New program announced!

June 25, 2007 – Today, Mayan Families Healthy Pets unveiled its new, aggressive spay/neuter program and emergency services plan to a large group of animal lovers who currently reside in Panajachel, Guatemala. The diversified group represented many nations including Guatemala, France, Canada, Israel, USA, Iran and Spain.

The organization has identified three major areas of concern: Overpopulation, Humane Education and Emergency Services for street animals. The new program outlines an 18-month plan that includes conducting 6 free spay/neuter clinics with the goal of operating on 180 animals from July 2007 through December 2008. In addition, it calls for the sterilization of one animal per week from either a Mayan Families pre-screened family or from the street.

Volunteer director, Selaine d’Ambrosi, explained that “our focus for the free clinics are street animals and the companion animals who live with the over 250 very poor families that are currently receiving some form of assistance through Mayan Families”, the umbrella organization and registered 501-c-3 under which Mayan Families Healthy Pets operates.

“We consider ‘Healthy Pets’ a vital part of a comprehensive approach in assisting indigenous families”, d’Ambrosi continued. “The Mayan Families social worker has added pets to her assessment profile and from her survey we found that, typically, a family has two or more pets. That gives us a huge amount of animals to work with right away!”

Ms. d’Ambrosi, also stated, “As far as the street dogs, we plan to treat them just like a feral cat colony in the U.S. We will pick them up, vaccinate and worm them, give them a couple of days of good food and vitamins, sterilize them and put them back on the street. We simple don’t have a choice. The shelter (AWARE) in Sumpango is full. We will make every effort to find these animals homes, but we all need to understand that many of them will have to go back on the street”.

The emergency services portion of the program is designed to address street or abandoned animals with major injuries or illnesses. CTVT (Canine Transferable Venereal Tumors), a highly infectious STD, is running rampant in Panajachel. MFHP is providing the necessary chemotherapy and, happily, a fourth dog has successfully completed its treatment.

During the meeting, several volunteers voiced an interest in helping with the Humane Education program. A separate meeting is scheduled in one week to lay the plans for this important component.

Ms. d’Ambrosi went on to say, “This is our way into the middle-class families. By teaching the kids how to better care for the pets and making them aware that there are some services available to them, we hope they will encourage their parents to take advantage of our low-cost program. At the very least, it gives us the opportunity to talk with local children to help elevate some of their fears and dispel the myths about their own pets and those who live on the street.”