and growing fast!! the vet that performed the surgery took him with her and has been dedicated to him for the last few days.

Saturday, the day began with pouring rain and not very people were bringing their animals. So we decided to bring some strays ourselves. We were also notified about a pit bull that had been abandoned tied to a tree in a nearby road only three days before. We immediately went to look for the dog, we drove the entire road but sadly found no signs of him. However, in this trip we found 3 female dogs in a fishermen village so we took them to be spayed, as well as 2 other partially stray female dogs from a nearby brick plant. There we found 2 male dogs and 3 female dogs, one of which had given birth recently. We took all of them except for one of the male dogs. One of the female has a Sticker tumor that will be treated with the invaluable help of AAMOR particularly Alicia. Two of the female dogs were sterilized at the spay clinic while the mom was taken to the AAMOR shelter along with the litter which was very malnourished and infested with fleas. The mom is the sweetest tiny dog, she is absolutely adorable but is very malnourished and she has also a little bit of mange so we decided to treat her and try to find a good home for her. I spoke to Alicia (AAMOR) yesterday (04-04-09) and she told me that mom is doing really good so we hope that she will recover and find a wonderful family. At the end of the day we had done 11 female dogs, 3 female cats, 3 male dogs and 2 male cats.
The total of animals spayed in Margarita were 62: 35 female dogs, 16 female cats, 6 male dogs and 5 male cats.

As I reported in the previous post the total of animals sterilized in the first location (Puerto Ordaz) was 29; therefore the total of animals sterilized in both locations is 91 animals!!!!!!

I am immensely grateful to all the AAMOR staff particularly Alicia, MV Osdelys, MV Elizeth and MV Narvis; MV Mayora; Nancy and Rizleng; Veronica who allowed to use her house for the spay clinic; Red de Apoyo Canino; Sarah and all my friends from People for Animals for the huge support and encouragement, to Barb for all her help and to each and everyone that donated to make this happen!!!

Azabache and Kathy

Kathy is doing AWESOME!! She is a wonderful dog!! I had to take her with me to the spay clinic so she had to travel in ferry :) Was spayed on thursday and everything went fine. Today, I took her to a friend's house to give her a bath. She has 5 cats and Kathy was fine with them, just a little bit scared. Her leg is doing very well, a little less swallen every day.

Spay clinic March 17-18 2009

Hi!! I apologize for being disconected for so long, I was absolutely inmersed in the organization and execution of our spay&neuter clinics.

The first clinic was held in an industrial area of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela (about 8 hrs from Caracas) where, like most industrial areas in Venezuela, there is a huge population of stray dogs. Contrary to the second spay clinic (the one in Margarita) we did not find cats in this area.

We arrived to Puerto Ordaz on March 16 and set up everything in an space that a company lent us. The veterinarian arrived the next day in the morning and started the surgeries right away. The clinic lasted 2 days.

The animals were crossbreeds in different conditions, some were in better shape while some others need extra care. 21 females dogs (17 adults, 4 puppies) and a female cat were spayed; and 6 male dogs were neutered. 20 of them were vaccinated against rabies and 6 of them against distemper, parvo, parainfluenza.

We found a female dog that lives in a old plant no longer in operation, the guardian of the place had to open the gates to the dogs so they can go out and dig into the garbage or beg food because although he shares what he eats with them, he doesnt have enough to feed them, plus the two females are producing more and more litters. When we went to pick them up to spay them, we realized that one of the dogs had just had puppies, but had no even a drop of milk in her breast. She was very anemic and the puppies very hungry. We spayed the mom and the other female, purchased food and vitamins for them and one of the volunteers offered to take care of the puppies.

She is doing a wonderful job and the four puppies are doing awesome!! In about a month she will be trying to find homes for them. Here is a picture of the puppies where they were found , as well as pictures of the dogs that were treated in this clinic.

With the help of all the people that donated we were able to help directly 29 animals by spay/neutering them and many many more unwanted animals from being born!

I feel an immense gratitude to all of you who contributed to make this happen!!!

Alexandra

Katy might be able to keep her injured leg!

Another email from Alexandra in Venezuela:

"I have good news, I picked up Katy from the vet on Friday, the blood work is good, only the hemoglobin and hematocrit are a slighly low but given her condition that is normal. Yesterday, we took her to the traumatologist. He recommended to try to save Katy's leg because, in his opinion, she has high chances of regaining use of it. He prescribed cefalexin, rimadyl, maxibol (anabolic), and cleaning her paw twice daily. Her paw is a little bit less swollen.

She has very good appetite and is drinking lots of water. It will take some time to put some pounds on, but she has a wonderful disposition so I am very optimistic that she will recover very soon. She really wants to live, she lets me do anything to her. Even thought she is weak she is always happy wagging her tail, even if you just see her she wags her tail. With other dogs and cats, so far she seems indiferent. We are in apartment right now and she won't do anything unless I take her outside.

Attached are 2 pictures, the first one was on Friday at the vet and the second one today at my mom's apartment.

I am traveling to another city tomorrow for the spay/neuter clinic so I probably won't have access to internet until thursday. I will email you back then.

Hugs from Katy and me!"

Another email from Alexandra in Venezuela

Received today!

"After meeting some of the dogs awaiting for homes, the other dog I think I should take is Brandy, she is a small to medium size dog that is living in the street, my friend (the same that has Azabache) has been feeding her but she has nowhere to go. She is shy and submissive but gets along really well with other animals and people."

Update from Alexandra in Venezuela

We received the following email from Alexandra yesterday, and she asked us to share with any interested Blog readers:

"I just wanted to give you all an update of my trip. I arrived safely to Venezuela but very soon I was busy.

Yesterday, I was driving in a very crowded and hot area about an hour from Caracas when I saw a dog trying to cross a very busy street only to reach a small dirty puddle. My heart started pounding hard because the cars would not even avoid her. When I passed closer, I realized that her paw was broken and her leg was shaking probably because she was in so much pain. Luckily she managed to cross the street and I parked just beside her to see if she would let me help her. When I approached her, she hid her tail, lowered her head and closed her eyes like saying -please don’t hurt me-, it was so heartbreaking. I picked her up and put her in the car and in no time we were on our way to the vet. We named her Katy because of the place where we found her. The vet check her carefully, administered anti-inflammatory and analgesic because she was in a lot of pain. He recommended amputating the leg but he doesn’t perform that surgery so we have to take her to a specialist. I will pick her up from the vet tomorrow to take her to the specialist. She has suffered so much and she’s still a sweetheart. Yesterday, in just a few hours she was already moving her tail, like saying -thank you helping me!!- I will everything possible to help her but as usual my main concern right now is what I am going to do with her when she recovers because I have no one to take care of her once I am gone.

The preparation for the spay clinic are going really well, we have a lot of animals waiting and we received a donation from a small company for surgical material.

I will keep you all informed about the spay clinic and Katy’s progress."

Since sending this email to friends in Canada, Alexandra has received several offers to help pay Katy's travel expenses to Canada, and an offer to foster her once she arrives.

In her next email, Alexandra wrote:

"I am not sure I can bring Katy with me, it will depend on how soon she recovers enough to travel, but I will do everything I can to recover her and I am very optimistic she will recover, especially there is hope to drastically change her life. Tomorrow, I will pick her up to take her to another vet and I will keep you informed."

We are very hopeful that Katy can be one of the two dogs that Alexandra brings home with her to Canada in April, and we know that she will do her best to make that happen.