The Truth About Cats and Dogs

Cancun is a holiday mecca usually associated with warm sun, sandy beaches and perhaps a cooling drink or two, but for Steve McGarva and Darci Galati, their recent visit was anything but a vacation. Rather they were there, along with Galati's three young daughters and many volunteers, on behalf of hundreds of dogs and cats living in the area in need of TLC.

At the end of April, McGarva, founder of the Achates Legacy Rescue Foundation who lives in southern California, and Galati, who launched Cats and Dogs International (CANDi) and hails from British Columbia, spent five exhausting days hosting a free cat and dog spaying and neutering clinic, veterinarian training and meetings with local education and government officials. During their stay in Mexico, about 20 volunteer vets spayed or neutered 364 dogs and cats at the clinic held at the local dog pound. According to a formula used by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, their efforts prevented the birth of more than 30 million cats and 11 million dogs over the next seven years.

Affordable veterinary care is a significant problem there. Despite vibrant tourism in Cancun, the average daily wage is only about $4 and the average sterilization of a pet costs about $200 to $300. "It's just not possible for a lot of people there," says Galati. "We had to turn people away. They're crying. They love their pets. They just don't have the means to do that. We put Frontline on their pets' necks, clipped their nails, cleaned their ears and sometimes gave them collars or leashes because they showed up with a rope around the dog. The need is so huge."

This is the third clinic trip that McGarva and Galati have jointly organized in Cancun with the help of local authorities. They've also rescued about 20 unwanted or stray dogs, although their main goal is to work with local officials and local animal welfare groups to create permanent, humane and sustainable solutions to the problem of stray and at risk animals in Cancun.

The number of stray animals worldwide has soared into the hundreds of millions, Galati says, and the issue of overpopulation exists mostly because of social, cultural and economic barriers to animal sterilization. For years, those in the tourism industry have fielded complaints by travelers who visit a spectacular vacation location, only to be horrified by the sight of starving, homeless dogs and cats begging for food and attention at the resorts. Sadly, many are poisoned by the resort owners or rounded up by dog pounds and put to death, often by electrocution.

After a 2008 story in People magazine and an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show, McGarva (at left) is probably best known as the dog rescuer at so-called Dead Dog Beach in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. He and his wife Pam, an engineer, had moved there in 2005 for her work with a pharmaceutical company. On his first day, McGarva was shocked when he happened to stumble upon about 100 abandoned, malnourished and mangy dogs that had been left on a beach where he had intended to go kite surfing. He spent the rest of his two years in Puerto Rico attending to the dogs, feeding and watering them, stitching their wounds, setting broken bones and rescuing as many as he could. During that time, he buried more than 1,000 dogs that he either could not save or who were dumped there already dead. Although he still works with other rescue organizations and contacts to find new homes for strays, in the past year, he launched his own nonprofit dedicated to building animal friendly communities through work with local governments and veterinarian education in Mexico and Puerto Rico as a more permanent solution to the issue.

Galati (at right, far right), on the other hand, had built a successful tourism company Dargal Interline, which sells travel packages to the airline industry. She traveled extensively and had been aware of the widespread issue of stray dogs and cats, especially in the Caribbean islands and Mexico. It wasn't until she had sold her company in 2006 and took a trip with her twin daughters Jordan and Samantha Cooper, now 12, and Cassandra, now 9, that she decided to create her own nonprofit and use her networking connections with the tourism industry to try and address the global issue of animal welfare.

"The girls were really affected by seeing the stray dogs on the streets. There are a lot of cats in the resorts and the resorts poison stray cats and dogs in the area to keep population down. I went back home and did some research and there was [no] support for the animals," says Galati.

She believes the tourism industry is uniquely positioned to use its clout to make humane changes, such as, the CANDi Cat Cafe program, which Galati is working with hotel chains and resorts and local animal organizations to institute. The program asks resorts to dedicate a feeding station at the resort for stray cats that have been spayed or neutered by local partner animal welfare groups.

Now that she has been active on this issue, her daughters have also become interested. They went with their friends on the most recent trip to Cancun and worked alongside other volunteers, helping care for and groom the animals that showed up. They also created a video about the conditions in Cancun and their work their that they are sharing with school groups, Facebook and YouTube.

"We're raising up the next generation of rescuers," says McGarva. "On Wednesday when we were there, somebody drove up in an old vehicle with a cute little white dog and handed him to us by the scruff of the neck and said, 'I don't have the money. Can you please put him to sleep?' His fur was just dreadlocks that were so massive, they were tearing his skin. All of Wednesday, all of Thursday and part of Friday, the girls picked ticks off this dog who was covered in them. He must have had 300 blood-filled ticks inside each ear and fleas. So they're picking and picking and picking. He was the most gentle, sweet dog, pure white with an underbite. Cassandra wanted to call him Tickles, but the twins suggested Tick-less." The dog, now free of ticks and fleas and in good health, is living with an American couple on Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast of Cancun.

But in addition to the spaying, neutering and medical care that was provided to these Cancun animals, McGarva, Galati and representatives from Humane Society International and World Society for the Protection of Animals, are working with local veterinarian organizations and governments officials to improve euthanasia methods, upgrade conditions at the pound and institute an education program in the public schools to promote compassionate treatment of animals.

"Instead of putting a Band-Aid on the problem, going in and bringing out a bunch of dogs and patting ourselves on the back, it's better to work with the local government to make changes," says McGarva.

"This is our third clinic, our fourth [will take place] in October and we'll be back at the pound. We're hoping to do it bigger and better. We're trying to find ways to help them do their work and we want to offer more training, more clinics. Ideally, we'd like to get it set up so we're doing a clinic a month," says Galati, who says they plan on bringing a group of both American and Canadian children next time. Both McGarva and Galati are pleased with what has been achieved so far, although they know these are small steps to solving a worldwide problem.

"It was just a really, really fantastic time. It was far above and beyond what we had hoped," says McGarva.

Photos courtesy of Steve McGarva and Darci Galati and video via YouTube.