Every year the local vets and vets and their assistants from Guadalajara and Mexico City volunteer their time and talents to participate in a M*A*S*H style spay and neuter clinic in Manzanillo. The animals are treated at no cost to their owners. They are also given any necessary vaccinations free of charge.
Here's the building the clinic was held in, a former movie theater in Salagua.
Actually, only the check-in is held indoors. This is where people bring their pets and stray dogs and cats that people have rounded up. The problem of stray animals in Manzanillo has declined drastically since the program began three years ago. Here's a link to the PATA-Manzanillo web site:
The check-in area.
These are just some of the animals that were brought in the first morning. The clinic ran for five straight days, Friday through Tuesday. Nearly 300 animals were treated during that time.
Here's a panoramic view of the outside area. The instrument sterilization table is on the left, the surgery area is behind the curtain and the recovery area is on the right.
Here's a closer view of the sterilization area. The instruments come back from surgery where they are soaked in a detergent mix in the first red tub, then scrubbed in the same mix in the second red tub. Then rinsed in the first green tub, and again in the second green tub, then sorted by instrument type and placed in a sterilization formula where they soak for twenty minutes before they are used again. At night, M.J. takes all the instruments home and boils and pressure-cooks them for the next day.
It's all outside, except for the surgery area, but thanks to the high walls around the area and thank God just a gentle breeze so far, everything stays remarkably clean. Here's the surgery area behind the curtain.
Before the final step to the recovery area, the animals are tatooed with their registration number in the area where the animal was shaved prior to surgery. I've seen animals tagged, chipped and otherwise marked by scientists, etc. on the Discovery Channel, but this isn't to track the animals movement. Since some of these animals are strays and are likely to remain strays, there's a chance they could get rounded up for an upcoming clinic. Then when they are shaved for surgery the technician will see the tatoo and call off surgery for that animal.
Here's an animal being tatooed and the tatoo on another.
After the animal has been operated on, it is brought to the recovery area. Here's a few pics of the volunteers tending to the animals as they come out from under the anesthetic.
Cats are usually placed on tables and the dogs on the floor, both because most of the dogs are heavier and would get hurt if they rolled over and fell off a table, but also because the dogs seem to come to more slowly than cats, and the cats sometimes go nuts if they wake up quickly and can try to run away. There needs to be someone there to make sure they get into a carrier cage when they are starting to come awake.
At the end of the day, people start showing up to pick up their pets. Happy reunions and good lives ahead with fewer unwanted and stray animals.
It was a good clinic, with all the surgeries successful, and only two dogs and two cats breaking loose and trying to escape. Exciting for everyone both watching and chasing and thanks to the high walls no one got away.
I attended another clinic a few weeks later, in a community called El Naranjo. Go
here for some pics.
If you have any questions about how you can help support or participate in PATA-Manzanillo, you can Email me at:
jackak10@gmail.com
or check out PATA's web site at
PATA-Manzanillo exists only from donations, so anything you can do is appreciated.