Best Friends reaches out to Peruvian animal welfare groups.

As the Best Friends team in western Peru continues to tend to animals and educate residents in the ways of animal welfare, rapid response manager Rich Crook has been recruiting local vets, vet techs, volunteers and groups.

The key component to the Best Friends plan for the area is establishing a network that will continue our work when we leave at the end of our eight-week commitment.

Overall, the plan calls for extensive spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations and distribution of food. The goal is to stabilize the welfare of animals in the western part of the country where the earthquake struck, and to avoid government-ordered euthanasia of thousands of animals due to concerns over rabies and aggression.

In addition to Rich, the team consists of sanctuary medical director Dr. Mike Dix, dog caregiver Roy Coscio, who is from Peru, staffer Pam Crook, and Shari Artadi, formerly of the Peruvian Association for the Protection of Animals.

Rich submitted the following report on their progress with in-country groups.

United for the Animals
I met with Fabiana Portal, who confirmed that her organization spent several weekends in Pisco Playa doing vaccinations, and had just begun doing spay/neuters this past weekend. We will share information on a regular basis about what we’ve done and where. I explained our process for marking animals who’ve been vaccinated – marking the inner portion of the right ear with a permanent marker – and she agreed to follow the same procedure so that we can avoid duplicating efforts.

Peruvian Association for the Protection of Animals
Shari spoke with the group’s president Cecilia De Gregory to explain what we are trying to accomplish and see if they’d be interested in working together. Cecilia said they would love to be a part of the operation, and that they can help with dog food, volunteers and some medicines. She said they can send food and volunteers for our work in El Carmen and El Olivos starting Oct. 6.

Association of Defense and Protection of the Animals
We recently found out about this group and met with executive director Jorge Guerrero. The organization is very young and has no money and no official non-profit status, but they are willing to help. We were impressed with what they’ve accomplished to date. One of the ways they can help is by spreading the word in areas we are preparing to work. They can also gain experience by assisting field teams with vaccinations.

Animazul
I have exchanged emails with a representative of this organization and they seem willing to work with us, so we’re setting up an official meeting.

Improving Life Peru
This small organization is helping us by supplying dog food. Although they typically support humanitarian efforts, they found out what we were in town doing and decided to get us the food we so badly needed. They said that until we secure a means for food supply they will continue to help as they can by shipping food via bus from Lima.

Media
Roy and Shari went on local television to talk about our operation and let people know where we’ll be. After an earlier appearance on TV-31, station officials told us we could come back if needed, so we did. The interview went well; Roy and Shari did a great job.

We also have radio spots promoting the project and where we’ll be.

Photos by Molly Wald