Corporación
De Defensa De Los Derechos De Los Animales
More then just friends...
Located in the beautiful Patagonian city of Punta Arenas, Chile, we are the southern most animal shelter in the World!
Our Gang
Oh Tomasa!
After!!
Before
Before
We
are the "Corporacion de Defensa de los Derechos de los Animales" (CODDA)!
I am the now in the USA but I was a pooper picker-upper and volunteer at CODDA. We are a federally registered (Chile) non-profit animal shelter operating out of Punta Arenas, Chile and the southern-most animal shelter in the world. Over 1000 miles south of Santiago, Punta Arenas is the capital of Chilean Patagonia. This beautiful port city sits along the historic Straights of Magallan across from Tierra Del Fuego. While the human population is only around 130,000 people, the street dog population is said to be as high as 20,000.
In Chile, the government does not regularly provide animal control services. It left to individuals or private organizations, like us. The local City and federal government have been talking about this issue for a long, long time and has provided no solutions and very limited finacial support to our organization.
We just received $5000 from the City for a spay/neuter program. This is history in the making! Normally they just talk about it.
La Protectora's beginnings go back to 1990, when literally tens of thousands of stray dogs roamed the streets of Punta Arenas. To curb the problem, the City and federal health department used meat combined with strychnine. I heard stories of kids waiting for the bus and watching the last agonizing spasms of dogs after eating ingesting the poison.
Though Punta Arenas still has a high stray population, La Protectora was able to end this horrible practice. As this time our shelter has its hands full with around 130 dogs and puppies as well as 10 cats and kittens. On average, we have between 80 to 120 dogs 20+ puppies and several resident cats. We are also working with the City to take dogs in from private persons and the new contractor who was hired to collect extra dogs off the streets.
In 2005 our entire budget was below $20,000. La Protectora has about 100 members, 15 of which are active volunteers and of course our fearless leader, the Senora Elia Tagle. The facility has a paid staff of 3. Though we pay for animal health care, we have several veterinarians who help us with discounted prices. Sick or injured animals are euthenized within 12 hours, sometimes much less.
We have several projects in the works. Two such projects include an expanded sterilization program and a new shelter on recently donated land. The root of Punta Arena's animal problems is puppies, puppies, puppies as well as kittens, kittens, kittens. Aside from the cultural aversion to sterilization is the high cost. Many people in Punta Arenas cannot afford to sterilize their pets. In a country where a normal low monthly salary can be $100, the cost to spay a female dog is between $40 - $60. Every year we work with the Municipalidad and local veterinarians to provide this service at low cost. We would like to greatly expand this program.
We currently operate on a site where we pay rent over $200 a month. And what do we get? Evicted!! After 10 years, we now have to move!! We may have a site and will need to build and move these animals. No lease and thus our location is insecure. Also, when it rains we have mud, and if its really cold our pipes freeze. This winter our water has cut off for 2 weeks due to frozen pipes thus we are tranfering water in buckets from a neighbor.
If you might be in our area, give us a call or email: 56 61 262 607 perros@chileaustral.com, bdwillet@n2.net
Av.
Circunvalación 1950. Pobl. Juan Pablo II
Chile Fono: 56 61 262 607
email: perros@chileaustral.com