The Baja Animal Rescue Team
Pets are a billion-dollar industry in the United States, but even for the U.S., homeless cats and dogs are a major problem. There is civic funding to established programs to help control the situation, but it has taken years to establish these programs.
Here in Baja, it is a lot worse. There are no adoption centers, no spaying or neutering clinics, no emergency shelters and no low-cost care for pet owners. Strays are mistreated, sickly, and reproduce freely, spreading mange to puppies and sometimes people. These friends of man are forced to forage through garbage for food, wander the streets and, sadly, die on the roads.
We at BART - –the Baja Animal Rescue Team– are a group of volunteers providing support for El Beastro, a rescue center near San Felipe, Baja, by raising funds amongst animal lovers in the United States and Canada.
In 1998, two “gringas” started a program to help alleviate the homeless animal problem in the area around San Felipe. Vee, a Canadian, has turned her home into a rescue center and has named it El Beastro. Carmyn helps out around the center and does a great public relations job, informing visitors to the area of the wonderful work going on at El Beastro. BART was established to spread the word and help get more financial assistance so El Beastro's work can expand. Our eventual goal is to establish a no-fee spay and neuter clinic in San Felipe, very much like the one established in Cozumel. After that, we hope to have low-cost care available to the citizens of San Felipe and the surrounding areas.
Since El Beastro is a no-kill facility, conditions are getting crowded and our immediate goal is to build a kennel building at El Beastro to house the animals being rescued while they await adoption.
El Beastro is not a “dumping ground.” It is a place where these two dedicated women do their best to feed, medicate and care for each new arrival. They have treated, neutered, spayed and found homes for many stray dogs and cats–sometimes as many as thirty have been housed at El Beastro.
A letter writing campaign was started by BART asking each person contacted to donate only $10–and then to send the letter on to at least ten people who care about animals and would be more than likely to participate in the process. If you can participate, please e-mail us and the fund raising letter will be sent to you.
If you are going south to the San Felipe area or beyond, a visit is always welcome. If you can bring dog food, cat litter, bedding, rawhide chews, medicines, or office supplies, please– bring it on down!
El Beastro is located in the Ejido east of Highway 5, kilometer marker 183. The Hotline phone number is 011-5265-718-206.
Did You Know?...a dog or cat left to reproduce at will can produce, between it and its offspring, up to 420,000 descendants over the course of its lifetime (approximately seven years).
For more information, you can reach us at BART by e-mail,
or by writing to Kathy Gould at P.O.Box 691220, West Hollywood, Ca 90069-9220.