Help Tulum Dogs Critical Financial Support Needed

PUPDATE AS OF JANUARY 14, 2024

YOU ARE ALL ROCKSTARS!!! HIT OUR GOAL 2 DAYS AGO AND ARE SO GRATEFUL TO ALL OF YOU AMAZING HUMANS!!

It feels like so much has happened since the end of November, but our updated cover photo shows just a few of the faces you helped us save, feed, sterilize, vaccinate, fix a lot of broken bones, and 4 pups got out to the USA and Canada despite the holiday embargos etc.!

We also were able to do our outreach and provide food plus flea & tick treatment to about 200 dogs in Punta Laguna and Hidalgo, help with TVT treatment (chemotherapy) for another 2 pups, provide veterinary support for many sick puppies owned in the community, and keep up with our crew of 20 in house, 5 outside, 3 in the vet clinics, 2 temporary guests, and 2 dogs being treated in their homes for various conditions.

We have all except for one vet paid off 100%, and that particular vet bill was almost paid and now it's creeped back up again, but we are close!

Thanks to your generous support through this Go Fund Me, and other donations we've received in the past 6 weeks, we are feeling pretty good about ALMOST reaching our goal of being debt free, and someday maybe I can say we are on top of it all (smile, wink, cringe, laugh, cry,,,) as I said it's a GOAL!

But for now, I'm going to close this GFM and send you all a huge hug, lots of puppy kisses, and say THANK YOU for being there and supporting us!!!

PUPDATE AS OF NOVEMBER 23, 2023

We would like to thank each and every one of our donors for supporting us. It's been very encouraging to receive so many kind words and generous donations!

Since my last update, I was in the USA helping care of my ailing mom, and then picked up a pup (Princesa) and took her on to Portland where she is in a foster-to-adopt home. This added mission required some resources we weren't planning on, but I have to accept that it's just part of doing rescue work.

However, the 4 pups you see in the cover photo (Milo, Lola, Iggy (aka Changuito), and Luna Laguna are now healthy, vaccinated and sterilized so they are ready to find their forever homes! All need rides to the USA or Canada, so it would be great if we can knock out our goal and get our vet bills paid and send them on their ways!!

Please consider donating if you haven't already! I know the struggle is real for everyone in rescue, and we do appreciate your ongoing support for Help Tulum Dogs to keep going. Thank you.

PUPDATE AS OF NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Thank you so much for your kind and generous donations helping us reach our goal - we are just $3000 USD short and this money will payoff our vet bills finally! As mentioned in my previous update, we have been able to make a huge dent in our bills, but as time passes we continue to have vetting needs, so getting ON TOP and staying there is an ongoing challenge! This past month, Tyson had to have his spleen removed, we had a new pup in treatment for severe anemia and had to be hospitalized, x-rays for a variety of dogs for a variety of reasons, and now need to buy November monthly flea/tick/heartworm preventatives for our 23 dogs in care (23 x $20 USD).

With your donations we have been able to make big strides on paying our vet bills, flying pups on to their forever homes, sterilizing campaigns, keeping up with the care for all of the pups we have, and providing outreach to our jungle and local Tulum communities.

**********************************************************

Finally, as the new photo collage memorializes our sweet Linda, who had been run over (and then rescued) after suffering for week before we found her. She was such a lovely pup, and finally had her chance to move on to her forever life in Chicago and was adopted last month. Unfortunately she suffered again, and did not survive an intestinal condition... Each and every pup we rescue and rehome takes a piece of our hearts when they leave us, but in this case our hearts are shattered because she had a full life ahead that ended tragically. If you'd like to donate in memory of Linda, and help us save more lives in her honor, we sure would appreciate it.

Thank you for helping us help them.

PUPDATE AS OF OCTOBER 16, 2023

First of all, a huge THANK YOU for your support and donations! If we can reach our goal, we can finally get on top of everything - vet bill debts, dogs in need of ongoing care, and then refocus on doing more sterilizations!!!

