Dear Sato Supporter,
When the earthquakes started shaking Puerto Rico, my heart sank thinking of the thousands of lives that would be affected across the island. I desperately wanted to help as many as possible, but knew I could not do it alone. My team and I appealed to our community for help and you responded with an astounding amount of love and support. Together, we have now saved over 250 lives.
I am truly in awe and so proud of everything our #satostrong community has achieved this month. Please keep reading below to learn more.
As Puerto Rico faces yet another natural disaster, my team and I have never been more grateful for this community. Thank you for always being in our corner and for being a voice for the thousands of animals who need us.
In gratitude,
-- Chrissy Beckles, President & Founder
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Over 250 cats and dogs evacuated from earthquake-damaged shelters
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Top row: three satos peer out at our team from their kennels at Ponce Municipal Shelter. Bottom: These satos and over 130 others are loaded into the airplane to take their Freedom Flight to the mainland.
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Over three weeks, two airplanes, and many hours of hard work, we are proud to share that we have now evacuated 256 dogs and cats from the most earthquake-devastated area of Puerto Rico.
These animals included dogs like Crema in the middle kennel photo above. Until this week, Crema was living in the Ponce municipal shelter while earthquakes shook the island every day. This shelter had become overwhelmed with surrendered animals and was forced to close its doors after sustaining damage. Once they managed to reopen, the dogs and cats kept pouring in.
The Sato Project team was heartbroken that another natural disaster was on the verge of destroying thousands more lives. We wanted to step in to help. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our supporters and partners, and the steadfast determination of our small but mighty team, we are proud to say that we did.
We pulled over 250 animals like Crema from three different shelters near the epicenter of the earthquake crisis. First, on January 19th, (only five days after the biggest earthquake in 100 years shook the island) 116 animals flew from Puerto Rico to the East Coast. And last Sunday, February 9th, we completed a second evacuation flight of 140 more dogs and cats.
All these 256 animals are now safe, sleeping in cozy beds, and are far away from the overcrowded, earthquake-damaged shelters that they came from.
Most have even already found their forever families.
We could not have saved any of these lives without the support of our donors, partners, volunteers, or community.
We are eternally grateful for every person and organization who stepped up to help us achieve these live-saving missions.
The earthquakes are still ongoing in Puerto Rico and still disrupting lives.
But for now, this community can rest assured that we did make a difference - not only in these 256 lives, but also for the many families in crisis who had to surrender their pets, to the families who adopted them, and to the animals in crisis who will be able to take their place in the cleared shelter space they left behind.
We would like to say a special thank you Wings of Rescue and GreaterGood.org for being our incredible Freedom Flight partners; and to Tito's Handmade Vodka, Moroccanoil, and Tracy and Andy Warren for providing our generous $30k match donation that helped us raise the much-needed funds to cover the transportation costs. Both evacuation missions would also not have been possible without our shelter partners on the mainland who stepped up to take in our sato and gato survivors: Humane Society of Broward County (FL), Brandywine Valley SPCA (DE/PA), St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center (NJ), Bideawee (NY), and Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland (ME).
Thank you for being in this fight with us and helping to save over 250 lives in only three weeks.
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News Spreads About Our Efforts
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We are always grateful when news spreads about our rescue efforts. The more people who know about the crises on the ground in Puerto Rico, especially after natural disasters, the more people can help. We are honored that our recent efforts to save dogs and cats from the most earthquake-devastated area helped bring much-needed attention to the earthquakes and the thousands of people and animals suffering in their aftermath.
From ABC, People, to local News12 stations, click here to see our recent favorite pieces.
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Sunny & Dolly Compete in Dog Bowl III
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Sunny was such a star on Animal Planet's Dog Bowl III that he even garnered some of his very own personal press. Click on the image above to see more.
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The first weekend of February has always been known as the big game day weekend; however, which game is the biggest could be up for debate.
For dog-lovers like us, the biggest games of the weekend are Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl and Dog Bowl. This year, we had two lucky pups compete as back-ups in Puppy Bowl XVI. We are especially excited to share, however, that we also had two satos compete in Dog Bowl III - Animal Planet’s big game that is meant to help raise awareness for adult dog adoption.
