We are Miami Animal Rescue. For 11 years we have rescued, treated, and rehomed dogs in Miami, including severe medical and neglect cases. Each year we travel to underserved areas where animals have little or no access to veterinary care. This year brought us to the Dominican Republic, where we expected to assist a limited number of animals and support locally before returning home. We planned a small mission and created a budget based on that expectation.

Very quickly it became clear that what we walked into was far beyond anything that plan could cover.

Across the country, millions of animals live directly on the streets without reliable food, treatment, vaccines, or sterilization. Dogs limp through traffic on untreated fractures, open wounds remain exposed for weeks, and litters of puppies grow up on concrete surrounded by trash. Dead animals are so common that people pass them without stopping because there is simply nowhere for them to be taken. The suffering is not hidden. It is part of daily life, repeating every day.

In one area alone we encountered more than 150 dogs living together in extreme conditions. Many had infected wounds full of flies, advanced mange that had eaten away patches of skin, tumors dragging against the ground, and bones that healed crooked after breaks were never treated. Some were so weak they laid down after only a few steps. The smell reached us before we could even see them.

One of the dogs we met was Mocho. After trying to eat food from the street, someone struck his leg with a machete. He is now missing that leg. He did not bark or run when approached. He simply stood still and looked at us. The injury was terrible but the absence of hope in his eyes was worse.

Nearby were abandoned garbage trucks, old rusted metal containers being used as shelter. Inside them were mothers and puppies living continuously on contaminated surfaces soaked with waste and moisture. Their fur was matted to their skin, their paws irritated and infected from constant exposure, and young animals were already sick before they were old enough to survive on their own.

That night it became very clear this was not a situation we could walk away from. We could not sleep knowing nothing would change if we left. There is no shelter intake system waiting to receive these animals, no large scale sterilization program to slow reproduction, and no place injured dogs are taken for treatment. There is nowhere for them to go.

We did not plan to stay but we could not leave. It is also very clear this is a huge mission and we cannot do this alone. The budget we prepared for a short visit will not carry a long term intervention. So instead of a temporary effort, we committed to a sustained plan. We are providing ongoing medical treatment, daily feeding, vaccinations, and most importantly a large scale spay and neuter campaign to stop the cycle. Without sterilization, new litters will replace the animals we treat within months.

This will take months or possibly years but we are prepared for that.

You may have many questions reading this. The truth is we do not yet know the full timeline. What we do know is that we promised them we would not leave them like this. Our plans are ambitious because the situation requires it, but we cannot accomplish it alone. Every treatment, every sterilization, every complex medical case depends entirely on generosity.

Where your donation actually goes:

In many places, a rescue only has to pay a veterinarian to perform a sterilization or treatment because the infrastructure already exists. There are clinics, recovery areas, equipment, water access, and basic supplies ready to use. Here, none of that exists for them.

Every step requires building the process from the ground up. Donations are not only covering the procedure itself, but everything that allows it to happen safely.

We must set up the space where animals can be operated on, the tables and bedding where they recover, IV fluids and monitoring equipment to keep them stable, and the medications needed afterward so they survive healing.

Even basic care requires resources that normally already exist elsewhere. Feeding dogs means purchasing containers and materials to safely distribute food. Providing water means creating access to water and the equipment to deliver it. Transporting animals requires organizing and renting vans to move them to treatment and back to recovery.

Because there is no system in place, we are effectively creating one.

This is why the cost is not only the surgery, the antibiotic, or the bag of food. It is everything surrounding it that makes treatment possible at all.

Your support allows the entire chain of care to exist, from the moment an animal is picked up to the moment it recovers and finds a home.

We promised them we would not look away. Please help us keep that promise.