Menu
Expat.com
Search
Magazine
Search

Having pets (Cats Dogs) while in DR

Conifer
Lately I come across so many people that took in pets as temporary expat in DR.  They have to leave or return home for whatever reason, and they LEAVE the pets behind. 

It's not fair for the animals.

What is so hard about taking responsibility for a pet as if it were your child?
See also
olgaglenn
I hear you. I read about it all the time. I understand they feel compassion to give that animal shelter but then, most of them get returned to the streets when they leave. Either you adopt the animal and be responsible for it for the remain of their life, or let them be in the streets. Is unfair for the animal that got attached to that person and now they are left behind, they don't understand what they did so wrong to deserve that.. so sad :(
Jwoddis
@Conifer so if the option is to take in a stray for a year and give it a home and feed it, then get it adopted, fostered or into a shelter, or leave it in the street, you think we should leave them in the street?

Here I have a five bedroom house in an ecological park. In Manhattan I have a 5th floor walk up.  No way I could have 2 dogs and a cat in 900 square feet.
Jwoddis

@Conifer I should add - one of our pets is being fostered while he waits to be adopted.  One of the others was abandoned with her four puppies on our private road.  We could of course just have left them to starve (there is no food where we are)   

olgaglenn
@Jwoddis

Most of the animals get returned to the street here. Unfortunately, there are too many animals on the streets. If adopted by somebody else, then great but, if returned to the streets then the poor animal doesn't understand what he did so wrong that now he has to go back to the streets. NOT fair for the animal. If somebody knows they will be leaving, then make preparations WAY ahead to time for the animal. Most people leaving ask for somebody to take the animal just days before they leave and, if nobody reaches out, they leave them in the streets. That breaks my heart, better leave them in the streets if they are not willing to care for the animal for the rest of their life. If those people want to help an animal, reach out to the animal recue groups and give them money for food, medicine and to get them better as, these rescue groups find suitable forever homes to these poor creatures.. that is a way better solution

You are a good person
planner
This is a subject where there are strong opinions.   Neither is a perfect situation!   We all need to do the best we can. I cannot take an animal at all!  So I donate regularly to rescue organizations!
olgaglenn
@planner

You are right. Perfect situation will be no animals on the streets and all taking care and love. You are a good person
planner
I try honey.   There are lots of  good rescue organizations  focusing on  spay and neuter clinics, and on deparasite clinics!  Things are getting better.
Tippj
@Conifer so if the option is to take in a stray for a year and give it a home and feed it, then get it adopted, fostered or into a shelter, or leave it in the street, you think we should leave them in the street?

Here I have a five bedroom house in an ecological park. In Manhattan I have a 5th floor walk up.  No way I could have 2 dogs and a cat in 900 square feet.
- @Jwoddis
               I agree with you , I feed every dog that comes by my house and sometimes I even get to play        ball with then  in my 2500 square foot yard  , but their not coming back to  New York with me  to my
no pets allowed high rise apartment  …… if people don’t want to see strays  they should start
    A non profit ASPCA to take control of the situation like they did back in the 60s  when the Five boroughs of New York had a rampant problem , plus put into place educational materials out there on the matter , no I think those dogs and cats were very lucky to b with those expats even for a little while because it bought them extra time  … like getting a reprieve on death row  and maybe some other people will Re-adopt them , instead of just leaving them to die  on the side of the street   🐶🐶🐶🐶
planner
There are multiple   non profits operating already.   We live in a culture that has not always  valued animals as pets but rather as  guard dogs or  working animals. That is changing  and now they have protection under the law.   There is no need for another organization to step in.
ddmcghee
Dogs and Cats of the Dominican Republic is an excellent organization with operations throughout the country, and shelters in Punta Cana, Las Terrenas, and Luperon. We adopt out a bunch of dogs to Canada every year - like hundreds - that are either escorted by vacationers returning to Canada or on chartered flights. (If you drink vodka, drink Tito's - they funded most of one of our last charters!).

We also operate spay and neuter clinics throughout the year on a pure donation basis. I've accepted donations as small as 50 DOP for surgery on a momma and her full litter of kittens!

In addition to the surgeries, we also have parasite clinics (also on a donation basis) and provide education and awareness to the community. We try to get everyone to understand that a dog or cat is a part of the family and not property. We've had to explain that neutered dogs are just as protective as intact dogs, and that while dogs and cats don't have sex for anything other than procreation, they could if they wanted to after sterilization!

