Save All Species on The Galapagos Islands

In a large deployment of volunteers, equipment and supplies, a team of 16 Animal Balance volunteers arrived in Galapagos to provide sterilization surgeries in Santa Cruz and Isabela island. Two teams and two simultaneous MASH (Mobile Animal Sterilization Hospital) campaigns on both islands offered 360 surgeries in addition to vaccinations, deworming, general health checks and emergency surgeries.

It is worth highlighting the support and commitment of the Agency for Regulation and Control of Biosafety and Quarantine for Galapagos ABG who are essential participants in all processes related to dogs and cats on the islands. ABG counts on a highly committed staff who made a single team with Animal Balance to get the best results for the islands.

In addition to sterilization surgeries,  Animal Balance vets dealt with special cases such as ‘Princesa’ that had a deep wound in her neck exposing her trachea for having been chained too long. With great skill, the doctors cleaned and stitched the wounds on his neck at the same time as the sterilization surgery. Princess is healing her wounds satisfactorily, receiving many gifts and especially love from all our volunteers. Her caretaker understood that tying her is not the best for her. 

This trip was also the perfect opportunity to present our "Galap-a-bags". Tote bags that replace the plastic ones were created from old t-shirts by our volunteers during the locktime of pandemic. The children were in charge of creating beautiful and fun designs for the bags while learning that Galapagos should be free of plastics.

The funds collected will allow us to strengthen our programs to provide veterinary care, medicines, collar and leashes, and spay/neuter surgeries to dogs and cats of the Galapagos Islands and empower the communities with the necessary tools for a harmonious coexistence among all the species that live in the archipelago.

July 2021

From July 2 to 9, 2021, the volunteers of Animal Balance: Dr. C and JG led a sterilization campaign that offered 107 high-quality surgeries for dogs and cats on the island. Dr. C and JG have been part of several MASH campaigns with Animal Balance, their love for animals and for their profession as well as their commitment to the world community led them to make the decision to come to Galapagos and lead this campaign. Together with local ABG veterinary doctors and technicians, they formed a powerful working group that was able to fix 46 dogs and 61 cats.

Each of these interventions means a new cycle of training and strengthening the knowledge of the ABG team who, in addition, are always keen to learn. Thanks to the support of our donors we can also provide the necessary medical supplies for the execution of the surgeries as well as other expenses related to these activities.

It is vitally important that continuous sterilization campaigns continue until the end of this year. This urgency responds to the effects generated by the closure of activities by the pandemic and which are shown in a clear increase in the population of dogs and cats as well as hundreds of requests for sterilization in the waiting list.

We continue to work, recruit volunteers and organize new interventions for the coming months.