October 19th, 2009
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Some people bemoan the fact we’ve started to bring stray dogs from Puerto Rico to the U.S. to find homes. Their argument is that we have enough trouble here. My feeling is a homeless animal is a homeless animal and that, especially since Puerto Rico is a territory of the U.S., it’s our obligation to try to help them.
There are over 50,000 stray dogs in Puerto Rico and one group that is doing something practical about it is Save a Sato. “Sato” is a slang term for street dogs. Sato dogs come in many colors and mixes but tend to be smallish and make good family pets. Sato hooks up people who are going to Puerto Rico with dogs that need to be flown back. So the next time you plan a trip to a beach, consider Puerto Rico. You could save a dog’s life and have a great time! Kelly is a dog columnist and pet writer. She lives in the Boston-area with her three pit bulls and one neurotic cat. |
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I totally agree with you. I brought back a lab/rottweiller mix from Vieques, PR a year ago and we couldn’t be more happier with her. We did have a little bit of trouble getting her off the island due to her size but was worth every minute of it!!!!
Kelly, Using your logic, why then can’t we get some of the over two million pets in our shelters adopted? when thousands are being ethanised on a weekly basis?? Chris V.
My next door neighbor has a dog from Puerto Rico. He acquired it through a shelter in Dudley, MA.
He’s very friendly, black and white, and answers (sort of) to the name “BOB THE DOG”.
Why is it so hard for people to remember that PR is part of the USA!!!???
What goes on there, should affect us all.
Raja and I have met and he has played with some of those street dogs in Puerto Rico on the beach in Condado and Luquillo. They are very gentle and sociable and have good manners.
Kelly,
Thanks so much for writing about Save A Sato. I’m their Passenger Coordinator & Shelter Liaison, and I work with our the Passengers & Partner Shelters to coordinate the pups coming.
Chris – to answer your question – in the Northeast which is primarily where we send Satos, there has been so much progress with spay/neuter that many times the shelters have very few dogs.
They partner with shelters from North Carolina, Kentucky, West Virginia and rescues from Puerto Rico and take the dogs and adopt them to loving families. No rescue dogs are allowed to come to any of the shelters if local dogs are waiting for space, they have priority.
A lot of families go to the shelters wanting small friendly family dogs. Sadly our shelters in the North are full of large dogs, many turned in because their owners never trained them.
The Satos are small, very intelligent family dogs. They each have their own rescue story, some of them are cruelty cases with things we would never see in the states.
Take Kojak – he was born completely hairless, not even eyelashes. Here was a tiny gray innocent hairless puppy,with a love for everyone. Our shelter president was asked to go look for a dog seen running in the woods. While looking for that dog, she came across Kojak – tied to a tree with metal wire – left to die.
It took Gloria months to heal Kojak’s wounds, and no shelter wanted a hairless dog. My local shelter saw his pictures and fell in love. Kojak flew to CT, and I picked him and his Sato cousins up at the airport.
He and his cousins came out of their crates, wagging their tails in happiness, showing us all with kisses. Kojak was the happiest – and within a week he was adopted to an amazing family – who happen to be co-workers of mine.
He’s an amazing boy, who loves to swim, float on a raft with his furry sister (covered in sun screen), and sleep in between the covers with his human Mom & Dad.
Gypsy & Amber are both Satos, and Morgan is a Gato – all from Save A Sato.
If anyone looks at our website – you will see that we do not have a formal shelter like in the USA. But our very small organization does amazing work with very little.
Although I admire your efforts, it has been through my experiences with several rescues, that with the national awareness of puppy mills and shelter overpopulation, there is a growing problem of animal hoarding. People read these ads and many are adopting just out of pity and they have no idea how to cope with the dog’s psycholical needs.
The internet is to blame for the increase in hoarding plus the lack of local laws in regards to providing appropriate conditions and medical help. Just be aware of people who claim they are rescue groups – it has become a difficult issue to resolve because the public has been so ill informed about animal hoarding and they can be easily swayed by claims of good intentions.
or that they are a “sanctuary” or “retirement” home.
There are wonderful reputable rescue groups out there but be aware of those transporting large amounts of animals without having the proper medical and training staff on hand to carefully evaluate each and every one.
This takes alot of time and alot of money and experienced volunteers.
I myself am against bringing any dogs in this country. By doing so, you are just turning your back on the ones suffering here. We need to put that time and effort into getting puppy mills OUTLAWED and to see that each state has a rigid set of dog cruelty laws. We need to care for our OWN animals first and have the best animal care laws into place before we start helping other countries with their problems. please don’t turn your back on them – go to PetFinder and see the thousands of dogs waiting for YOU here!