We have had quite a busy couple of months, and here's what we have been able to accomplish:

1. 5 more pups flew to JFK and were then taken to Reading PA with our partner rescue Brindle Buddies & Friends where they are in foster care looking for there forever homes (Nami was adopted!).

2. 5 pups made it to Toronto with 3 different transports, and are either in their adoptive homes or with our rescue partner in foster care and awaiting their adoptions!

3. Paid another $2500 usd in vet bills through an outside donation!

4. Sponsored 20 spay/neuter surgeries in El Cuyo, sterilized 47 animals in Punta Laguna / Hidalgo!

5. Paloma had a leg amputation

6. Tyson is in surgery now, perhaps needs his spleen removed :(

7. Vetting for Blanquito, Iggy (aka Changuito), Lola (new brown puppy) plus

8. Supported another sterilization campaign of 80 dogs and cats with the Tulum municipality, providing volunteers for recovery, flea and tick meds, follow up vet visits for several animals after. Next one is the weekend of Oct 28-29.

9. Provided food for the 150+ dogs in Punta Laguna and Hidalgo plus flea/tick treatment (we need to do this again this week!!) We need about 800kgs of food @ about $1200+ usd

10. Managing the fosters in care, Pluto needs to start his heartworm treatment, our 3 remaining puppies need to get more vaccines and sterilized so they can travel. Another 2 are ready to go and we are trying to find a place to send them! Sadly we have 12 unadoptable dogs that we have to continue caring for -- likely forever. But that's another story....

11. We still have another $3000 in vet bills to pay!!!!!

Thank you!!UPDATE SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

Hola everyone! Thanks so much for your support! So far we were able to transport 5 lucky pups to Chicago where they are in foster care awaiting adoption $2,400, paid $2,000 in vet bills, and $1,200 for our recent outreach to the jungle communities we support, and are staying afloat buying food and treatments for the current fosters. This is where your donations are going!

We are awaiting the next distribution which holds $1,192.65 USD from the donations received after the monthly cutoff that GFM does around the 13/14 of each month, BUT still short on our goal. I'm so happy to say we are getting closer, yet we still have these pesky vet bills $$$$$$ that we need to pay, and some expenses for our travel for 5 more dogs already booked to leave September 14th. We truly need to reach our goal to get above water, and still have other pups that will need to travel in October and November aren't part of this fundraising effort.

PLEASE CONSIDER A DONATION TO HELP US HELP THEM! WE ARE CLOSE TO THE END IF WE CAN'T, AND TRULY NEED YOUR SUPPORT AT THIS TIME!

$500 PER DAY FOR 10 DAYS IS "ALL" WE NEED TO BREATH AGAIN AND KEEP GOING!! THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED SO FAR!!!!

*****************************************************************************************************

UPDATE AUGUST 21, 2023

Hola everyone and THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED!!

The 5 pups in the photos now have plane tickets to Chicago ($267 x 5 = $1335 plus transporter ticket $470 plus airport transfer $150) TOTAL FOR GETTING THIS 5 PUPS TO THEIR NEW LIVES $1955 ***but also PRICELE$$*** One other pup Rob also made the trip to Seattle where his adopter picked him up (now he's living in BC)! $450 USD = $2,405.

We paid part of our biggest vet bill $1,800 USD (still owe over $4000 to our vets and are waiting to schedule an amputation for Paloma).

Food for the fosters $600 plus flea/tick and heartworm preventatives = $320 and we need more tomorrow!

We still have a lot of expenses to cover, dogs to travel, and we would love to be able to buy food for our outreach to Punta Laguna and Hidalgo, and wrap up paying our vet bills!

Please help us continue our work! Thank you so much!

Hola friends, it's time again for me to ask for your extended support. I hope everyone knows that when I get to the point of making a Go Fund Me, it's because I am too deep in to get out with the kind donations we do receive, because the expenses have stacked up too high to dig out little by little, and also because we need to start planning some travel to get pups out and on to their new forever lives.

