OUR MISSION is to provide low cost spaying and neutering of dogs and cats - and to promote the general welfare of animals in the Boquete community and surrounding areas.
Fundacion Amigos de Animales Boquete was started in 2005 to provide low-cost Spay and Neuter Services (Sterilization) to local pets and street animals. We serve the towns of Boquete, Caldera, and Portrerillos - and coordinate closely with humane volunteers in the Volcan and Cerra Punta areas.
While the animals in our region have many needs, sterilization remains our primary focus. We believe the first step to alleviating the suffering of sick, homeless and starving animals is to prevent additional generations from being born.
Veterinarians from Boquete, Potrerillos, Dolega, David, Panama City, Costa Rica and the US help staff our frequent Spay & Neuter clinics. Since our first clinic in June, 2005, over 700 animals have been safely sterilized. Happily, the results of these efforts are already visible in the reduced number of stray animals regularly seen on Boquete's streets.
In addition, our volunteers work closely with local veterinarians to assist in the improvement of local veterinary facilities and services. We also facilitate access to veterinary training in advanced surgical and other techniques.
As the Fundacion de Amigos Animales de Boquete moves toward becoming a general source for local animal services and information on pet problems and care unique to the Panama highlands, we expect this website to play an important part. If you have a question we haven't answered, please contact us and we'll try to incorporate that information or links to it.
Finally, if you like animals and enjoy making a difference, we hope you'll consider joining us in this developing effort. We're an all volunteer organization and have room for lots of different skills and interests. Please contact us for more information.
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
April 2008-March 2009
Our board is composed of citizens of Boquete who have volunteered their services and shown a commitment toward the welfare of the pets in our community. They volunteer their valuable time to assure that our projects and activities are properly supported.
Our current board is as follows:
President: Ruby McKenzie
Vice President: Jakki Champ
Secretary: Judy Sacco
Treasurer: Jennie Allen
Dir. of Animal Services: Ruby McKenzie
Dir. of Media: Fran Hogan
Dir. of Satellite Communities: Open
Dir. of Community Relations: Carmencita Tedman MacIntyre
Dir. of Education: Open
Dir. of Fundraising & P.R.: Open
Fundacion Amigos de Animales Boquete was started in 2005 to provide low-cost Spay and Neuter Services (Sterilization) to local pets and street animals. We serve the towns of Boquete, Caldera, and Portrerillos - and coordinate closely with humane volunteers in the Volcan and Cerra Punta areas.
While the animals in our region have many needs, sterilization remains our primary focus. We believe the first step to alleviating the suffering of sick, homeless and starving animals is to prevent additional generations from being born.
Veterinarians from Boquete, Potrerillos, Dolega, David, Panama City, Costa Rica and the US help staff our frequent Spay & Neuter clinics. Since our first clinic in June, 2005, over 700 animals have been safely sterilized. Happily, the results of these efforts are already visible in the reduced number of stray animals regularly seen on Boquete's streets.
In addition, our volunteers work closely with local veterinarians to assist in the improvement of local veterinary facilities and services. We also facilitate access to veterinary training in advanced surgical and other techniques.
As the Fundacion de Amigos Animales de Boquete moves toward becoming a general source for local animal services and information on pet problems and care unique to the Panama highlands, we expect this website to play an important part. If you have a question we haven't answered, please contact us and we'll try to incorporate that information or links to it.
Finally, if you like animals and enjoy making a difference, we hope you'll consider joining us in this developing effort. We're an all volunteer organization and have room for lots of different skills and interests. Please contact us for more information.
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
April 2008-March 2009
Our board is composed of citizens of Boquete who have volunteered their services and shown a commitment toward the welfare of the pets in our community. They volunteer their valuable time to assure that our projects and activities are properly supported.