I am so glad you wrote about Sato’s! I lived in Puerto Rico for 4 years, I was a member of the Newcomers Club of San Juan we supported the The Humane Society in Puerto Rico as it was one of our charities. It was sad to see strays on the street all over Puerto Rico… I will say this while I was there, one rainy morning I woke to see a yellow dog laying in my street and he was just laying there- I went out to check him and he was alive- having one dog already I put some food out for him…. for the next two weeks he followed me and my Rhodesian Ridgeback all over on our walks, staying a bit behind but always there, I told my husband we should take him to the shelter…. but the next day as I was driving down the hill by my home, I saw that yellow dog, and he was behind my truck, running and he had the biggest smile on his face, and he came up to me when I parked, at that moment my husband and I decided we would keep this dog, we named him Buck, cleaned him up, HE loved his bath, then took him to the vet who gave him all his shots, checked him out, and dewormed him- Buck had lots of cuts and a old fracture that healed in a crooked way but we gave him lots of love, care and he has turned into the best and smartest dog ever! He has a personality that is unbelieveable- I swear he must be part human! He loves me unconditionally and he is so gentle with my family…he is part yellow lab, shari pei and pit bull…. but he is 100% mine! I will always look at a shelter first for a new member of my family, and this Sato was Saved!!!
Buck is now in Texas with our family and he is now 6 years old, he loves his texas home, his first few days here he chased his first bunny, and got to play in the snow! He is all boy! and we love him
Toni
saphiresmom@aol.com
Lyn,
“Transporting large amounts of animals without having the proper medical and training staff on hand to carefully evaluate each and every one.
This takes alot of time and alot of money and experienced volunteers.”
Response: Go to the Save A Sato website and see the Before and After pictures. Many rescues take months to rehabilitate. And each dog is evaluated by our Veterinarians, and Shelter Manager/President, alng with the volunteers.
I myself am against bringing any dogs in this country. By doing so, you are just turning your back on the ones suffering here. We need to put that time and effort into getting puppy mills OUTLAWED and to see that each state has a rigid set of dog cruelty laws. We need to care for our OWN animals first and have the best animal care laws into place before we start helping other countries with their problems. please don’t turn your back on them – go to PetFinder and see the thousands of dogs waiting for YOU here!
Response: You obviously do not understand that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States – it’s no different from sending a dog from New York to Connecticut. If you read my detailed post regarding our Partner Shelters you would see the local dogs have priority over any rescue dogs from anywhere.
Yes the US has a huge problem with puppy mills – and we are all working very hard to have them outlawed.
Toni,
Congrats and Thank You for saving a Sato! They are truly special dogs!
My parents each had their own dogs, they were Satos, very loyal and protective of my parents.
I lived in Puerto Rico for 2 years and lost count of how many stray dogs I saw, and very sadly how many did not make it and find a family. The problems over there are bigger than anywhere else I have lived. I was lucky enough to have one of these strays find me and my little brown mutt is the most loyal, energetic and love bunny dog – and he knows he was lucky to be saved by us. We shipped him back to the mainland when we moved to Seattle after only having him for 2 months and he adjusted wonderfully. The Save a Sato charity does wonderful work and these dogs make the best pets.
I am of Puerto Rican ethnicity (BTW, Puerto Rico IS a territory of the US, meaning residents ARE US CITIZENS) and during my first visit to San Juan as a kid, I befriended a Sato. I stayed in Old San Juan for about 2 weeks and he would come by every day, faithfully, waiting for me to bring him my daily scraps.
The day we left Old San Juan, I cried because I knew I would never see that poor sato again. I took a picture of him and whenever I look at it, I can’t help but feel deep sadness that I couldn’t save him. Seventeen years after I first met that sato, I can’t help but wonder what ever happened to him.
I am so happy to hear there are rescue groups helping save these poor dogs and offering them a better life within the continental US. I haven’t visited PR in many years but the next time I go back to my mother’s land, I will make sure to look up this rescue group and help save the life of another beautiful dog.
Wow, thanks for the intelligent responses! I’m surprised so many know about the SATO’s. I can see everyone’s point here. I totally understand the feeling that we should be helping the shelter dogs here but I think Donna explained it well. To answer Chris, I think, fair or unfair, that SATOs have a very good chance of being adopted because of their mystique and because they tend to be very adoptable dogs. Trust me, I hate our continued rate of killing animals (Pit Bulls are the highest and I am a big Pit Bull advocate) but I think the problem is our inability to produce more no-kill shelters which is a separate issue as is puppy mills, which, of course, we need to close down. Thanks for the great discussion!
