Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Man's Best Friends

"100,000" is a documentary focusing on a confounding problem in Puerto Rico: stray dogs. The title indicates the number of estimated stray dogs on the island, notice it doesn't even include the population of stray cats. As I recently decided to adopt a dog, I've been calling and gathering information on animal shelters. Unbeknownst to me, the island has such an overwhelming amount of stray animals, several organizations have sprung up to help them find a home in the U.S. Island Dogs and Save a Sato are two such organizations on the island which provide adoption assistance. Amigos de los Animales even helps tourists bring a pet back home should they encounter one while vacationing on the island.

For those who are not interested in adopting a pet, you can still help. According to its Website, Save a Sato is currently looking for people who are flying from San Juan to New York, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, amongst other U.S cities, to help them escort dogs. In addition, most of these organizations also accept donations. If you are on the island and are looking for the nearest animal shelter, click here. When I decided that I wanted a dog, I was debating on whether to buy one from a breeder or adopt one. After searching for information on adoption, and found out about Dead Dog Beach, I immediately decided on the latter option. Sadly, of the estimated 500 million dogs in the world, 75% are strays.

(The image above was obtained from www.100000movie.com).

1 comment:

reinaldo said...

Hola Adriana
El problema de los perros satos lleva muchimos a~os, desde que yo era peque~o. Siempre he dicho que la mejor opcion es poner esos animales a dormir.Las personas en Puerto Rico que tienen perro de raza no quiere un perro sato de la calle como su mascota