Highlight: Spay/neuter project 2004
The year 2004 is already some time behind us. For the shelter it has been a very successful year, with as a highlight, of course the “Spay and neuter project 2004", which was held in the second half of October (see elsewhere in this newsletter).
Moreover the number of adoptions has surpassed all numbers of the last years, as well as the number of sterilizations, which has been carried out with the help of the sterilization fund.
The buildings are looking good, the animals are happy and financially everything just worked out. All of this mostly thanks to the indispensable help of many volunteers, sponsors and donors.
The board and management is extremely grateful to these people that have dedicated themselves so completely to our organisation.
We hope we can count on them again next year.
Just before the new year we read in the papers that the government has decided to sell the very much needed badges for dog taxes again, and that the dog catcher will catch stray dogs more actively again.
In the meantime there has been some discussions between the government and our organisation, but up to now nothing concrete has been promised.
It is, anyhow, good news that the government has not forgotten about these problems.
We thank you all for your contribution in whichever way and we hope to be able to count on you in the future also.
Paul Wichers
(President of the board)
GREAT NEWS
We are very happy to hear that Annemarie will again prepare her already famous 2-yearly, Indonesian dinner, in November this year.
During the dinner there will also be held again, a real art auction.
We hope that the artists of Bonaire will be as enthusiastic again this year as they were 2 years ago.
For more information you can call 717 8721 (Lydia) of 7870466 (Paul)Important call.... !!!!!!!!
Because of the high costs to send the newsletter by mail, we would like to receive email addresses of as many recievers of this newsletter as possible, so we can sent you this newsletter by email next time
You can send your email address to:Lydia
Thank you very much.
Did you know.....???????
You can become a monthly donor?
You can have a fixed amount of money transfered every month (with a minimum of Naf. 10,00) to help the shelter with their work.
The banks are cooperating by transfering the money without fee.
Rincon Day (Dia di Rincon)
On April 30th, on the same day of the Queens birthday, we celebrate on Bonaire the day of Rincon. The whole of Rincon is in a festive mood and the town is one big market.
The shelter was there too with all sorts of merchandise and of course to give information to those who asked for it.
Result of the day: Naf. 1.000,00
On animal day the shelter was visited
spontane-ously by 2 childrens daycare centers. Also a class from the SGB (the
Highschool of Bonaire) made a visit to the shelter. Fortunately the contact
with younger and older childeren is always good. “He who has the youth, has the
future” is what counts.
My name is Michelle, working on the shelter as animal care-taker.
I am originally English, but spent many years in Holland, living in a small village.
There, I had many animals. 5 dogs, horses, goats and many large parrots and a cockatoe.
Because we lived in the woods, I trained a few of the birds and let them loose to fly free around the house and trees.
So here in Boniare I landed up looking after the animals again, but on a much larger scale. I am also learning as much as possible with things that I never encountered before, eg. medicines, behavior, sickness, etc.
I love animals and the best time of the day is when I arrive in the morning and get the best welcome you can ask for.
Michelle.
Like we already said, the sterilization project was
the highlight of last year. During the period of 18 till 30 October, 7 vets
from abroad (3 from the United
States, 2 from Canada and 2 from Holland) have carried out spaying and neutering on Bonaire - free of charge - during two weeks.
To this end the shed of the shelter was rebuilt to become an operatingroom with an airco.
Tables have been made and v-shaped stretchers that could also be used as operatingtables, so the animals could be exchanged quickly when the vets were done with an animal. In this way the vets could sterilize one after another.
To stimulate the people to participate,
application forms were placed in most supermarkets, childeren from “Jong
Bonaire” went into the districts to hold an inquiery among the people, the
foundation had put up a stand at the annual sailing regatta to inform the
people personally about the project and moreover all the possible media were
used to bring the project to the attention of everyone.
The result:....222 animals have been spayed/neutered and a long list of interested people who couldn’t be inscribed.
More than this was not attainable and all participants are extremely satisfied with the results.
The project was closed with a “thank-you-happy-hour” at “Caribbean ChillOut” for everyone who participated in this program.
During “happy hour” we showed a nice film about the activities during the sterilization and the activities of the vets in their spare time.
It was a nice ending of a very successful project.
 
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Results
Since the year 2000 the shelter has kept graphics with the numbers of dogs and cats that has been brought to the shelter and how many there were adopted and how many there, unfortunately, have been put to sleep.
A good thing is that we can confirm that the number of animals that have been brought in has gone up the last years and that the number of adoptions also went up and the number of euthanised dogs has gone down (cats have remained about the same)
In the first half of this year (up to June inclusive) the number of adoptions are already 77.So we are well on schedule to come up to the level of 2004.
Award
Two
newspapers of Bonaire “the Bonaire Reporter” and the “Extra”
were so impressed by the sterilizationproject that they decided to present to
Jurrie Mellema the “Bonaire Press Certificate of appreciation”. Jurrie
dedicated this award to all the volunteers
who cooperated in this project, he thanked them for this and said that without
them the project could never have been a success
Laura de Salvo of the Bonaire Reporter presented the award to Jurrie Mellema, who then dedicates this award to the volunteers. Thank you all !!!
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