Pura Vida Perros

03/11/2020

For (por/Para) and Since (desde)
Watch the video:)

14/12/2015

This past Saturday we helped organize the Nosara Animal Care Spay and Neuter clinic in Ostional. We made sure to teach an animal welfare class on Monday--hanging flyers all throughout the community and sending the children home with informational handouts. On Friday, we walked door to door throughout Ostional, talking to local families and advertising the upcoming clinic. We received a lot of quiet nods from the adults as we thanked them for considering to use our low cost spay and neuter service. We had a Christmas tree with small gifts intended for the children who brought their pets to the clinic...

Despite our best efforts, only 10 animals arrived at the clinic--compared to the usual turnout in other surrounding communities of about 30 to 60 animals. I left the clinic feeling a bit defeated, confused and most of all, humbled.

Improving general animal welfare and encouraging responsible pet ownership and compassion for animals will not happen over night...and probably will take years before community behavior change occurs. I had the highest hopes that an educational class, coupled with door to door community engagement would surely guarantee a huge turnout at the clinic, but I was clearly a little too ambitious in my expectations.

In spite of the low turnout, I will say that the owners of the dogs and cats that attended the clinic were extremely loving and attentive as their pets were operated on and slowly came out of the anesthesia. The owners anxiously awaited their pets safe recovery and reviewed our post-op medical directions with care. They brought wheel barrows and blankets to transport their groggy animals back to their homes. These 10 people offered a glimmer of hope that slowly but surely, a greater level of animal welfare can be achieved.

Some people might say that this is a huge undertaking...trust me...all of us at Pura Vida Perros and Nosara Animal Care know that it is. But we are not ready to give up and say that it is an impossible cause. At the end of the day, 10 dogs and cats is better than none.

14/12/2015

Hard at work getting the local community building ready for the Nosara Animal Care spay and neuter clinic

09/12/2015

15/08/2015

Today, while conducting a dog population survey in Ostional, Costa Rica, we came across this sick little pup. She was covered in fleas, ticks and mud and was visibly underweight. Although the Ostional Pura Vida Perros project is challenging, we are constantly reminded by cases like this of how important it is to educate the community about proper animal care and help guide the creation of a community developed sustainable solution to the Ostional animal welfare issue.

09/08/2015

First off, I would like to thank everyone for “Liking” the Pura Vida Perros page. I have been living in Costa Rica for two weeks and things are finally starting to get off the ground in terms of achieving some initial goals of the Ostional Pura Vida Perros project! It is definitely an extremely humbling experience when starting a new project—I have realized how important it is to have PATIENCE and take the time to establish a strong foundation for the project to build from.

Last week, we had our first “official” team meeting and established our first goal of the Pura Vida Perros project: conducting a census of the animal welfare situation in the Ostional community. Over the next week we plan to go to each home in the community and ask: how many dogs/cats the family owns, the physical condition of the animals, whether or not the animals are spayed/neutered and whether the family would be interested in attending our first Pura Vida Perros meeting to discuss the animal welfare problems in the community.

Although the task ahead might seem arduous and excessive, the Pura Vida Perros program is centered on building strong in-person connections with the community and making sure that each community member’s voice is heard. This coming week, PATIENCE is a virtue.

04/08/2015

Welcome to the Pura Vida Perros page! Pura Vida Perros is in its initial stages so please bear with me! There is a lot in the works right now so stay tuned and spread the word about the Ostional, Costa Rica project!

This page will keep you updated on everything that is going on in the Ostional street dog project. I am working in partnership with the amazing Nosara Animal Care and some extremely dedicated Ostional locals to try to improve the street dog issues in Ostional, Costa Rica!
Thank you for your support:)