So I’m in Puerto Rico for a few days to sign some legal paperwork and help scope out land for a place to build and start up an operation here. Chrissy has been in Puerto Rico for the past two months solid, trying to broker deals and arrangements for us to build an animal sanctuary here. This is really Chrissy’s baby. She has been in PR on and off for five years trying to make a difference. Now, it is about to become a reality. A no-kill sanctuary dedicated not only to saving the lives of the satos (meaning “street dog” in Spanish), but also to try to change the very attitude and care level in Puerto Rico.
It is hard to explain, unless you’ve been here. I know I’ve heard about it for years. People would tell me “oh there are hungry dogs all over the cities there” when they came back from vacation. And Chrissy would of course tell us stories. Stories that would tear your heart apart.

But until you’ve been here it isn’t really describable. It is a general malaise about animals. A general lack of care or concern or application of any worth AT ALL to their lives. Traveling on the highway we passed a pick-up going about 60 with two horses standing in the back of the truck. Just standing there as the pick-up rocketed down the road.
Even people that wanted to proudly show us their horses, showed us tiny stalls, with two feet of past excrement, no water, no sunlight, cement and moldy hay on the floor. And they proudly showed us the horses they loved. It is both depressing and gut wrenching.
So I thought I was prepared to see this, but can any animal lover ever REALLY prepare themselves? Can you love animals and really be ready to see this?
In the mainland U.S. if most of us see a stray dog or a dog running down the highway we would stop. We would at least try to chase them off the road to a safe place, maybe look for a collar or tag to call the owner and the more “activist” ones of us will scoop the dog up, toss them in our brand new cars, take them home, feed and bathe them and then start working the phones (or keep them and try to convince our spouses they “followed us home”).
On my way home from work each day I see an old dog walking down the road. The first time I saw him, I put my blinkers on and pulled over. Turned out he is an old farm dog. Each day he is out checking the farm and then he walks back to the house. He is old and stays to the side of the road and he knows where he is going and what his business is about. I can not tell you though, how often on my way home, I have seen caring people stopped on the side of the road with a leash in hand or a treat, trying to coax him over so they can “help” him.
I think that by and large, this is the norm here. When you all hear of a dog like Patrick, starving and dumped, or a litter of puppies found in the snow in a parking lot, you express outrage and even shock. You can’t believe it.
But in Puerto Rico?
That is all completely the “norm”. No one reacts to it. No one stops to help a starving animal, an animal on the road, or a dog covered in mange, and fleas, or hit by a car. Well. Almost no one. There ARE good people here. Wonderful people like Sandra, Bianca, Iris and others that reach out their hands and open their homes and open their wallets to try to stop it and I don’t know how they are all not drowning in despair and how they go on each day trying to make a difference.
These are the people here helping us. They have heard of us, and what we are trying to do and they are offering us their services, their expertise, their contacts, and they are doing everything they can to help us succeed.
And we have a LOT of support here. The governor’s wife is a huge animal lover. She is trying to help us by giving us land to build our sanctuary and she has helped put us in touch with other people that can help us.
Felix Tito Trinidad is a famous Puerto Rican boxing superstar. Now retired but well loved and admired by the people here. He has committed to helping us as well.
And we have other BIG names backing us. Of course our biggest supporter. Rob and Marisol Thomas. Marisol is Puerto Rican. She has long hated that her own home treats animals this way when she has done so much to help and change their lives for the better. And so they have given us the money to help us get this off the ground and build the sanctuary. And they have powerful and influential friends that want to help too. So I believe, truly believe that we will be able to do this and then make a difference. We will start PSA’s done by famous stars asking the people of Puerto Rico to care about these animals. We will post billboards and advertise to spread our message, and by example, and by educating children in schools, perhaps we can start to change things.
I think that mostly we will change things by giving people another option. We will say COME TO US with your sick dogs. Don’t abandon them or dump them, we will help you. Perhaps if there was something else they could do, they would? Let’s hope.
My husband called me this morning to ask me what Puerto Rico was like. Was it beautiful? I actually paused before answering.
Yes. Actually. It is very beautiful. The views, the beaches ….yes there is tremendous beauty here.
But I wonder how anyone vacationing here can really enjoy their vacation. I know I could not. The dogs covered with mange, and fleas, and starving and being chased away and kicked at by people, or hotels poisoning them so that people won’t be depressed by them…well that just takes away from the beauty for me. My eyes see the dogs with their eyes pleading for help and I am blinded to the water and the mountains. The dogs are too big, and they block my view of these vistas.
But we are making a difference. A HUGE difference. Hundreds of dogs have already been saved. Yesterday we saved one living in the parking lot of a Walgreens. He would not have survived long if we had left him. He was very sick, but still happy and wagging his tail. We named him Scruffy.
We are making a huge difference here and we will continue to. Will you help us? Will you donate to this cause? Will you come down when we build our sanctuary (that will also be a bed and breakfast) and will you help us with our daily chores and rescue? Will you donate your airline miles to us? Will you sponsor a dog on our website at petsalivepr.org? If you come here for vacation, will you allow us to attach some dogs to your ticket so that we can get some back to the mainland for adoption?
Today we looked at land that the government wants us to consider. It is beautiful. 11 acres with a view of the mountains, just two miles from the river and the beach. It would be a wonderful place to build a sanctuary for these animals and a wonderful place to build a haven of love and a place that provides options for the people of Puerto Rico. A place where they can find help for their animals or a place they can bring them when they can not keep them.
But as you can imagine, accomplishing this all won’t be free. We have great people working with us and wanting to see this happen. Do you realize that it is OUR generation that is changing the world in regards to animals? Look how much has changed in a positive way for animals in the last five years. Look how much more we can do in the next five. WE ARE ALL CHANGING THE WORLD. In OUR lifetime. In OUR generation. YOU are a part of that change.
Will you help US to help them? Because without YOUR support there will not be change here. We can’t fund it any other way. We need your donations and support to change the world. And change the world we will.
YOU are all they have.