Spay Panama visits Santiago

Spay Panama in Santiago de Veraguas
article and photos by Spay Panama

In February 2008, a sister organization received an email of a person that had visited her family in Santiago and was disturbed with the many emaciated and sickly looking animals. The email was forwarded to Spay/Panama and we added the place to our long list of pending projects (Santiago is located 4 hours away from us). The good news is that D. Reuben and the MRF surprised us with a generous grant in May 2008, which allowed us to take on several projects, including this one.

No time was lost. We wrote to Piera (the person who wrote the email) and she gave us her cousin's cellphone. We contacted the extension of the University of Panama in Santiago. Professors Carlos, Lubianka and Sara open the doors and smooth the coordination because they too realized the animal plight. On May 23, 2008, Dr. Rene, Dr. Augusto, Anibal and Pat visited the University installations and selected the biology classroom as the operating area.

The interest of the people of Santiago was incredible. We were informed that 25 students from Santiago were volunteering.

On Friday, June 27, 2008, all the surgical supplies and equipment were transported. We met with the volunteer students to talk about the mission, objectives and plan of actions.

In addition to the volunteer students from Santiago, we had six volunteer students from the Veterinary School in Panama.

Dr. Isis Johnson-Brown and her assistant Tammy Shelby flew to Panama, at their own expense, to join us.

On Saturday, June 28, 2008, Dr. René Guajardo, Dr. Andres Tello, Dr. Darrell Gueulette, Dr. Augusto Barragán, and Dr. Isis Johnson-Brown operated.

215 animals were sterilized and treated.

Spay/Panama staff slept in the same operating room and the University provided the meals.

Several staff members of Spay/Panama went to the gas station and while filling the tank, two puppies were rescued. Both were sterilized and fortunately for all, both were adopted on the spot by Professor Lubianka, who adopted "Nina Santi Popcorn" and Aníbal adopted "Santi Red Ortíz", pictured below as she travels to her new home in Panama City.

One dog was euthanized and we had a serious talk with the guardians of the puppy below because the collar had cut into the neck.

lifestyle