VIDAS www.vidas.org
This is a wonderful group of veterinarians from the US which does spay/neuter campaigns in Mexico, usually in places where there veterinary care is not available. We had invited them to work in Cozumel for quite a while, and finally we had our first Cozumel VIDAS spay/neuter clinic in June 2007. It went so well that we all decided to do it every year. The story and results for the 2008 clinic are here….
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The International Fund for Animal Welfare, an important and recognized worldwide organization, invited us to sign an agreement of collaboration with them, which we did in September 2008. This commitment is for one year, and to be renewed if both parts agree to do so.
With this important backing, we are launching our most ambitious project yet: a free spay/neuter campaign with a goal of 2,000 animals sterilized in 2009. The long term goal is to do increasingly more pets as we gain campaign speed, and cover 15,000 animals in a period of 3 to 5 years, which equates to roughly 70% of the total estimated dog and cat population of the island. If and when we reach that goal, Cozumel will be the first municipality in the country where dog and cat overpopulation will be controlled solely by the prevention of litters, and not by extermination.
Imagine our island free from the horror of having healthy pets killed, just because there were too many. We want to change the history of animal control in Cozumel, and set a precedent for other communities to follow.