In April we had two sterilization campaigns, the first of which, on April 6, Beth Lozano described in our April newsletter. The second took place on April 27 in the village of Puentecillas. At that campaign we sterilized 59 animals—29 female dogs, 9 male dogs, 15 female cats, and 6 male cats. We are very grateful to our sterilization team for their hard work.
On April 24 our education team, consisting of Antonia López and Julia Salido, visited the Centro de Integración Juvenil Guanajuato, located in Puentecillas, to talk with children there about caring for pets and respecting animals that live on the street. The purpose of their visit, part of our program “Teaching Children Compassion for Animals,” was to encourage the children to regard them not as objects but rather as companions and to treat them accordingly.
Tony and Julia met with 25 children, ages 4 to 13; six adults also attended the session. They discussed pets’ needs, not just for basic care, but also for attention and affection. They also showed the children how to interact safely with an animal they have just encountered. The group played a giant board game, and the children were given copies of our coloring book “Da una mano a los animales” (Give a hand to the animals).
Both the children and the adults expressed a lot of interest in the activities. Most of them have pets at home, but few of the pets are sterilized. Tony and Julia explained the advantages of sterilization, and we hope some of the families will take advantage of our sterilization services.
Tony and Julia participated in a short training course for city workers, veterinarians, and animal-welfare advocates on May 16. Entitled (in Spanish) “The importance of balance between the environment, animals species, and humans,” the course had as its main objective to understand and maintain the balance in this triad for the conservation and protection of animal life. A related objective was to expand participants’ knowledge and improve actions taken by municipal agencies and veterinarians when responding to reports about domestic and wild animals.
The training, which was co-sponsored by the General Directorate of Social and Human Development and the city’s Animal Control and Assistance Center (CECAA), focused primarily on wildlife. Participants were taught about endemic and invasive species and how to report and respond when encountering them. The knowledge that Tony and Julia gained at the four-hour session will be especially useful to them as they expand the focus of our educational program for children from companion animals to wildlife.
On May 25 we conducted another sterilization campaign in Puentecillas, in response to strong demand there. This one took place at the Salón de Fiestas “Zumba,” which was ideally designed for a campaign. Our team had ample room, on the ground level, with good natural light and plenty of fresh air. Pet owners were able to wait inside, which was pleasantly cool.
We sterilized 66 animals that day: 26 female dogs, 14 male dogs, 18 female cats, and 8 male cats. This brought our total for the year to date to 638 cases.
As always, we are very grateful to our team members for their efficient and cheerful participation. On May 25 they were Julia Salido, campaign manager; veterinarians Sandra Hernández, Abril Herrera, and Ricardo Montes de Oca; and volunteers Karla Ahumada, Julie Boyles, Valeria Hernández, Maria Littlehales, Alan López, Tony López, Beth Lozano, Adhán Mata López, Sofía Moctezuma, Diana Molina, Gabriel Ramírez, Oscar Salazar Gutierrez, Andrea Sánchez Ramos, and Suzy Thompson. Our thanks too to the owner and the manager of the party hall for making it available to us.