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5 Euro for Cuba!„5 Euro for Cuba“ is a most impressive example for the importance of tourists for animal welfare in the Caribbean. 06/ 26/ 2015 – i was busy trying to get our page Animal welfare addresses in the Caribbean ready to go online – I got an email, the third of that kind in this week…, this time Cuba was the issue. Katharina Hammann wrote: „I didn’t find your site until I got back home. I stayed at the hotel Nacional in Havana from the 18th to the 24th. One night a little dog appeared, very young with hardly any hair, full of mites… I had only 3 days before I had to leave. I could obtain medication and treat the skin problems. I would like to pay for the continuation of the treatment and for the spaying of this small bitch.“
Cuba… We are reminded of magnificent buildings from colonial days when Cuba was part of the Spanish empire, and of old American limousines from the days of Batista, of Salsa and Rumba, the famous novel „The old man and the sea“ by Ernest Hemingway who spent a lot of time in Cuba, the best cigars in the world and the legendary revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Che Guevara who promised freedom and prosperity but only brought new dictatorship while the old poverty remained.
And extreme poverty…
…destroyed by the government with a particularly cruel and perfidious method: Professional dog catchers bring the animals to the pound where they are starved for days and then given a meal laced with strychnine because any other method of killing them is considered as too expensive. For a long time only one animal welfare organization had the permission to work in Cuba, Aniplant:
Now there is also the Protección Animales de la Ciudad, to be found on Facebook under
And the wonderful vets Dr. Yohanky Ruiz Delgado and Dra. Gladis Corria Ochoa. 2015 they started immediately the search for „Knupsel“…
They searched everywhere but „Knupsel“ was never found again. Many tourists would have given up in despair now, maybe deciding never to visit this country again. Not so Katharina!
Since she couldn’t help little „Knupsel“ she decided to work for the benefit of all Cuban animals. She returned to Cuba, visited the president of Aniplant, Nora Garcia, in Havana and learnt something amazing: At that time it cost only 2 euro to spay or neuter an animal cost in Cuba! Nowadays we have to estimate about 5 Euro.
They have saved countless unborn puppies from the cruel fate of starvation and poisoning. Aniplant has developed spectacular adoption programs to save more lives: In Havana spayed and neutered animals wear collars with their ID attached to them and the names of museums, enterprises and businesses that have adopted them and are thus protected from the dog catchers. Katharina returned to Germany and started in the context of our program „Tourism and Animal Welfare“ her project „5 Euro for Cuba“ with the goal to finance spay and neuter campaigns for about hundred animals each. There are often temporary shortages of anesthesia in Cuba but registered NGOs have the possibility to receive anesthesia from outside the country: It is not easy but it’s not an insuperable obstacle… Visit Katharinas web site , meet the wonderful Cuban animals and – donate 5 Euro for Cuba! Donations please with # Cuba to: Verein zur Hilfe und Förderung des kreolischen Hundes e.V. VR Bank Landau eG
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