By Charlotte Morrish | Project Leader/Volunteer
Our fundraising project is still in the early stages and we have a long way to go to raise the necessary funds to stabilise our financial position, but we are very grateful to everyone who has donated so far - it all helps to enable us to continue our efforts to rescue and rehome as many unwanted cats and dogs as possible. Since June we have taken in 163 animals and spayed/neutered 200 animals - the numbers keep growing each day and your support is vital to our work!
The past few months have brought new challenges in the form of storms and flooding, which have necessitated further financial expenditure on prevention and relief efforts. The island of Grand Cayman, where the shelter is based, is extremely flat and is subject to the Atlantic Hurricane Season between June-December every year. The shelter itself is located in a low-lying area and is very prone to flooding. We use floodgates and sandbags, and have measures in place to relocate animals to the upper floors of the building, or to evacuate into short-term foster homes if possible. The flooding is costly - it impacts shelter operations and requires resources and materials to mitigate the damage and ensure the building is made safe and habitable again for the animals and our staff. On the positive side, some of our animals who went into emergency foster homes when the shelter was evacuated ended up being adopted! We are very fortunate that the Cayman community have rallied round to help in the lead up and aftermath of the storms.
We have also had a number of animals surrendered to us recently who have been subjected to severe neglect or abuse, requiring specialist and prolonged treatment. Fisher was brought in by a concerned member of the public, severely malnourished and in a terrible state with serious wounds - he is safe now and being looked after, and is slowly getting stronger by the day! Toffee Pudding was found at just 22 weeks old with horrendous neck wounds where she had been tied up using a piece of metal wiring - she required extensive surgery and her wounds are now healing well under the care of our clinic team. Just last week. one year old Winifred was dumped at the shelter whilst still in labour - she gave birth to six pups before staff found her and a further two pups with the care of our team; thankfully all are doing well but we now have an extra nine dogs in our care.
Sadly, cases like these are a frequent occurrence for us and we are constantly inundated with unwanted litters, which is why we so desperately need more funding to increase our spay and neuter programme. Some of these cases have been widely publicised on the Island which has the positive effect of highlighting the prevalence of poor animal welfare, and the need for responsible pet ownership. We hope that the community will therefore demand stricter laws and enforcement as we continue our efforts to increase awareness of animal welfare issues across the Islands.
Thank you very much to all of our donors who have supported via GlobalGiving - we could not continue our work without you!
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