We also try to educate the expats to understand that not every dog is going to have a home, so they don't have to post every dog they see on Facebook asking if someone can take it in! It's going to take generations to change the culture here, so that is just a fact of life. As long as dogs are healthy, they can live a decent life on the beach. We have people that "own" certain areas of town and look after the street and beach dogs there, providing food and treating them for fleas and worms. When our volunteers see an injured or sick animal, we take them to the vet for the care they need and then either place them in a foster home or one of the local shelters. Sometimes they are returned to the street or beach. Until we get to a point where the population is under control, there will never be an end to street and beach dogs. It's not ideal, but it is reality.

If you shop on Amazon or Chewy, choose DCDR as your designated charity so that a small portion of every purchase helps us continue our mission!

BTW - I'm just a volunteer here in LT, not involved with running the organization at all!!
bjamfitnessinfo

@Conifer it’s terrible , how can they live with themselves knowing they abandoned a innocent animal !!!!

olgaglenn
@ddmcghee

Thank you. I shop Amazon all the time so I will select that DCDR for the charity organization and will tell my friends to do the same
RockyM
I have to say my attitude towards dogs has changed since Denise and I landed here 18 months ago. At first I wanted to rescue every stray dog and cat I laid my eyes on. Over time I came to realize many of these dogs do not have a bad life. Most are fairly well fed and they have their freedom to go where they want, rather then being locked in a pen or chained in someone's yard. The "beach dogs" are very friendly due to being so well socialized with the other dogs and the many people they encounter. More mistreatment occurs when they live in an abusive household.  So, when I see a dog trotting down the street I don't feel the same sadness as I once did.

We fostered a young coco dog last year. She spent her early life on the street and was getting regular meals from a nice family in El Limon. When we had her, in a fenced area, she wanted nothing more than to get out on the street where her friends were and presumably where the "action" is. We always had her on a leash or she would have been gone in an instant.

What I cannot tolerate here is the poisoning of dogs and cats. We hear about this quite often, and it is exceptionally cruel.
olgaglenn
@ddmcghee

I can't find DCDR in Amazon. Can you post the whole name?
ddmcghee
It’s Dogs and Cats of the Dominican Republic
ddmcghee
For those in and around LT - we will be having a parasite clinic this Saturday, June 4 from 10-2 at Groovy Garden. This event is designed for low-income pet owners as well as for street and beach animals. Animals will receive anti-parasitic meds - topical and oral at no cost! Donations are always welcome.

Please spread the word and if you have strays near you, round them up and bring them in! Let's keep our dogs and cats as healthy as possible!
DRCulture
@RockyM

Oh my gosh, you said poisoning.  1f62d.svg That is horrible.

My house in DR is not ready yet and my family won't even travel all at once because we cannot easily bring our dog back and forth. We love our fur baby and dogs in general.  I'm glad you shared observations about the dogs liking their freedom because I had been thinking about how I could afford to open a pet rescue.  LOL!  But seriously.
Tippj
I think it’s wonderful there are Organizations out there helping but apparently the volume of Animals are stressing those organizations resources , wouldn’t it be better to have more hands on the subject than less …🤔for I must see 20-30 dogs a day that are strays and I couldn’t find an  Organization by me that was willing to take them in without charging
ddmcghee
@Tippj Yes, it would be fantastic if every dog and cat in this country had a home, but even with twice as many organizations addressing the issue, it will still take a long time to get close to that goal. Getting an animal off the street means finding an adopter, a foster, or a room in a shelter. If every person who expressed concern for street animals started opening their homes to adopt or foster, that would put a dent in the problem. But the reality is that so many more people say "Someone needs to give this dog/cat a home" than "I will take this dog/cat in and care for it." And living in a shelter is NOT always a better option than living on the beach or street. As humane as our shelters are, dogs still have to be contained in shared kennels for a good part of the day. There is constant noise from the other dogs barking, whining, growling - I don't know how any of them sleep!

I can't speak to the missions of other organizations here in DR, but with DCDR, we really focus on sterilization and education - trying to address the root cause rather than the symptom (stray animals). With each of our sterilization events, our volunteers visit the barrios to encourage having family pets fixed, and offer transport to the clinic site. We also have volunteers that drive through the town picking up the strays and bringing them in. Post-surgery, they are dropped back where they were picked up, but they will have gotten much-needed antiparasitics and will no longer contribute to the population problem. It's not ideal, but it's a significant drop in the bucket - especially when you consider that we sterilize 50-100 animals a day during our events!

