Last year I wrote about Project Samana in the Dominican Republic, a project run in association with the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA), which also supports the Mazunte Turtle Project on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Veterinarians and technicians from across the United States volunteer to staff both projects, contributing their time, travel, and housing expenses, as well as equipment and supplies. This past November, I traveled to the Dominican Republic for the fourth time, and two years ago, in January 2011, I participated in the Mazunte Turtle Project.
In my previous article, I explained that Project Samana is named after a rural town on the Samana Peninsula on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. In a remote area where veterinary medical resources are scarce, the Project, begun in 1993, provides much-needed surgical and medical care to the animals of Samana and surrounding villages. Volunteers make the trip twice each year, once in November and again in June.
The main work of the project is the neutering and spaying of dogs and cats. Some are owned, but many are street animals. The project also cares for horses and mules as well as other sick and injured animals. An additional aim of the project is to educate animal owners in husbandry and nutrition. Many of the dogs, cats, and equines we see are emaciated. Street dogs and cats as well as owned pets typically subsist on table scraps and scavenging.
We also train Dominican students, along with the four Tufts students that usually accompany the team. These future professionals gain experience taking care of animals in third world countries and performing spays and castrations.
This year a team of seven veterinarians and 12 technicians participated in Project Samana. We all met at the airport in the capital city of Santo Domingo, loaded our vehicles, and drove the two-and-one-half hours to the host town.
After dinner and introductions, we got our assignments: anesthesia and prep, surgery, and recovery. It was nice to reconnect with a vet and two techs I had met on earlier trips.
Early the next morning, we packed up our equipment and supplies and drove to the center of Samana. A large number of dogs, cats, children, and adults were already on site. It was quite loud. We were shown to a large room fronted by plate glass windows. Although the sun had yet to reach the windows, the temperature inside was already well over 90 degrees. Fortunately, we were able to use an adjacent outdoor covered concrete patio that had once served as a nightclub dance floor. We had decent light and a ceiling, but when a tropical thunderstorm hit us that afternoon and we found that the roof leaked torrentially, we had to quickly relocate some of our surgery tables and supplies.
A litter of day-old puppies delivered by Caesarean section.(Courtesy photo)
Each day, we started at 8:00 a.m. and worked until around 5:30 p.m. when the sun began to set, as the sun was our only source of light for the surgeries we performed. I am always amazed at how quickly the team organizes itself and settles into its assignments. As is always the case, the techs are the most vital and hard-working team members. They carefully anesthetize each patient, clip and prep the area to be incised, monitor each case during surgery, and make sure each cat and dog has a smooth recovery.
While most of the dogs were “island dogs,” this year there were also a number of Chihuahuas and Rottweilers. In addition to castrations and spays, we performed three amputations and one Caesarean section (five very cute black and white puppies). In four days’ time, we operated on 253 animals—our most productive trip since the project began.
The Mazunte Turtle Project, in which I participated in 2011, combines dog population control and wildlife protection. Our work there is mostly the spaying and neutering of dogs in villages along the Pacific coast of Mexico. By controlling the number of stray and owned dogs on the beaches, the number of dogs preying on young turtles and eggs is diminished significantly.
Four species of sea turtles inhabit the area: the Hawksbill, the Green Turtle, the Olive Ridley, and the Leatherback. On the beach, near my temporary lodgings, were the remains of a “turtle slaughterhouse,” where it is estimated 30,000 turtles were killed each year, decimating the turtle population. Facing the prospect of species extinction, the Mexican government in 1990 banned their capture for food or jewelry, sunglasses, and art objects. There is now a turtle museum and rehabilitation center for injured and sick turtles in Mazunte, built for the preservation of the population and for research. Research at the Turtle Center and efforts to control the dog population have helped repopulate the area with these amazing animals. The hope now is that the income ecotourism can bring to Mazunte will replace the hunting of turtles for food and trinkets.
Among the experiences that I enjoyed the most while I was in Mazunte, were the sight of hundreds of baby turtles swimming out to sea at sundown one evening as we released them; a swim in the ocean on the back of an adult turtle; and, on a day we performed our operations under a tree, the surprise of a tarantula that strode beneath my surgery table. Not to mention the words of the owner of the motel where I stayed, who told me to throw back my covers before getting into bed and to look inside my shoes before stepping into them, all to avoid—scorpions.
East Bare Hill Road resident Fred Karotkin is a veterinarian