I think that there is plenty of help to go around and plenty of issues to address. Puerto Rico needs help as do many other ‘backwards’ localities. I volunteer locally but am more than happy to share my efforts. This is the feedback that I have received from my friends in Puerto Rico – and keep in mind, black dogs in particular are despised: “At present, their are 200,000+ dogs roaming the streets and triple the amount of cats (this doesn’t include the other animals who have been abandoned like horses that wander the highways in search of food/water, or the ones who have been hit by cars laying in ditches rotting away). Broken limbs and open wounds, swollen and festering with fly larvae, dogs with their intestines hanging out of their bodies, puppies/kittens who have been placed in garbage bags because the owners of the female didn’t want to bother with them and disposed of them by tossing them on the beaches to die while melting in the sweltering heat because they are to small and can’t escape; skeletons of animals who have either been thrown from moving cars on the side of the highway, or tied to trees and left to die. Animals being abused by store owners because they animals are so hungry they constantly get into the locals garbage’s and so thirst it makes you want to cry. They are poisoned, beaten, shot at, killed just because they are roaming the streets; people actually go out of their way to try and run them over and the people that try and help these animals are being run off the island and threatened with their own lives. The police laugh and think all of it is funny and do nothing; they actually turn their backs and walk away. The two year anniversary of the Barceloneta massacre just passed a few weeks ago where a company called Animal Control solutions was hired by the Government to go into homes of “housing projects” over a 3 day stint and ripped 86? animals from their homes while their owners watched and could do nothing. They dragged, beat, kicked and drugged these animals (with any drug they had available), throwing them into the backs of trucks. They were supposed to go to a local Shelter to be put down, humanely (why they weren’t put up for adoption is beyond any of us). Instead, Animal Control Solutions took them and tossed every single one of them over a 50 foot bridge into a dried up stream to their deaths! Approximately 6 of these animals survived, but the ones who didn’t were buried by dirt with a bulldozer. The Government of Puerto Rico’s excuse to the world, was they didn’t “THINK” those housing projects were allowed to have pets….. Reports are now stating that this very same inhumane act has been on going for years and years.” Ok, you tell me it’s ok to turn your back on this. At the very least, we need to get these animals some right and get the government of PR some humanity. Thank you.
This is the mentality of people who live in Puerto Rico and the Government is doing nothing about this problem; they don’t give two shits (sorry) and continue to let these types of inhumane acts go on, so in all actuality, the Government is condoning such acts. The idea of “Vet’s without Borders” will never fly their. Vet’s are threatened to loose their licenses and practices if they even shutter words such as “I’m willing to help any rescue group”. And if they do help and the word gets out, they are out of a job!! The board of Vet’s and the College of Vet’s banned any and all help from America, not allowing ANYONE to come into Puerto Rico to preform Vet services like sterilization (spay/neuter) for FREE; this time was to be DONATED and they STILL banned it!! Any vet that wants to come and practice in Puerto Rico, MUST be licensed in Puerto Rico; yet a normal Doctor or anyone of any other profession, does not need to be certified to practice/work in Puerto Rico. How does that work?
In this blog, you will read that not only does Puerto Rico have a 90+% euthanasia rate, but that an organization “Oficina Executive de Control Animal (OECA Executive Office of Animal Control) has been established; due to very little funding, the program hasn’t really taken off yet. This is a bunch of BS; Jeannie has personally been to meetings of theirs and the money allocated for this program is spent on things like fancy breakfasts for the people in attendance and they are just as bad as the people who through those helpless animals off that bridge. Also, it states that local groups have been doing their part at trying to get these animals the heck out of their and in fact, some have done just that; however, the majority of those same groups she speaks of have in fact turned out to be hoarders and aren’t what they promote themselves to be
Lisa:
Wow, what a lot of great (and very sad) information. It’s an interesting point re: this is how much of the country thinks about animals, sort of like many of the Amish seem to think of pets as livestock. How do we change the views of a country that doesn’t respect pets? Is it our “right” to do so? Or is it just their “way?” Since we advocate for the safety and well-being for children worldwide, I don’t see why we shouldn’t do the same for animals.
I wish more people thought about horses, too, as to me they hold the same status of a dog or cat. If you’ve ever had a faithful horse, you know what I’m talking about. And how I wish we would regulate livestock in our country, too, so they could have decent, healthy lives and, if we continue to use them for meat, at least have quick and painless deaths. O.K., off the soapbox now.
- Kel