I understand that not everyone can take animals home with them, but everyone can take a few to a local vet to be sterilized. It's considerably cheaper than in the US and would go a long way towards addressing the problem. And many vets have discounted rates for strays that are brought in.
planner
The problem is not solved in developed countries, it won't be easily solved here either.

I love what many are trying to do. I do what I can but my efforts go more to helping educate children so they have a better future.

My point is if we all try to do just a little bit to make this a better place, then we will succeed.
Conifer
Good conversation.

Things are not black or white, yanno?  The gray area... feeding an stray dog or cat, spaying or neutering him/her, taking care of their wellbeing...   this we can do.

I'm talking about people who take pets in and then have to return home and don't take the pets with them.  Take the pet with you.
ddmcghee
@Conifer - It is a significant issue! Even after seeing it happen for years, I'm still surprised when I see or hear of expats from countries with much healthier attitudes towards pets abandoning their animals here. Some just up and leave without giving a thought to trying to rehome them and others post half-hearted attempts to rehome on social media just before leaving.

It's really bad if the dogs were adopted early on and weren't socialized. They don't know how to interact with other dogs which could lead to fighting, injury, or even death. And they are used to an endless supply of food that is set before them each day. Suddenly having to hunt or forage for food is a huge adjustment. And that doesn't even address the abandonment issues.

As RockyM (my hubby) mentioned, we fostered a street dog last year. She was extremely energetic and constantly tried to get our older, high-anxiety, sedentary, couch potato of a dog to play. George retreated to his crate and spent most of his day there so that he could get away from Gracie. We were somewhat fortunate that Gracie preferred sleeping on the terrace rather than inside with us, so George at least had the nighttime hours to relax and not worry about her. It was far from an ideal situation and we hated how stressful it was for George, but we kept fostering her until we found a home. She was a former street dog and it would have been easy to just let her back on the street after she was spayed, but we couldn't do that.
DRCulture
Do you think expats would take their pets if it were easier to do?  I want to bring my dog to the DR when I come to work on things, but I can’t easily bring him back to US with me. All of the rules are a nightmare. It’s easy to get him in the DR.
ddmcghee
@DRCulture I don’t have stats, but based on what I have personally seen, it’s not Americans but European expats abandoning their pets.

The new CDC Rabies restrictions just went into effect last July and only impact Americans (directly), and this issue has been going on much longer and amongst all nationalities.
planner
And the DR is only responsible for the rules here, not the rules to bring pets back into your home countries!
Conifer

@DRCulture  What rules?  All you need is a health certificate. 


So do you bring the dog and just leave him here?


People adopt here, get the animal used to love, then dump them on the streets when they leave.   Cruel AF

Conifer

@planner  I started donating to @catloverspuntacana who is doing strong work and producing results near our community.


Free clinics have begun to prioritize their friends and we hear of a lot of deaths

Conifer

@planner Correct, a country can't force ethics and empathy on people.


you adopted an animal?  it's now part of your family.  not a toy to leave behind once you relocate.

Conifer

@ddmcgheet thank you.

Make your relocation easier with the Dominican Republic expat guide

Forum topics on pets in Dominican Republic

The pet culture in Dominican Republic
Dogs in the airport
Dog Medicine in the DR
Getting our dogs to the Dominican Republic from USA
How to bring your mid to large size dogs to the DR
Quarantine for pet bird in Dominican Republic
Bringing exotic animals to DR?
Traveling with dog
Need advice on bringing dogs to D.R.
Bringing a parrot
Traveling with pets from DR to US
Excessive barking with neighboring pets
Moving with dog to Dominican Republic
Pets in Dominican Republic
Requirements to bring our cat into the country
Pets traveling to the Dominican
How to keep dogs and cats from getting poisoned by the DR frogs
Looking for Rottweiler puppies
Other discussions about pets in Dominican Republic

Essential services for your expat journey

Choose the best health insurance
Protect your health and get easy access to treatment for expats in Dominican Republic.
Plan your international move
Facilitate your move to the Dominican Republic by getting a quote from our top rated movers.
Open a bank account that suits you
Discover the best international banks to manage your money securely.
Send money overseas at the best rate
For fast, safe and secure money transfers to and from the Dominican Republic.