Our current board is as follows:
President: Ruby McKenzie
Vice President: Jakki Champ
Secretary: Judy Sacco
Treasurer: Jennie Allen
Dir. of Animal Services: Ruby McKenzie
Dir. of Media: Fran Hogan
Dir. of Satellite Communities: Open
Dir. of Community Relations: Carmencita Tedman MacIntyre
Dir. of Education: Open
Dir. of Fundraising & P.R.: Open
HOW WE STARTED -- VETERINARY ADVENTURES IN PANAMA
by Judy Sacco
Mocha, my cat, got very sick, so I called the local vet, Chely Castillo. She spoke no English at the time, and I spoke very little Spanish. It’s a long story, but briefly, we took him to David (the big town 30 miles away) to get blood work and X-rays to find out what was wrong with him. Neither Chely nor the vet in David had an X-ray machine, vacutainers for blood, or a blood analyzer. But Chely did have a friend at a local human hospital, so we snuck Mocha into the X-ray suite and spread him out on the table, one of us at each end. I have a nice picture of the bones of my arm. We got the vacutainers at another human hospital and took the blood to the hospital lab. All this took 6 hours of traveling back and forth, but the David vet diagnosed him correctly. It was Erlichia, a rickettsial infection from a tick bite. I gave him antibiotics, and he recovered in two days. The best part of the whole episode was making acquaintance with Chely. She played a big part in the adventures to follow.
I was also feeding a feral cat who kept having kittens. I was determined to get her tame enough so I could catch her and get her fixed. But by the time I accomplished that, I found there were too many problems in getting her sterilized. None of the vets used disposable sutures on the outside, and I would have to remove the stitches. Hardly an option with a wild cat. While I was trying to figure out what to do, she had another litter. I could see a future drowning in cats.
As things often happen just when they are supposed to, Mary Howard arrived from the U.S. with supplies donated by a vet in Florida. She had a dream of helping the animals of Boquete and upgrading the veterinary services here. She brought syringes, disposable sutures, anesthesia, and even a blood analyzer. At the same time I found Spay/Panama on the web, an organization based in Panama City that goes all over the country doing low-cost spay/neuter clinics. With visions of tidal waves of kittens in my mind, I realized it was time to act. I didn’t know Jennie Allen, but I read in the Bajareque Times that she was an animal lover and dog trainer, so I called her and proposed we use Mary’s supplies and Spay/Panama’s services to do a spay/neuter clinic in Boquete. There were so many street dogs, wild cats, and poor people who couldn’t afford to have their animals sterilized, we knew this was badly needed. So we gathered a small group - me, Jennie, Mary, Chely, and Maria Boyd, animal lover and all-around community doer - and planned the first clinic for June 2005.
We didn’t really know how to do a clinic (our first mistake - deciding to go it alone and not use Spay/Panama). It was chaotic, confusing, and nerve-wracking, but we did manage to sterilize 26 animals, including my wild mama cat and one of her kittens. Three vets did the surgeries, and an American vet tech, Suzanne Gardner, administered the anesthesia. Many volunteers showed up and helped with everything from animal handling to kitten warming. We had no fancy squeeze cages like we do now - my mama cat escaped and was tackled by an animal handler with big gloves. After much enraged yowling and flailing claws, she was subdued by anesthesia, and I took my first breath in 5 hours.
After the first clinic, a dynamic and dedicated volunteer, Ruby McKenzie (who wasn’t daunted by the June clinic chaos), took the lead in organizing subsequent clinics. She donated a lot of her own money for equipment and supplies, making it possible to make the clinics much bigger. She also formed a foundation for fundraising, Fundación Amigos de Animales Boquete (www.fadab.org). We finally brought in Spay/Panama to do a clinic, and they sterilized 165 animals in two days. We were impressed, but we learned well from them; now we do 150 animals in just one day. We have recruited a lot more vets, including several visiting American vets who have brought in drugs and supplies, participated in the surgeries, and provided training in the use of spay hooks and anesthesia. By now we have sterilized more than 1,000 cats and dogs. When you walk around town you rarely see roaming, starving dogs anymore.
Probably the most gratifying trend has been the increased involvement of the local community. Only a couple of Panamanians brought their animals to the first clinic. The rest belonged to gringos (Americans, Europeans, Canadians). After a year, only about 10% of the animals at the clinics belonged to gringos, and a lot of Panamanians had begun working as volunteers.
Nobody is turned away from the clinics for inability to pay, The sterilization expense is covered by generous donations, money we have raised by various events, and time freely given by many volunteers. Most people do pay though, because we charge very little and it is a good deal. Besides sterilization, the animals receive rabies vaccine, de-parasitizing, vitamin shots, and antibiotics.
