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Sociedad Protectora de Animales de Yucatan (SPAY) held a spay/neuter clinic in Akumal Pueblo on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18, 2008. Sponsored by the Centro Ecologico Akumal (CEA), the clinic was held in conjunction with the municipality of Soladaridad, and provided free spay or neuter services to the residents of the pueblo of Akumal and surrounding areas. Vaccines were also administered free of charge with the surgery, or for animals already altered, for $50 pesos.
The clinic was held at the secondary school in Akumal, and the turnout was gratifying. Saturday was a bright, hot, sunny day and the crew arrived early in the morning to set up and get ready for the day. Scheduled to start at 9:00 am, there was a line forming outside the gate to the play area by 8:45. Entire families accompanied their pets, mostly dogs, and were very interested in what would be taking place that day with their pet. On Saturday, 54 animals were admitted, with about 50 surgeries. The majority of the clients were dogs, but there were a number of cats brought in from some women in Playa del Carmen who volunteer with an animal rescue group there, Peanuts. Several litters of kittens were also received from the local community, some too young to have surgery. Foster homes were found for all, and there are some lucky kittens and people in Akumal.
Sunday was also a very busy day, but a lot of the people who brought their pets on Sunday were there just for the vaccines. By the end of the day on Sunday, we had registered 100 animals, and had about 30 surgeries on Sunday, with the remainder of the animals receiving vaccines only. Many of the local residents told us that they look forward to the clinics so that they can bring their pets in for their shots.
SPAY’s mission of education and awareness, in conjunction with helping to reduce the pet population in the Yucatan, is beginning to show results. Many of the dogs and cats brought in for vaccines only were former patients of previous clinics, where they had been spayed or neutered, and the owners given information and instructions on the importance of preventive health maintenance for their pets.
The vet team was led by Dra. Sandra Valdez, who works at the perrera in Playa del Carmen, and six other vets from the University of Merida. A dedicated team of volunteers also helped out: Rocio Cue and Maggie McKown handled intake and registration; Jennifer Smith assisted in the surgery room, with the recovery room directed by Mimi Babcock and shots administered by Sandy Strauch, and Sherwood Anders playing the role of runner/gopher/delivery person. Tamara Monster, Tami Nicolle, Amy Collora, Heather Froming, and Cheryl and Donny Hall also helped out with putting crates together, getting animals registered and into crates, transporting animals from intake to prep to surgery to recovery. They also cared for the animals in recovery, removing ticks and administering flea/tick prevention medication. On Sunday, we were brought several litters of kittens under six weeks of age. Lorinda Campbell is now fostering five kittens and Mimi and Jonna have adopted one. Bart Smith served as chauffeur, delivery man, messenger boy and Jack of All Trades for the clinic, and as always, we got a lot of help from Abed and Pee Wee.
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