The dog rescue world has changed significantly since Covid. Like everything else, it has become insanely difficult to keep going like we used to.

Why? For us, one of the most important parts of our rescue cycle is rehoming. In order to rehome, we need to send our dogs somewhere NOT Mexico (yes we have made the rare successful local adoptions, but here in Tulum it's nearly impossible to find a FOREVER home for a dog for so many reasons). Since Covid, major airlines carriers that used to take dogs in the baggage hold, to places that we work with partner rescues and/or private fosters (New York, Chicago, Portland) no longer do. Canada was shut down until 2022 and then they had their own problems, with the wave of "Covid adopted pets" being dropped at shelters like never before. Rescues and shelters are overwhelmed in the USA as well. In September of 2021, I set out on a mission to get as many dogs out after our Covid backup, and started taking Mexican based airlines to get to the USA. It was working pretty well until some major problems with Volaris and the insane cost of Aeromexico. Then Alaska Airlines opened up flights that accepted dogs in the baggage hold again, only limited to 2 at a time per traveler, but hey, we were desperate, so we would often fly from Cancun to the west coast, then connect on red-eyes to the midwest or northeast. Well, even that has not been possible since they changed their aircraft from Boeings to Airbus, because Airbus type aircraft don't accept dogs in the baggage hold. Then, if we do have flight offers or opportunities to take dogs north, we need a place for them to actually go. Because our partners are inundated themselves, we've been receiving a lot of NOs with huge apologies.

However, we have a few opportunities coming up at the end of August and then September with US rescues who have taken MX pups previously. It’s critically important to use these opportunities, so we are planning now so it will happen.

Here's where it hits home. Specifically my home, which is a rental, not a huge apartment, but at least a nice little garden. We now have 23 dogs here. 23. And I still have a few in boarding, a couple in foster, and virtually all of them have had to have either orthopedic surgeries, treatment for Ehrlichia and Anaplasmosis, Heartworm treatments (which take a year to get through), TVT treatments, other types of issues that I can't name them all. It costs me over $500 usd each month to just provide the monthly preventative for Ticks/Fleas/Heartworm. We go through over 50 kgs (110 lbs.) of food every week, and have daily vet visits and blood tests, vaccines and sterilizations, and hardly any adoption options for all of the reasons above. Our vet bills average $3000 to 5000 usd monthly depending on all of these factors.

My job has become that of running a 24/7 doggy day care and medical manager. The amount of work and time involved (and patience, which runs thin these days) is endless. Keep in mind there's no pay for this, and in fact I just keep spending my own money to keep afloat. Combining that with not being able to focus on my business to make money (which is also hard due to the market conditions here), the excessive heat and destroying 2 vehicles in 8 years for the dogs, I'm pretty much at the bottom of my resources and ability to keep going.

So here it is. The ASK. The NEED.

1. $5000 usd to pay off current vet bills

2. $5000 usd for planned flights to get 10 or more pups and dogs to Chicago, New York and Portland in the next 60 days (average flight one way $500 - $1000 usd, cost per dog $100 - $275 usd).each dog averages about $500 usd to get to any of our partner rescues and fosters outside of Mexico

3. $1500 usd to sterilize and vaccinate another 50 dogs in Hidalgo and Punta Laguna at a cost of approx. $35 usd per dog by the end of September

4. $1500 usd to get us through the next 2 months of food and preventatives

****Our future as a rescue is to send the dogs we have in-house to forever homes and then focus on sterilization and vaccination to lower the population, suffering and prevent diseases that are in epidemic proportions here (such as Distemper, Parvo and TVT). We cannot take in and house additional new rescues as it is not sustainable.****

Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me.

More information about Help Tulum Dogs Foundation Inc: Help Tulum Dogs is a 501c3 registered non-profit charitable organization dedicated to sterilizing/vaccinating dogs via free campaigns in Tulum and other parts of the Yucatan peninsula. We provide outreach to small, Mayan communities where the need is greatest, and rescue/rehab/re-home those with no hope.