The clinics have become so popular that Amigos is branching out beyond Boquete and holding clinics in surrounding communities. When I look at what we’ve done, I think it’s pretty amazing how my need to sterilize one prolific cat started it all.
by Judy Sacco
Mocha, my cat, got very sick, so I called the local vet, Chely Castillo. She spoke no English at the time, and I spoke very little Spanish. It’s a long story, but briefly, we took him to David (the big town 30 miles away) to get blood work and X-rays to find out what was wrong with him. Neither Chely nor the vet in David had an X-ray machine, vacutainers for blood, or a blood analyzer. But Chely did have a friend at a local human hospital, so we snuck Mocha into the X-ray suite and spread him out on the table, one of us at each end. I have a nice picture of the bones of my arm. We got the vacutainers at another human hospital and took the blood to the hospital lab. All this took 6 hours of traveling back and forth, but the David vet diagnosed him correctly. It was Erlichia, a rickettsial infection from a tick bite. I gave him antibiotics, and he recovered in two days. The best part of the whole episode was making acquaintance with Chely. She played a big part in the adventures to follow.
I was also feeding a feral cat who kept having kittens. I was determined to get her tame enough so I could catch her and get her fixed. But by the time I accomplished that, I found there were too many problems in getting her sterilized. None of the vets used disposable sutures on the outside, and I would have to remove the stitches. Hardly an option with a wild cat. While I was trying to figure out what to do, she had another litter. I could see a future drowning in cats.
As things often happen just when they are supposed to, Mary Howard arrived from the U.S. with supplies donated by a vet in Florida. She had a dream of helping the animals of Boquete and upgrading the veterinary services here. She brought syringes, disposable sutures, anesthesia, and even a blood analyzer. At the same time I found Spay/Panama on the web, an organization based in Panama City that goes all over the country doing low-cost spay/neuter clinics. With visions of tidal waves of kittens in my mind, I realized it was time to act. I didn’t know Jennie Allen, but I read in the Bajareque Times that she was an animal lover and dog trainer, so I called her and proposed we use Mary’s supplies and Spay/Panama’s services to do a spay/neuter clinic in Boquete. There were so many street dogs, wild cats, and poor people who couldn’t afford to have their animals sterilized, we knew this was badly needed. So we gathered a small group - me, Jennie, Mary, Chely, and Maria Boyd, animal lover and all-around community doer - and planned the first clinic for June 2005.
We didn’t really know how to do a clinic (our first mistake - deciding to go it alone and not use Spay/Panama). It was chaotic, confusing, and nerve-wracking, but we did manage to sterilize 26 animals, including my wild mama cat and one of her kittens. Three vets did the surgeries, and an American vet tech, Suzanne Gardner, administered the anesthesia. Many volunteers showed up and helped with everything from animal handling to kitten warming. We had no fancy squeeze cages like we do now - my mama cat escaped and was tackled by an animal handler with big gloves. After much enraged yowling and flailing claws, she was subdued by anesthesia, and I took my first breath in 5 hours.
After the first clinic, a dynamic and dedicated volunteer, Ruby McKenzie (who wasn’t daunted by the June clinic chaos), took the lead in organizing subsequent clinics. She donated a lot of her own money for equipment and supplies, making it possible to make the clinics much bigger. She also formed a foundation for fundraising, Fundación Amigos de Animales Boquete (www.fadab.org). We finally brought in Spay/Panama to do a clinic, and they sterilized 165 animals in two days. We were impressed, but we learned well from them; now we do 150 animals in just one day. We have recruited a lot more vets, including several visiting American vets who have brought in drugs and supplies, participated in the surgeries, and provided training in the use of spay hooks and anesthesia. By now we have sterilized more than 1,000 cats and dogs. When you walk around town you rarely see roaming, starving dogs anymore.
Probably the most gratifying trend has been the increased involvement of the local community. Only a couple of Panamanians brought their animals to the first clinic. The rest belonged to gringos (Americans, Europeans, Canadians). After a year, only about 10% of the animals at the clinics belonged to gringos, and a lot of Panamanians had begun working as volunteers.
Nobody is turned away from the clinics for inability to pay, The sterilization expense is covered by generous donations, money we have raised by various events, and time freely given by many volunteers. Most people do pay though, because we charge very little and it is a good deal. Besides sterilization, the animals receive rabies vaccine, de-parasitizing, vitamin shots, and antibiotics.
The clinics have become so popular that Amigos is branching out beyond Boquete and holding clinics in surrounding communities. When I look at what we’ve done, I think it’s pretty amazing how my need to sterilize one prolific cat started it all.
Cat's Motto: No matter what you've done wrong, always try to make it look like the dog did it.
-- Unknown
-- Unknown
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |