Help For The Dogs in Antigua

As the owners of Many Tears Animal Rescue Bill and I have not had a holiday together that did not involve caring for relatives for 17 years.  So a few weeks ago, with the help of family, we took a weeks break and went without researching our destination as all was sorted for us.

 At first we were delighted to find we were going to Antigua but on arrival that soon changed.  Once on the island we had to take a short taxi ride to the hotel. During that short ride we saw dead, run over and injured  dogs as well as over 30 milling about thin, mangy and straying.

As the days past it was apparent the size of the problem. Four groups of animal lovers and an amazing vet and her staff  did all they could, but the key of course is to spay/neuter and educate.  All four groups can barely function because the dog and cat  population increases each year.

Bill and I fed and went to great lengths catching stray dogs, and that of course this has made a huge difference for the two we caught.   However, on finding that after getting them well and neutering them the only option was to release them back on the street, Bill financed them  to come to the UK.  We felt this simply was not enough and arrived home deflated and sad.  We are haunted by memories of the poor dogs and cats left on the streets, whilst thousands  of humans who debark from enormous cruise ships for the day walk over and around the strays like they were rubbish.

These animals need help and we really want to support and assist the 4 groups whose dedicated staff work so hard to rescue the neglected, abandoned and abused.  They would love a van (which would be shared by the 4 groups) to take animals to the spay neuter clinic and pick up dogs sometimes in appalling conditions.  They would also use this to travel to villages to give talks about animal care to schools and adults.  So the van will not only increase the number of dogs and cats that are helped but enable the rescuers to travel to villages to educate both adults and children.  Eduction is vital if things are to improve so this GoFundMe Page has been set up to try and raise enough money for them to buy a van and finance the cost of running this for a year.

If you cannot donate financially but want to help, a lovely supporter wrote to Geest Freight Line who have offered us the opportunity to fill a container and ship  this to Antigua free of charge.  We are so very grateful to them for this wonderful offer and now our aim is to fill this with your help. 

The dogs and cats in Antigua needs SO much and as we all here in Britain are so lucky, I thought surely we could help.   I am hoping in honour of the dogs and cats  in your lives you will all write letters and ask companies and vets for help and donate what you can afford.

Please send anything you can to us clearly marked ANTIGUA at
Many Tears Animal Rescue
Cwmlogin House
Cefneithin
Llanelli
Carmarthenshire
SA14 7HB

and we will load it onto the container,  We have just 6 weeks to achieve all we can before the shipping container leaves.

General
Vet bed - this is used for dogs to recover from their ops on and to transport injured dogs.
Dog Collars
Dog tags
Engraver - to engrave the tags
Cat trap
Slip leads
Dog pole
Dog net
Airline crates
Cage bank to recover dogs and cats in
Crush cage to give wildcats drugs to knock out to neuter

Medical Items (your vet may be able to donate some of these so please ask them if they have ANYTHING at all they can donate)
Drapes
Swabs
Suture materials (can be out of date)
Simparica
Nextguard

Education
Badges for children or small dog or cat knitted or crocheted toys
Coloured Pens and Crayons
Paper
A human dog suit 
Collection tins
Anything else you can think of to enthuse the children to enjoy and learn about kindness and care of the dogs and cats.

Running Many Tears is hard and expensive but I am not selfish enough to disregard those I see suffering and am asking with all my heart for your help.  Please post and share this everywhere  and help me to help them. Together we could truly make a HUGE difference.

THANK YOU EVERYONE
Sylvia VanAtta