Spay and Neuter your pets clinic #1

Okay, I wanted to take some time to talk about a new project that I recently undertook and the results. On June 9th we held our first clinica de castraciones de los animales in La Palma. I got the idea from my friend and neighbor Alba. Alba asked me what I was going to do about my kitten Tigre since she's female and I told her that I would have to take her to Jimenez to have her spayed and she then asked why not have the vet come here and then she could have her 3 dogs neutered. I had never thought of it before and I told Alba that I thought it was a good idea and that I would think about it. That night I started to think about all of the street dogs that I have gotten so used to seeing, they are battered and skinny and everywhere, but I've just gotten so used to seeing them that what once made me angry now doesn't even register on the radar. The next morning I started making some phone calls to the CR equivalent of the ASPCA and asked if they could come and do a castration clinic in La Palma but since we are just sooooooo far away it ended up being way more expensive to have them come down than it would be to work with the local vet. So, I decided to head to Jimenez and see the vet there. We set a date for the clinic. I was in charge of organizing the event; advertising, making appointments, setting up the location, etc. The price of a castration is 8,500 colons, that's about $17 plus the cost of medications which depends on the weight of your animal. You may be thinking, wow, that's cheap! But to a Costa Rican living off of just $200 a month, it's a huge cost. Most people in my community use all of their money just to live each month, they don't have an extra 8,500 colons to throw towards a dog or cat. This worried me. Even if the vet came to La Palma and it was easier for the people to bring their animals to him, most still wouldn't be able to afford it. So, I started to have a hope of finding a donor, yet I did nothing to find one, but I started to hope that I could possible find one. I started to ask around town "If it were only 2,000 colons, would you castrate your animal?" and everyone I asked said YES! So, I went one day to the Danta Lodge where Deivin works and they are nice enough to let me us the internet and talked to a retired professor who lives there about the clinic. He thought it was a wonderful idea and wished me luck and said if there was anything he could do he would help. Not a week later I get a call from Deivin at work saying that a guest at the lodge wanted to talk to me on the phone. I said okay and I talked on the phone with Judy and we made a date for me to meet up with her at the lodge later that day. After a 20 min bike ride I arrived and we talked about the clinic and I told her that I was going to try and find a donor to supplement the cost for the people, I never thought in a million years that Judy would offer to be a donor for the first clinic right there on the spot. I was blown away, I never expected that and it was such an encouragement. So, the very first clinic was ready to go, all I had to do was find the people which was not at all difficult. It turns out that most people wanted to spay or neuter their pets, it was just financially out of their reach and also it was so far and difficult to get their that the location was almost impossible for most people to reach. Now, people had a chance. So I went around and told a bunch of people and had them make appointments and waited for the day of the clinic the whole time afraid that nobody was going to show up. On the actual day of the event people showed up with their pets, lots of people and lots of pet. From 8:00am to 7:30pm the vet and his volunteer assistant worked to spay/neuter 20 animals and were able to save the life of a dog that had been attacked by a wild animal that day and had some serious wounds to his face, neck and arm. By the end of the day it was becoming obvious that we were not going to be able to attend all of the animals that had show up so I took the names and phone numbers of the owners of 8 dogs and told them that we would have another in a couple of weeks and would call and give them appointments. All and all the day was a huge hit. Now when I'm out and about in La Palma everyone is always asking me when is the next clinic, they want to castrate their pet. The vet was blown away by the response as well, he was so happy with the results that we are planning to do one clinic per month in either La Palma or some of the other surrounding communities that are also in need. Thanks so much to Judy for making it all happen and I think we are on our way to a change. More info to come on the other spay and neuter clinic as well as Guias y Scouts.