Amigos de los Animales
Amigos
de los Animales in Boquete organized a sterilization blitz by
Spay/Panama which took place on January 7th and 8th, 2006. The local
coordinators had been given a pre-surgery instruction to be printed and
handed out to each guardian scheduled to have an animal sterilized; 4
to 5 animals were scheduled every 20 minutes.
The doctors from
Spay/Panama who participated were: Dr. Andres Bailey, Dr. Itzel
Terrero, Dr. Letty Guajardo, Dr. Anabell Herrera, and Dr. Ivone
Gamarra. Dr. Andres Tello from the McKee Project in Costa
Rica also came down to participate in the two-day blitz.
Contributions
requested are $20 per dog and $10 per cat, although no animal is turned
away if the guardian cannot afford to pay. These small amounts are paid
to the vets by Spay/Panama. With the minimum contribution, the rest of
the costs are picked up by Spay/Panama - anesthesia, antibiotics,
analgesic shots for pain, Rabies vaccines, flea and tick treatments,
internal parasite medications, the syringes, gloves, gauze,
sutures, and all other supplies.
On Saturday, 78 animals were sterilized - 69 dogs and 9 cats. Contributions for the surgeries totaled $810. On Sunday, 82 animals were sterilized – 24 dogs and 58 cats. Contributions for the surgeries totaled $313. Amigos
de los Animales made up for the shortfall in contributions collected
and also covered the transportation cost. In addition, an extra
$90 was donated to Spay/Panama. Carmencita MacIntyre provided the
lodging accommodations.
Spay/Panama donated 4 Covault spay hooks
to the Amigos de los Animales’ local vets. Free training was offered to
the local vets in return for their commitment to continue to support
Amigos de los Animales.