Pets hurled off bridge in Puerto Rico & Manos por Patas
Puerto Rico pets hurled off bridge - Americas - MSNBC.com
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them from a bridge to their deaths, authorities and witnesses said Friday. Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter.
"This is an irresponsible, inhumane and shameful act," he told The Associated Press.
Fontanez said the city hired Animal Control Solution to clear three housing projects of pets after warning residents about a no-pet policy. He said the city paid $60 for every animal recovered and another $100 for each trip to a shelter in the San Juan suburb of Carolina.
Raids were conducted on Monday and Wednesday, and residents told TV reporters they saw the animal control workers inject the animals. When they asked what they were giving them, they said they were told it was a sedative for the drive to the shelter.
"They came as if it were a drug raid," said Alma Febus, an animal welfare activist. "They took away dogs, cats and whatever animal they could find. Some pets were taken away in front of children."
But instead of being taken to a shelter, the pets and strays were thrown 50 feet from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja, according to Fontanez, witnesses and activists, apparently before dawn Tuesday.
"Many were already dead when they threw them, but others were alive," said Jose Manuel Rivera, who lives next to the bridge. "Some of the animals managed to climb to the highway even though they were all battered, but about 50 animals remained there, dead."
Rivera said he alerted officials, who spread lime over the animals' corpses to control the stench.
Animal Control Solution owner Julio Diaz said he went to the bridge when he heard of the allegations, but remains unconvinced that the dead animals are the same ones his company collected.
"We have never thrown animals off any place. We always take them to our local shelter and euthanize them," he said. "They can't prove that they are the same dogs that we picked up."
Fontanez said he would cancel the city's contract with Animal Control Solution and said city lawyers were considering a lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has a rule allowing locally owned and operated housing authorities to set pet rules, but it does not grant authority for a blanket ban or mass confiscation, said Brian Sullivan, an HUD spokesman in Washington.
Asked to comment on the reported pet massacre, Sullivan said: "This sickens me if true."
Animal rights activists have long criticized the treatment of pets in Puerto Rico, where there is no pet registration law and little spaying or neutering. Animal shelters are overwhelmed and must kill many of the dogs they receive, according to Victor Collazo, president of the island's Association of Medical Veterinarians.
One organization recruits volunteers to take dogs home with them on commercial flights, and sends between 1,500 and 2,000 dogs a year from Puerto Rico to American shelters.
At least 175 dogs have been rescued in the last couple of years from Yabucoa Beach, which activists nicknamed "Dead Dog Beach" because of the strays that roam the coast and are sometimes found dead of disease, starvation or gunshots. Similar rescue efforts have been undertaken in the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Associated Press writer Ben Fox contributed to this story from San Juan.
By OMAR MARRERO, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 24 minutes ago
Click for related content. Latest souvenir from Puerto Rico? Stray dogs
Stray dogs the latest souvenir from Puerto Rico Updated: 6:28 p.m. ET Sept 28, 2007
Tourists bring pups back to U.S., but critics worry this overcrowds shelters
YABUCOA, Puerto Rico - Some visitors to Puerto Rico are leaving with an unusual souvenir — one of the thousands of scrappy abandoned dogs that roam the island’s beaches.
Hundreds of abandoned canines are being scooped up and flown to the U.S.: some by tourists unexpectedly touched by their plight, others as part of an expensive organized rescue effort.
But critics say the canine airlift does little to reduce the problem of stray dogs in Puerto Rico and ends up fueling overcrowding at the U.S. shelters, where many of the dogs inevitably end up.
At least 175 dogs have been rescued in the last couple of years from Yabucoa Beach, which activists nicknamed “Dead Dog Beach” because of the strays that roam the coast and are sometimes found dead of disease, starvation or gunshots. Similar rescue efforts have been undertaken in the Bahamas and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
The Save A Sato Foundation — “sato” is Puerto Rican for mutt — recruits volunteers to bring dogs back on commercial flights and sends between 1,500 and 2,000 dogs a year from Puerto Rico to American shelters, where they are often quickly adopted.
Not a solution
Other dogs return unexpectedly with American tourists, who often call the Humane Society International seeking advice on how to bring back dogs they find in the Caribbean.
Christina Aquilino, 39, of Mendon, Mass., has flown to Puerto Rico twice to bring back abandoned dogs on her own initiative after she adopted a Puerto Rican Jack Russell-terrier mix named Odie in her hometown.
She has spent more than $800 on airline tickets, staying less than 24 hours on the island each time. The dogs often ride in crates in the cargo hold, but Aquilino brought two tiny Chihuahua look-alikes back home with her in the cabin.
“It’s money well-spent,” she said. “To see these dogs board the planes ... it brings tears to my eyes.”
But the Humane Society discourages such measures and instead wants Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean to develop their own animal welfare programs, said Kelly O’Meara, its director of international programs.
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Herminio Rodriguez / AP Abandoned dogs are seen in "Dead Dog Beach," an area that has become a dumping ground for unwanted pets in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. |
However, some shelter managers in the U.S. say some people specifically ask for “satos” from Puerto Rico or “potcakes” from the Bahamas, named after the discarded “cake” that a peas-and-rice dish leaves at the bottom of a pot.
“Potcakes seem to be pretty athletic,” said Bridget Barry, a veterinarian at a shelter in Ithaca, N.Y. “I guess you have to be tough to survive on the streets.”
Little help
At Yabucoa Beach, scores of dogs roam an abandoned marina, surviving on garbage scraps and drinking from salty puddles but attracting little public sympathy or attention from Puerto Rico’s government.
Florida-based Manos por Patas — Hands for Paws — recruits veterinarians to help control strays in Puerto Rico by spaying and neutering, while also seeking volunteers to fly them to the U.S.
The group has helped rescue about 175 dogs in recent years from Yabucoa Beach, said Ginny Cornett, a biologist from Florida who visits Puerto Rico a couple times a year. But most strays are too sick or aggressive to travel, so they are spayed or neutered and released back into the wild.
Dog-lovers have to do something, Cornett said.
“After you see it,” she said, “you can’t walk away.”
Herminio Rodriguez / AP ~ Daniella Wooddell, of the Florida-based nonprofit organization Manos por Patas or Hands for Paws, feeds an abandoned dog at "Dead Dog Beach," an area that has become a dumping ground for unwanted pets in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. Hundreds of abandoned canines are being scooped up from Puerto Rico and other islands by visiting volunteers and flown to U.S. shelters, where some of the castoffs are prized as exotic pets.
Labels: Adoption, animal care, cats, cruelty to animals, Death, dogs, humane, Puerto Rico, rescue
posted by LadyIrene @ 10/12/2007 09:21:00 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for putting this important information on your blog. The rescue community in Puerto Rico is hoping that the silver lining in this horrible tragedy is that it may finally bring national attention to the ongoing animal cruelty in that country.
In Netscape this shows mostly correct, where the links are on the Right.
I included this link for Hands For Paws. The young women here are quite interesting, too!
I encourage you to visit and read what their effort in helping these defensless animals.
Thankyou for noticing I found you.
http://www.manosporpatas.org/blog/blog.htm
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