With an investment of nearly 1.4 million pesos and the valuable support of civil and international organizations, numerous veterinary professionals and lay volunteers began the ninth canine and feline sterilization campaign in Mérida, inaugurated by the head of the state Ministry of Health of Yucatan, Jorge Eduardo Mendoza Mézquita.
Medical treatment is offered to anyone’s dog or cat, whether domestic or a captured stray, free of charge in an effort to control the out-of-control pet population.
The three-day campaign, at the Siglo XXI convention center, follows two days in Progreso. The Mérida leg of the project concludes Wednesday.
On behalf of Gov. Rolando Zapata Bello, the state official presented acknowledgments to Jeffrey “D. Jeff” Young, president of Planned Pethood International, and José Antonio Ríos Pérez del Valle, representing its subsidiary in Mexico.
Dr. Jeff stars in a television show in the U.S., where his adventures are broadcast on the Animal Planet channel. Young has also set up roving clinics in India, Slovakia, Panama, Hungary, Poland, Turkey and on Native American reservations.
Between Planned Pethood, the Franciscan Shelter of the Unprotected Animal (AFAD) and the Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY), more than 29,000 canine and feline sterilizations have prevented the birth of about half a million stray dogs and cats.
Earlier, in Progreso, 700 surgeries were performed on dogs and cats. After its final leg in Valladolid on Friday and Saturday, 2,500 animals are expected to have been treated.
