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"Brenda" is one of those very special animals who is so optimistic and positive that you can't help falling in love with her. That's how the staff at the Bonaire Animal Shelter feels. And when you look at that appealing expression on her face you may feel the same way. Brenda was dumped on a kunuku where the kunuku owners found her. Although they liked her very much they knew they couldn't keep her because of all their other animals. So they brought her to the Shelter. She was covered with ticks and when the staff bathed her and picked off the nasty critters she just stayed still and let them do it. It was like she knew that she must be good and agreeable if she were going to have a bright future. So much wisdom in such a young pup of only about three months, Brenda is one of a kind! She's been examined by the vet, had all her tests and shots and is ready to go. The NAƒ105 adoption fee includes sterilization as well.
Adoptions continue at the Shelter. So far in the first 10 weeks of this year there have been 35 and all of the pets will have been sterilized. (Last year there were 110 adoptions for the entire year.)
LOOKING AHEAD
The Shelter's plan for a massive sterilization program for this fall, October 18 to 30, is progressing nicely. So far, three veterinarians have volunteered to donate their time and expertise to come to the island to perform sterilization operations. Shelter Manager Jurrie Mellema would like to have three more vets. The doctors will get free hotel accommodations, car rental, tanks and dive trips but pay for their own air travel. Three vets will conduct sterilization operations in the morning, three in the afternoon, each vet doing five animals each time, making it 15 operations per day. The target animals are those running loose in the streets that are always going into heat.
Also needed are assistants in the operating room, maybe nurses or "people who are not afraid of blood," says Jurrie. They need volunteers to help bring in the dogs during the two-week operation too.
One of the volunteering vets from Canada has been donating her time every year to sites all over the world where sterilization programs are desperately needed and where she's worked under Spartan conditions. After seeing Bonaire's Shelter and meeting the staff she said to Jurrie, "If you can organize the Shelter the way it is now, you can also organize a sterilization program!" If you can help, call the Shelter at 717-4989 and ask to speak to Jurrie. L.D.
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