ArcaMax

PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO -- "The street dogs and cats in Mexico are the lucky ones; at least they can find food in the trash, and maybe beg from tourists," says Janice Chatterton, founder/president of the SPCA Puerto Vallarta. "I wanted to find a way to help dogs kept tied up on rooftops where I've seen the ropes cut into their necks, malnourished dogs kept in back yards fed barely enough to survive. The animal abuse here can be overwhelming."

Living in San Francisco, Chatterton enjoyed animals, but when her dog died after she'd already started going back and forth regularly to visit Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, decided it would simply be unfair to get another dog. Chatterton was never involved in animal welfare, or intended to be.

In 2007, by which time Chatterton was living in Puerto Vallarta, she agreed to join some friends to help at the city pound, mostly as a social get-together. She was horrified by conditions at the facility. Chatterton and others developed a program where after the shelter spayed/neutered, dogs, they were taken to public places and events to be adopted.

The program seemed great at the time, but proved a disaster. Dogs were taken for adoption immediately after sterilization surgery without time to recover. Getting sick after adoption proved to be a death sentence when owners couldn't afford or didn't care about providing medical care. Worse, the animals who weren't adopted returned to the shelter to be immediately euthanized.

"I realized we were doing more harm than good," Chatterton says. "I thought someone's got to do something else; it might as well be me."

Chatterton opened La Casita, a small private sanctuary in Puerto Vallarta for animals she began to rescue. She hired staff with her own money, and began to enlist volunteers to help rescue animals, adopting them out to mostly Americans and Canadians, a formula which would ultimately become her model.

Many fundraisers later, Chatterton established and opened the much larger SPCA Puerto Vallarta Sanctuary in January, 2012.

Dogs are kept in spacious kennels, and always have the choice of being indoors or outside. They have playtime, and attention nearly 24/7 from a staff of 20 employees supported by a contingent of about 10 volunteers. There's one social group of cats, who enjoy a veritable kitty playground, with even a small tree to climb.

There's a veterinarian on-staff (uncommon in Mexico), and Chatterton has sent animals to other cities to see veterinary specialists. There's even a hydrotherapy pool on site. With relaxing music piped in via surround sound, the Sanctuary is more spa than shelter.

In Puerto Vallarta, Chatterton has helped establish the concept of 'voluntourism.' The Sanctuary welcomes tourists willing to spend a good part of a day volunteering at the facility. Many wind up adopting a new BFF. Chatterton is now expert at the process of transporting animals to the U.S. and Canada.

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