Animal Welfare: Managing Stray Cats and Dogs

Dear Supporters,

Coco’s has grown and we continue to set a good example to follow in Mexico, thanks to our quality standards we continue controlling the growth of the unwanted animals population while treating each patient with professionalism as they deserve and taking care of the community’s well being (including rescuers, volunteers and staff).

We prepared to do our 2nd Annual Free High Volume High Quality Spay and Neuter Clinic, so on November, we closed our facility and took all our resources and transformed an elementary school into a Spay and Neuter Clinic, and in 4 days we tended to more than a thousand animals.

Coco’s has learned and wants other organizations to know that besides sticking to your mission, you must include a global vision (no pun intended)in order to achieve your goals, thus our work includes not only the spay and neuter clinic, but going into the underserved communities and besides offering medical care, empower people to help themselves; we also go to schools and speak to children and youngsters about responsible guardianship of companion animals and we also are part of the local government State’s Animal Welfare Council, so we can influence public policies to reinforce animal welfare and stop violence.

Same vision applies to our Free Clinic, we set up the space for having the families of 1000 pets and while they wait for their companion animal to go through surgery, recovery and awakes to be ready to go home, and we keep them busy with information about responsible ownership, how to take care of their pets after the surgery, how to get prepared for natural disasters and we also asked help from the local Planetarium (Planetario Sayab) so they kept people entertained with a telescope, so they could see the moon and the sun, and with a microscope observing parasites and insects.

We want to make emphasis not in the 1171 pets that were sterilized on those 4 days, but in the fact that every pet was tended to with all the care any pet deserves: surgeries were performed by experienced pre-approved surgeons, with sterile instrumental, with multimodal analgesia, with a good anaesthesia protocol, and we follow up on our patients and are available for any questions, doubt or emergency 24/7. Because we know that free or low cost doesn’t mean low quality, because we don’t want to sterilize only, we want 1171 families to go back home safe and sure that we do care about animal welfare.

Also, in the last 3 months, Coco’s did another 917 sterilization surgeries at the Clinic in Playa del Carmen. Preventing unwanted animals that are doomed to life on the street. 

We also were able to help 214 dogs and 373 cats and their humans (rescuers or adopter) through the Rescuer Support Program (You Can be a Hero). Thanks to this program, people that finds an animal in need gets empowered to rescue this live instead of just dumping the animal at the already overpopulated local shelters. It is not an easy task, but our staff can guide people to rescue properly, so now a lot of people has changed and knows that with some effort they can save a life as individuals or as a part of the community. 

We have to remember that Playa del Carmen has a floating community, that keeps us busy giving on going education about responsible ownership, but that has also help empower people that know what to do even when they go to a different place, spreading the rescue efforts to other places. 

Thanks to your continuing support Coco’s is able to strengthen its values so we can properly achieve our mission. Please help us help them, and help us spread the word.  

By sterilizing animals, we prevent a lot and assure the animal’s welfare. When se sterilize we save an animal from being used by a breeder, when we sterilize we prevent unwanted animals from being born, we prevent neglected animals, stray animals, abused animals, there’s an image going around that says: How do you save 1000 animals? You spay one. 

But then again, we also need people to see beyond the numbers: we do not just do surgeries, we care for these animals, and it doesn’t matter if they are beloved pets, feral cats, stray dogs, they all are our patients and they all deserve respect. 

And thanks to your support we also teach by giving example, to the new generations that it’s every life is important.

Coco’s keeps having young students coming to help and they learn to care for patients, and the importance of sterilizing and sharing your knowledge to secure a proper coexistence with companion animals. 

With your support, Coco’s is able to maintain a quality standard, to achieve our goals, we need to have and maintain our working tools, from the washing machine and fridge to the autoclave, the anaesthesia machines and oxygen concentrators, the surgery instruments, stethoscopes, surgery room, preparation room, clippers, scales, etc. 

We also give attention to underserved communities, helping around 100 animals each month by deworming, and preventing fleas and ticks in dogs and cats and helping this way to keep a safer environment for children in these communities. 

We decided to have a bigger impact on the community by focusing on the sterilization instead of being a shelter, but in the course of their work, Coco’s staff members occasionally rescue an animal in need, so we have a rehoming program for cats and dogs and in this 3 months period we have found forever homes to 20 dogs and 22 cats, these animals get medical attention at Coco’s, they get “fully vetted” we get them healthy, deworm them , vaccinate them, sterilize them, and them through an adoption process we get them a “forever home”.

Thanks to your support we were able to help more than 2088 animals through free or low cost sterilization, and to help more than 929 animals with basic medical care.

With Gratitude

Mexico Vets