Mexico
From dogs being thrown off boats out at sea or being beaten, typically in Mexico, authorities will not prosecute offenders. To make matters worse, stray puppies are being born at an unbelievable rate, as it is commonly thought that to neuter a dog is to take away his masculinity.
Due to a lack of food, water and searing heat conditions, the street dogs of Mexico suffer hugely. A common and curable illness, heartworm, is responsible for a large number of unnecessary deaths due to a limited supply of medication in some areas.
How it all began - Our Founder Nikki and Project Partner Gillian
Our partnership with Maya Animal Alliance, founded by Gillian Wood, and which works out of the Wild at Heart Foundation Resource Centre in Mexico, was borne out of meeting in the recovery area at a Puerto Rico mass sterilisation event. Wild at Heart Foundation financed the recovery team, of which Gillian was the Manager.
Our founder, Nikki, knew that Gillian’s dedication to compassionately reducing the world’s stray dog population was one that rarely matched her own. From this first encounter, a powerful partnership was formed and would become the springboard for the inception of our work in Mexico.
Prior to her project partnership with Wild at Heart Foundation, USA-based Gillian has kept an impressive track record of her own, with 25 years’ experience working within New York shelters. From creating programmes that have resulted in the highest save rate for municipal shelters in the USA, to developing recovery protocols that allow mobile veterinarian teams to maximise the number of safe sterilisations they can perform, Gillian’s ethos is one that we proudly align with at Wild at Heart Foundation.
Maya Animal Alliance
In July 2020, when a property became available in Chemuyil, Mexico, Gillian and Nikki jumped at the chance to make their mutual dream a reality. Four months later, Gillian packed her bags and made the 5500km drive from the USA with her four rescue dogs, Rizzo, Tick, Jeffrey and Allie; and the evolution of the Maya Animal Alliance in partnership with the Wild at Heart Foundation Resource Centre began.
Gillian created Maya Animal Alliance to strive to help alleviate the suffering of dogs, witnessed daily in her community in Mexico. Collaborating with other like-minded animal welfare organisations in the area is key to the ethos of the alliance.
The core mission of Maya Animal Alliance is to reduce the suffering of companion animals through humane population reduction, education and resource sharing.
Alliance-wide objectives are also to provide rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming to the USA; along with sterilisation, vaccination and veterinary services to the surrounding community. Other outreach work includes providing food for strays and low-income family owned dogs.
Maya Animal Alliance, in conjunction with their local collaborators, pushed on with their vital work, sterilising, vaccinating and de-worming 220 animals within their first month. With the support of Wild at Heart Foundation, the sterilisation of 517 dogs had been carried out by the end of 2021, with a further 1,633 sterilisations taking place during 2022.
A further achievement with our financial support was the construction of an isolation kennel block, which is hugely important for keeping sick and vulnerable dogs safe in a sterile environment. This is a great development of our work in Mexico; and with the combined energy, compassion, and commitment provided by Nikki and Gillian, Maya Animal Alliance in partnership with the Wild at Heart Foundation Resource Centre will go from strength to strength.
If a regular donation towards a specific project is set up and we subsequently cease to provide support in the future, any recurring donations will be allocated to the areas of our other work requiring the most support.