Costa Rica Zoologist Needs Our Help!

I will tell you a little of my background. I am a zoologist and moved here seven years ago to Arenal Costa Rica with my husband.

I have a lot of medical and zoological experience with both domestic and wild animals and I moved here to continue my studies of the rain forest. It is because of this that I quickly became involved with the animals here in Costa Rica.

At that time we had no veterinarian here in Arenal. We still don’t. I got to know an American retired vet from Nevada who lived here in Arenal. We quickly teamed up to begin low cost spaying and neutering of local animals after I learned to my horror that some of the cold hearted people in the area would poison street animals when they felt the population had become too high.

I was desperate to “get ahead of the assassins” to begin a humane way of surgically sterilizing the street animals and those belonging to poor people.

In this way we could lower the population humanely and teach the people that these animals have value and suffer terribly at such horrific practices. After about a year, the doctor due to unfortunate circumstances returned to the states.

Because I do have a lot of medical experience with animals, this left me alone to answer all of the emergency animal cases and to continue coordinating the spay neuter campaigns. I continue to take care of any emergencies I am qualified to do which fortunately covers about everything except internal surgery.

Any laboratory procedures or complicated surgery I carefully refer to another veterinarian in a distant town. I have continued the spay and neuter clinics with whatever veterinarian I can beg to help me out from other cities.

It is because of this that we have been able to spay and neuter nearly 400 animals in Arenal in the past 7 years, not only making a difference in humanely reducing the population but also teaching many people how to care for their pets and that animals have feelings and value.

So, I have continued both answering emergency calls (everything from injections for cows with mastitis to suturing dogs paws cut by machetes, and a myriad of other unusual cases too numerous to list here. People joke that I am called “911”) and keeping the spay neuter clinics going. I know I can’t stop because the alternative is continued poisoning and that is too horrific for me to face.

Because so many of these people that call me are poor, my husband and I began footing the medical bills for these animals out of pocket. It was an immense financial strain, however, because I am qualified to help out and most of the time am the only help the animal will get, the pain of having to turn a suffering animal away is something I have never been able to deal with so, we have “pinched pennies” in other areas to continue to assist suffering animals.

Eventually people began donating medical supplies and this has greatly relieved our financial burden. I have been faced with such a variety of animal medical problems that I continually need and look for a wide variety of drugs and animal related equipment.

Also, the dual work I do here and that which I came here for has been ongoing the entire seven years as well and that is working with the “MINAE” which is the Costa Rican government equivalent to the U.S. “Department of Interior” which governs all wildlife.

So, along with working with the suffering domestic animals here, I also work with the MINAE who bring me injured, sick, or orphaned or displaced wildlife for me to rehabilitate and otherwise care for until they can be relocated back into the wild, if it is at all possible or to have them placed in a safe place for the remainder of their lives.

This also involves medical supplies, “infant formula” and very creative supplies and a lot of “improvisation” for dealing with a wide variety of wild animals and also “out of pocket” expenses many times when the MINAE runs short on their “shoestring” budget.

So I am forever searching for very creative things such a restraints and feeding apparatus to be able to be used with a variety of “little mouths” of exotic animals like baby monkeys, baby parrots, iguanas, sloths, anteaters, owls, exotic birds and a myriad of wild animals.

I continue to work alone here in Arenal with all of the animals, however, when at all possible I beg for help from whom ever will assist me. I am always in need of a veterinarian to help for surgical procedures, as well as supplies and drugs, and helping hands to volunteer assistance under my guidance to care for street animals recovering from spaying or neutering or other trauma and helping hands to help with overflow of animals that sometimes are too numerous for me to care for. And yes, always of course the ongoing need of drugs and supplies and baby formula, etc.

I will say that it has been greatly rewarding to see how far we have come in those seven years. Besides a reduction in suffering animal populations, six years ago, back when I had to beg people to let me spay or neuter their animals (they saw no urgent need for that), I now have people calling me up and begging for more help.

Because of teaching folks how to care for their pets (so many didn’t know basic pet care) and writing up a brochure on care of pets, people now are seeking decent dog food (rather than a few scraps) and wanting vaccinations for their pets and are showing more love and care of their pets.

What is not visible is all the tears shed paving the way when working with animals in such desperate situations. In other words, we have come a long way to ease the suffering of all animals here and for that I am very happy.

So, please count yourself as someone very special in your generous donation of either money or supplies. Realize, your money is normally turned into supplies or fees toward a spay or neuter. And feel very happy that during a dark and rainy night when someone calls me in a desperate situation for help that I happen to have on hand the treatment necessary to ease the suffering. Again, a very sincere thank you.

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Written by Gloria Dempsey. Zoologist in Arenal, Costa Rica. February 2008

If you would to contribute to the rescue and care of wildlife in Costa Rica, please send US cashier’s cheques to our Zoologist friend in Arenal Gloria Dempsey:

Gloria Dempsey
5717-28 Nuevo Arenal. Tilaran
Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

Or you can email Gloria Dempsey at zoologist at WeLoveCostaRica.com

PS. Yes I – Scott Oliver of WeLoveCostaRica.com – have promised to give US$100 to Gloria to help out, won’t you please help too?

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.