Dear Sato Supporter,

My team and I started the new year by rescuing an entire family of mum and pups, and bringing them to safety. It was a wonderful rescue that was caught and recorded live by The Dodo (read below to find the link to watch). As we look ahead to another year, I am more thankful than ever for this wonderful community that makes it possible for us to save lives like these.

Thanks to all of our supporters who helped us reach our end-of-the-year fundraising goal, The Sato Project is continuing to rescue as many dogs as we can. Our first Freedom Flight of 2019 is flying this Saturday with 80 dogs on board - read more below about some of the lucky dogs making their journey to their new lives, and how we're racing to complete their journey before this weekend's snow storm. And we are also in high-gear, getting ready for Round 3 of The Spayathon which starts in just two weeks.

With you in our corner, we know that this busy month is only the beginning of much more progress in the year ahead for the dogs of Puerto Rico.

-- Chrissy Beckles, President and Founder



The calls for help with stray dogs across Puerto Rico continue to flood The Sato Project's social media and email inboxes. All of these desperate please to help abandoned or suffering dogs can often feel overwhelming. The Sato Project does not have its own shelter space, but rather we operate out of limited space within two partner veterinary clinics. Once a space does open up, we fill it very quickly.  Within the past three weeks alone, we took in three moms and their combined 20 puppies. While we are incredibly grateful that we were able take in these families ( click here to watch the live rescue of Parcher and her puppies on The Dodo’s Facebook page), it is hard to not feel disheartened by the constant stream of litters being born in the streets and contributing to the rising number of stray dogs suffering across the island. 

Fortunately, amidst this ongoing battle to turn the tides in the overpopulation crisis, we have a strong source of hope: The Spayathon for Puerto Rico Coalition . We are so grateful to The Humane Society of the United States and all of the 26 coalition members for making this high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter initiative a reality. During the first two rounds of The Spayathon last year, coalition partners spayed/neutered and vaccinated a grand total of 15,572 dogs and cats across the island at no cost to pet owners. We are honored to be a part of this historic initiative that is contributing to permanent change for the people and pets of Puerto Rico. 

Thanks to The Spayathon, not only are thousands of pets receiving vital veterinary care, but millions of unwanted litters are being prevented in the coming years. We can’t wait to continue this work and reach even more pet owners across Puerto Rico.  The Sato Project will be returning to the city of Fajardo to operate a free spay/neuter clinic from February 3-9 . During Round 2 in November, our clinic treated 1,113 animals in one week - we're hoping to top that for Round 3! 

To learn more about The Spayathon for Puerto Rico and read success stories from previous rounds, please visit thesatoproject.org/spayathon . Or, if you are in Puerto Rico and would like to attend the clinic with your pet, please see the image below for a complete list of Round 3 clinic locations across the island. 

The Spayathon for Puerto Rico Round 3 clinics will be taking place across the island February 3-9. See this list above for all clinic locations or click here to visit our Facebook event page for more information on attending one of the clinics with your pet.



These are just a few of the lucky satos scheduled to take their Freedom Flight this Saturday, January 19th.

In partnership with Wings of Rescue, our first 'Freedom Flight' of 2019 will be this Saturday, January 19, with 80 lucky satos on board. As a large swath of the US prepares for Winter Storm Harper, our dedicated team is working around the clock on both sides of the Atlantic to ensure that these 80 pups can make their scheduled flight. We moved up the schedule so the dogs will fly through the night on Friday to hopefully land well ahead of the forecasted snow. Thanks to everyone who donated coats and sweaters in our winter coat drive, every sato will be warm and toasty during their first encounter with the ‘cold white sand,’ as we like to think of it!

We are excited to share that 43 of the dogs on this flight will be from  Santuario de Animales San Francisco, an animal sanctuary on the west side of the island that we have partnered with previously. Santuario de Animales San Francisco suffered severe damage from Hurricane Maria and is still in the process of rebuilding. They recently hosted a delegation from the Nashville Humane Association, who offered to take the 43 dogs into their shelter and find them new loving homes on the mainland. However, in order to do this, they needed help getting them off the island to Tennessee. We didn’t hesitate to step in and lend a helping hand to fly these lucky dogs to new lives. One of the special satos flying this weekend has been living in the Sanctuario de Animales San Francisco shelter for nine years, patiently waiting for his chance for a new life. It brings us so much joy to be able to help give this dog, and all of the others, a chance at the lives they deserve.

The remaining 37 dogs on the plane will all be dogs from The Sato Project. They will be a mix of puppies, adult dogs, and several seniors. Many of them will be going straight into the arms of their new forever families as soon as they land in New Jersey. The others will go into our foster network until they too find the families of their dreams. To see some of the satos who are still adoptable, please visit: bit.ly/adoptasato or click on the image above. 

Bee (left) and Bella (right) show off their starting line-up bandanas. Both pups will be representing The Sato Project and competing for MVP during The Puppy Bowl XV on February 3rd .

Animal Planet’s The Puppy Bowl is back! We are so excited to be participating for the eighth year in a row. This year is extra special for us though because ‘Ruferee’ Dan Schachner and a team from Animal Planet traveled to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria to aide in our efforts. We are looking forward to sharing more about this and all six of our pups who will be participating in this year’s big game. We will even have a very special sato competing in the Dog Bowl! Stay tuned for more on all of our latest sato superstars. In the mean time, mark your calendars for February 3rd. You can also learn more about The Puppy Bowl and see all the pups who got selected for the starting line-up by clicking here.

From surviving Hurricane Maria (left), to being featured in People Magazine (center), to getting spoiled with lots of Christmas presents (right): Roscoe (now renamed Loco) is finally living his dream life.

In the early spring of last year, a FEMA worker doing Hurricane Maria recovery work approached us with a small hurricane survivor he had found in rough shape. Roscoe was completely missing fur on some areas of his body and what fur he did have was very dirty and matted. But after some good food and love, his health began to improve and his personality started to shine.

Meanwhile, Judi found out about The Sato Project from friends on social media. A few of her friends had adopted puppies and she enjoyed reading our ‘success stories.’ So when she and her husband decided they were ready for a new family member, they went to our website, saw a picture of Roscoe, and decided that they wanted to make him theirs. Ever since, it has been an adventure of getting to know each other. At first, they had a hard time communicating but soon discovered that he was trained in Spanish. That discovery was a game-changer. He also wasn't responding to the name of ‘Roscoe’ so after a month of trying different names, 'Loco' stuck. And Judi says, “It fits him perfectly.” 

Judi says he is still in the process of fully settling in, but they are doing everything they can to help him get more comfortable with his new life, which sounds pretty comfortable. Loco now spends most of his time snuggling in soft, fluffy blankets, walking, shopping at local retail stores, and playing with his many new Christmas toys. He has also claimed one of the living room chairs as “his.” If anyone dares to sit in it, he is not afraid to politely let them know that they are in the wrong seat.

Congratulations to Loco on achieving his very own success story and finally getting the life he deserves, far away from the streets of hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico.

Loco likes to sneak into the front seat of his parents' car while they load the trunk. He can't help himself. Car rides are his favorite activity.

The Sato Project is a 501(c)3 organization and relies entirely on tax-deductible donations for our operations.

"We fight so the dogs of Puerto Rico don't have to."