Welcome to the Stray Animal Project blog! Thank you to everyone who has supported us since we formally incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization earlier this year, as well as those who contributed to the original GoFundMe campaigns.
In this edition, we’d like to give an update on our October campaigns — the first two campaigns that we’ve held since incorporating.
October 11, 2020: Villa El Salvador
Total impact: 119 animals (64 dogs, 55 cats)
Our first October campaign was held in Villa El Salvador, one of the poorest areas in Lima. As with all of our campaigns, our primary partnership was with WUF, through which we’re able to operate in Peru. For this campaign, we also partnered with Posta Oasis, a social animal clinic in Villa El Salvador, and Dr. Francisco Bryce, veterinarian and founder of Posta Oasis.
This campaign was different from some of our past campaigns because of COVID-19. Instead of walk-ins, this community campaign was appointment-based and targeted towards low-income community members. Additionally, we were able to spay over 20 shelter animals and an amazing 80 stray animals.
How are we able to afford a campaign of this size? We are able to reduce the procedure cost in two ways. First, our partner clinic was able to offer a discount to perform procedures at cost, taking no profit. Second, for our community members, we subsidized the cost by 25%. Together, these two measures brought the procedure cost down to about 40% of the normal cost. For strays and shelter animals, we benefit from the clinic discount while covering the remaining amount.
This campaign gave us one major milestone: we spayed and neutered our 1000th animal! This is a huge milestone for us and we’re so excited to keep going.
October 24, 2020: Yerbateros
Total impact: 36 animals (15 dogs, 21 cats)
Our second campaign of the month was also in collaboration with WUF, as well as Giovanna Puccoy, owner of the shelter “El refugio de Gio.” Our lead veterinarian was Dr. Percy Sandoval and his staff from the vet clinic MichiGuau. As always, they were assisted by an amazing group of local volunteers.
We held this campaign in Yerbateros, which is an area of Lima that has many truck stations and wide open areas where stray dogs and cats are able to reproduce freely. This campaign was also appointment-based, due to COVID-19 restrictions. Appointments were made available to low income families, and we were also able to spay/neuter 5 stray animals.
This was a big day for all of the animals, but for one of the stray dogs, it was life-changing! Vicky was one of our five strays, and while she was in a foster home for recovery, her foster family fell in love and decided to adopt her!
Thank you to all of our supporters who helped make these campaigns possible!