Puerto Rico

See the powerful video from the latest visit!

Puerto Rico:  a stunningly beautiful island with perfect weather.  Wonderful, welcoming people and a great vacation spot.  However, Puerto Rico also has a 95% euthanasia rate.  That means that at the best shelter in Puerto Rico, they take in 120 animals a day, and the manager has to pick only 3 of them who will live.  In March 2008, an article in the NY Times documents the scrutiny over some inhumane animal treatment after some horrific stories surfaced of inhumane disposal of animals in Puerto Rico the prior year.  We will not go into those stories, but the methods of euthanasia and disposal of bodies was hard to read about.  There is also Dead Dog Beach in Puerto Rico, where pet owners often dump unwanted animals.  “According to animal welfare advocates, thousands of dogs have wound up there in the last decade.”   We were contacted in 2008 to help Puerto Rico to increase their adoptions.  We had to help. 

Humane Society International (“HSI”) sponsored a workshop in San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 7, 2008.  Jessica Higgins with HSI and Elizabeth Kracht with Amigos de los Animales in Puerto Rico were instrumental to our stay.  They were both helpful and very insightful on the conditions facing Puerto Rico.  The workshop was on Adoptions and Shelter Care.  Mike Arms spoke on increasing adoption rates.  The workers from the shelters and others in attendance were so compassionate and looking for help to enhance the quality of life for the animals of Puerto Rico. 

At the conference, Mike motivated and moved the crowd.  And then he gave them guidance on how to start making things different.  It is not enough to love animals and give them our hearts.  Of course, they have our hearts.  What they need is our brains and business minds to market, merchandise and put in revenue generating programs.  We all need money to save lives, and it takes hard work and creativity to bring in the money.  But the animals need us to save them.  We gave them tips to get the money to fulfill their dreams.  Public relations tips, branding, promotion tips, variable pricing, wage and salary advice, strategic plans, educational programs, day camps, use of media, direct mail marketing, and increasing the public perception of what you do and that your services have value.  Puerto Rico’s problems were not unique.  The United States went through the same issues sixty years ago and it has advanced.  Puerto Rico needs to start with their children.  Arguments that were brought up at the conference of how and why these techniques won’t work are arguments Mike has heard for years.  The industry has operated with these naysayers for 100 years.  Mike offered hope, and the realization that change needs to happen now.  If not, the situation will be the same 100 years from now.   

On the second day we traveled to two shelters on the island.  We saw intake rooms packed with animals, of which only a few would make it to the adoption rooms.  We saw these beautiful cats and dogs, so adoptable, and it was sad.  What a hard choice they make each day.  How do they get up each morning and look forward to each day?  Why do they go to work when they know they’ll spend the day killing?  They do it for the three, the three of 120 that get to live.  We toured the shelters and gave advice on marketing, business operations, merchandising animals, educating the public, valuing employees, Board member roles and responsibilities and how running their organizations as a business will save more lives.  We offered suggestions to better the image they promote to the public.  We gave them a picture of the value of the difficult work they do each day, and gave them hope that things could change one day at a time. 

We plan to go back in late 2009 or early 2010 to give more specific training and resources; it was hard to give enough information in just two days.