Sunny was found abandoned on a beach about a year ago, but we didn’t have space to take him into our program.
This poor sato went on our waitlist of dogs waiting for a chance to be rescued
. We kept an eye on him and gave him food every day at the beach while he waited patiently for several months. Finally, his chance for rescue arrived, and after receiving our veterinary care, he flew to his forever family, who feel very lucky to have him in their lives.
We are so proud of Sunny’s long journey from an abandoned street dog to being a star on national television.
This sato superstar even picked up some of his very own personal press! You can meet Sunny and his family by clicking
here
or
here
.
Dolly’s first family evacuated Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and left this poor girl behind, abandoned at their house. She refused to leave home and stayed there, patiently waiting for her family to return. Gradually, her health started to deteriorate and her situation became critical. Kind neighbors alerted us to her situation. We had to work really hard to gain her trust, but finally, with time, she agreed to let us rescue her and we promised her she would never be left behind again.
Now this little survivor has the family of her dreams and was a perfect candidate to represent of all the hard work, determination, and love of our #satostrong community in Dog Bowl III.
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Spayathon Returns for Sixth Round
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The Spayathon for Puerto Rico is back for another round!
From February 21-26 The Sato Project team will be back in Humacao, managing a free spay/neuter and vaccine clinic along with our veterinary partner Helping Paws Across Borders. We are continually honored to be a part of this historic effort that is bringing permanent change to the people and animals of Puerto Rico.
Our team has spayed/neutered and vaccinated over 5,000 dogs and cats so far through this initiative. By the end of this month, we hope to increase this to 6,000! Be sure to stay tuned to our social media channels (
Instagram,
Facebook,
Twitter) for daily updates and stories of the lives we are helping to change.
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Indy & Sunce's Howling Success
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Left: Indy loves snuggling up on her mom's lap whenever possible. Right: Sunce and Indy hangout together on their new cozy bed by the fireplace.
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Indy and Sunce weren’t rescued together, but they were still meant to find each other.
Indy was chained up in a ramshackle yard in Humacao… pregnant. Her owners didn’t want to deal with puppies so we stepped in. She gave birth immediately once safe in our care. Indy was perhaps
too
good a mummy; she became protective of her babies and growled at other dogs, so off she went to our trainer Daphne’s home for rehabilitation. Sunce’s is a classic Dead Dog Beach story: abandoned without food, water, or shelter. We soon realized that Sunce’s past was not a warm and fuzzy one. She was traumatized, cowered when we came near, and constantly tried to escape. And so Sunce also went to Daphne’s to begin what we thought would be a long road to recovery.
What came next surprised us all.
Indy looked upon Sunce as a lost puppy and took her under her wing. Sunce, in turn, found her very own therapy dog,
whose lead she followed, slowly but surely gaining confidence by Indy’s side.
It was the start of a beautiful friendship! We dreaded splitting up these newfound sisters, but luckily Leslie and Ray applied to adopt a bonded pair. Empty nesters, they seemed like the perfect parents for two troubled satos. Indy and Sunce – now Sunny – never leave each others’ sides. Indy enjoys launching herself into the first lap available. Sunny is, as expected, a work in progress, but now gingerly seeks affection from her folks.
We may have rescued them, but they saved each other.
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In case you missed it: t-shirts available now for a limited time
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'I heart my sato' t-shirts are back for a limited time! Click on the image below to see all options or visit
bit.ly/TSPGEAR. Proceeds from all sales benefit our rescue efforts. Sales end on February 17th.
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The Sato Project is dedicated to rescuing abused and abandoned dogs in Puerto Rico, where there are an estimated 500,000 stray dogs. With only nine shelters on the island with over a 90% euthanasia rate, we have rescued over 3,500 dogs, rehabilitated them with the highest standards of veterinary care, and found them loving homes on the mainland U.S.. We are also working to make permanent change on the island through community outreach and a Spay, Neuter, Vaccinate and Microchip Program.
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"We fight so the dogs of Puerto Rico don't have to."
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