Here is how you can help
BY FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ
Casa Sheila Animal Welfare is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and administering free spay/neuter clinics to the Los Cabos communities in the neighborhoods needing the most help. The organization is named after the late Sheila Marshall, who was the founder and driving force behind Casa Sheila, as it slowly went from an original shelter-based rescue to concentrating on spay/neuter efforts to help ease the street animal population issue that plagues nearly every city in our Southern Baja California Region.
”Sheila Marshall passed away 8 years ago,” said Sandy Motter, the current organization leader, ”She started an animal rescue she called, ”Alma.” (Soul). Originally from Canada, Sheila worked for 30 years rescuing animals in Los Barriles. She really believed that including the local Mexican population would help solve many of the animal issues that needed attention. I absolutely believed if we don’t teach people, they will never change.” She held them accountable for proper care. “When I moved here over 15 years ago from Puerto Vallarta, I was looking to get involved and started to help her.”
Sandy is originally from Idaho and her father was in the Air Force. ”We were all over” said Sandy. ”Hawaii, Idaho, I graduated high school in Coeur d’Alene, and went to Boise State University. My husband and I fell in love with Mexico from our first vacation trip to Puerto Vallarta. All of Mexico and its people truly captured my heart.”
”Once we were in Los Cabos, I introduced myself to various people and wanted to get involved with something meaningful. One of my friends introduced me to Sheila Marshall and we really just clicked. I started fostering for her and tried to help as much as possible with events, airport runs, and rescuing. I was doing a lot of work with Sheila and we decided we needed to have a shelter.”
”We actually found a suitable location in La Playita in San Jose and established a rescue with space for 12 dogs. After a few months of operation we were overwhelmed by the number of dogs and cats needing rescue and we began scouting for a larger facility. While we were thinking about this, I had dropped a dog off to the airport and was on my way home when I received a phone call saying that Sheila was in the hospital after she had suffered a massive stroke. We worked the entire night to find her family and finally got ahold of her sister. Unfortunately, shortly after her family arrived, Sheila passed away. It was devastating at that point. Sheila ran the whole thing and I had no real idea what was needed and who to depend on and who to utilize. I was very fortunate that a lot of Sheila’s friends and my friends surrounded me and we made it work.”
”While we were gathering all of our forces we moved to a bigger location in Colonia Zacatal in San Jose near the airport and established our newly-named Casa Sheila Rescue. After only days of operation we were getting dogs and cats dumped on us non-stop. It seemed like every day we would come in to find a new box of kittens outside our door, and unwanted dogs left tied to our fence. We were dealing with 60 plus animals all the time. Ultimately, we realized that at a certain point all we were doing was taking care of other people problems, and not addressing the root cause of so much animal suffering. After two years, we decided to shut down the shelter and change the focus of Casa Sheila.”
“While we were determining the new direction for Casa Sheila, I was rescuing animals on my own. In early 2020, during the COVID pandemic, I was taking dog food out to the various areas where dogs were starving. People could barely feed their kids let alone their dogs. In conversation with some of my friends, they said they wanted to help. We asked the community for donations of dog food and successfully raised and distributed 2,500 pounds of food every two weeks. As we walked through neighborhoods delivering food, we talked to many residents to find out who needed what, how many stray animals and unwanted litters were out there. We saw first-hand that the animal overpopulation was out of control. We counted over 1500 animals in one small area. Several residents begged us to take their unwanted puppies and kittens. This experience led our team to direct the focus of Casa Sheila Animal Welfare in three areas: control animal overpopulation, educate children on proper care of animals, and work with communities to make them better places for animals and people.
”In mid-2020 we organized our first spay and neuter clinic. We didn’t have trained volunteers (other than the veterinarians of course!), we didn’t have any supplies, we were in an old church with no water, a dirt floor and no electricity. We endured difficult conditions, yet we persevered and successfully spayed and neutered 250 animals in one day. We even had the COVID police stop by and they were awesome, offering to help if we needed it. It was amazing and that was really the beginning of what we do now, where we do monthly clinics with a goal of 300 animals. Our next clinic will be next month in mid to late June.”
So far this year, Sandy and her volunteer crew have administered 1,356 sterilizations. BAJA California Sur Government officials estimate there are half a million (500,000) street animals in Los Cabos alone. Sandy and her team also visit public schools as part of their education program, in which they talk to the kids about proper care, the importance of spaying and neutering, and making dogs and cats a part of your family.
”We are also doing Spaying for Change, a worldwide movement for spaying and neutering pets. We are partnered with Geraldine Gilliland of Chiquitas Friends in Southern California. In our first year, we had 10 teams up and down the Baja and in two days we did 1,472 animals! This year will be even bigger,” said Sandy.
For more information please visit their Casa Sheila website https://casasheila.com.mx/ or Facebook: Casa Sheila or call Sandy direct at +52 (624) 191-0018.
