On Thursday May 29, the Akumal Summer Mobile Spay/Neuter Campaign starts up again. For the third year in a row, Jennifer Smith (Turtle Bay Bakery) and Michaela Vargas are running a biweekly program to pick up dogs and cats from Akumal Pueblo and take them for the day to Centro Medico Veterinaria in Playa del Carmen, where they are treated by veterinarians Sandra Valdez Morales and Gali Canul Barceló.
Last summer we sterilized 86 dogs and cats from Akumal. Most were pets brought to us by their owners, but we also rounded up quite a few feral cats — no easy task!
We meet in front of the ball court in the Pueblo at 9am on the first and third Thursday of each month. Owners can bring their cat or dog to be sterilized and the service is free, paid for by donations made by visitors and locals at the Bakery. If owners would like additional services, like vaccines or consults for their pet, they can pay for these services to be done while their pets are at the clinic. We return at 5pm with a carload of sleepy, but no longer baby-making, dogs and cats!
While our primary goal is to spay and neuter as many dogs and cats as we can, we also strive to help educate the public about pet care (feeding, bathing, flea/tick prevention, clean areas for the pets to live, and avoiding chaining their dogs). We have a lot of children who love to come help us and learn about what we are doing.
Appointments are recommended because our car fills up fast, so please call me, text me, or WhatsApp me to save a spot for your pet: Michaela Vargas, 984-119-0856. Keep in mind that dogs and cats shouldn’t have food or water after midnight the night before surgery.
If you want to help out, donations can be brought to the Turtle Bay Bakery. We also need drivers, so if you are interested in helping with a dog and cat run, give me a call! Finally, often we get calls about a litter of kittens or puppies that was abandoned. If you want to try fostering a litter, we’ll set you up with towels, bottles, and formula. It’s a lot of work, but very rewarding!
Spanish Phrase of the Day: No amarre a su perro. = Don’t tie or chain up your dog