History

Amigos de los Animales… Friends of the Animals… this is the name we’ve chosen to identify all of us here on Isla Mujeres who are exactly that. Molly Fisher and Genevieve Pritchard first gave the group that name in March of 2000 when they began protesting the local government’s approach to animal control. At the time, the city method consisted of either capturing any dog found in the street that was easy to grab and taking them to be immediately executed, or scattering poisoned meat in the neighborhoods for any unsuspecting animal to eat and then die a horrible death.

When their Molly and Genevieve’s five month old puppy named Jordi disappeared they looked for him for a week, putting up signs and even offering an award for his return. Finally a secretary in the government office told them to put their ‘reward’ signs away and look for Jordi’s body in the common grave of the town dump. Outraged they began asking everyone they knew about this practice and how common it was and were amazed to find out that nearly everyone they spoke with had either first or second hand experience with loosing a pet to this system. Fortunately they recognized that their anger wouldn’t solve anything and to make any sort of real change they would have to attack the root of the problem. Thus, the concept many refer to as “the animal project” was born.

As luck would have it, at this very same period of time, Dr. Delfino Guevarra had decided to make his home on Isla Mujeres. This was an important element since before his arrival there were no consistent vet services on the island (only a vet who visited one day a week from Cancun). Dr. Delfino proved to be a godsend and began treating all of the random strays that had begun to find a home in the bookstore that Molly and Genevieve owned. Dr. Delfino’s heart pushed him to help those who needed it most and his low cost clinic was established. The first years were rough as there were very few clients accustomed to paying for animal care and only meager donations being offered through the bookstore to help compensate. With perseverance Dr. Delfino has grown his clinic into a busy place.

However, with the growth of any project comes problems, and in 2001 it was what to do with all the animals that were being fostered in the bookstore, Dr. Delfino’s office, and various people’s houses. As locals became aware of the opportunity to take their unwanted puppies and kittens somewhere other than the dump, South Point of the island or the bottom of the ocean, they began showing up in droves. The bookstore was disgusting, it didn’t even have running water, and something had to be done.

Enter Alison and the creation of “Puppy Camp”. Never have we seen a love for dogs like that of Alison Current. She joyfully opened her beautiful home on North Beach to these adorable fluff balls that are bundles of joy half the time and bundles of poop and pee the other half. Initially she and her husband Jeff agreed to foster litters of puppies until they were old enough to put up for adoption, however, the numbers of litters grew and they gracefully adapted their home to accommodate these pups in need. Keeping on top of these growing dogs became a monumental task. The original idea was to combine forces with the bookstore, showcasing the dogs there during the day and housing them at Alison’s at night. However, as was inevitable, some of the dogs reached adulthood without finding homes and “Puppy Camp” became a whole new place. At the same time, full grown dogs in need of a home began showing up at the gates and Alison lovingly accepted every one of them, regardless of how mangy or sickly they were, and nursed them to physical and psychological health.

In the meantime, Susan Monger from RAV had brought her medical team down to initiate massive spay/neuter clinics on the island. One member of her team was Consie VonGontard who had been working with a similar situation on the island of Bimini and had become an expert trapper (an invaluable help in controlling the feral population through trap-spay-release method). Between the two of them they were able to put together enough medical teams and supplies to make five return trips to the island. After that in order to maintain population control, Amigos de los Animales teamed up with Dr. Delfino in early 2004 to initiate a weekly Spay Day. The Spay Day is a free spay/neuter service that serves the lowest income households on the island, the trap and release program, and the foster care program.

As you can imagine, though the general situation on Isla Mujeres was getting better, the foster situation at Alison’s was slowly getting out of control and at times she and Jeff had up to 40 dogs living with them, many of which were adults. Then, the worst thing that could happen happened. The bookstore shut its doors and suddenly there was no face to the project, no entry point for donations, no support system to get these animals adopted. Thus, the Dog Gone Foundation became official. Together with Alex West, Alison and Jeff managed to send over 100 dogs to new homes in the Denver, CO area between November 2004 and May 2005. Since then they have continued to send dogs off the island and have many happy photos of island dogs in the snow.

In February of 2006, Dr Delfino moved to Montreal, Canada to marry his long time girl friend Anna. The week before he left we hired a vet from Mexico City but she arrived unexpectedly pregnant and left after two weeks. Luckily we then found Dr. Pepe Vega who was volunteering in Cancun at the time and agreed to come to the island clinic and work. He and his father had opened a clinic in Monterey and he was looking for a site for his next clinic.

Unfortunately the transition from Delfino to Pepe was a difficult one: The islanders are often wary of change and stopped bringing in their animals - rumors spread that the clinic was closed – donations that had supported the clinic for many years went with Delfino for other projects – equipment was sold for back taxes etc etc.

Now, finally Delfino’s Clinica Chipie is closed and Dr. Vega has worked very hard to open a new clinic under his own name. Hopefully we will be able to stay in the same location so it is easy for the islanders to make the change. Dr. Vega is an excellent vet and will continue our weekly spay and neuter program as well as offering Alison animal care for her rescue dogs for as little as possible.

The future of our history remains to be seen.

With your help we can continue to provide these necessary services to the people and the animals of Isla Mujeres.