Past Projects

All the countries where we have introduced our programs have made tremendous progress when it comes to how companion animals are perceived and treated. More and more dogs and cats are being looked upon as sentient beings with new veterinary clinics and pet supply stores opening on a regular basis, animal abuse routinely denounced to animal advocacy groups as well as government agencies and increased attendance to low-cost spay and neuter clinics even in very poor neighborhoods.

Costa Rica has always lead the charge to end animal suffering in Central and Latin America and, thanks to our international program, we were able to continue our advocacy work in the entire region, training more veterinarians in the small incision method and assisting communities in starting and implementing their own spay and neuter campaigns.

Costa Rica

Since year 2000, McKee has trained more than 300 veterinarians in advanced spay and neuter surgery methods, and more than 50 communities have participated in McKee´s Community Outreach Program which helps them set up regularly held low-cost spay and neuter clinics. 

McKee is principally responsible for the increased number of annual spay and neuter surgeries (an annual growth estimated at 22%.) More than 50,000 animals were spayed or neutered in 2009, which corresponds to 5% of the total pet population. We estimate that 40% of the population is now “Fixed” and that by year 2015 we might actually reach our goal of 70%!

Cat Café

McKee has initiated 3 Cat Café projects in Costa Rica:

-Tabacón Resort & Grand Spa (www.tabacon.com):  in 2007, McKee founded the first Cat Café project at the Tabacón Resort. We chose Tabacón as the prototype hotel for this project, because Tabacón is one of the most prestigious and most visited resorts in Costa Rica. At the time, the administration was not sure if they wanted the program (most hotels choose to poison the cats, or trap and relocate them), so McKee offered to cover all set up expenses in order to encourage participation.

-Condovac La Costa: this hotel is located in Guanacaste where cat overpopulation has been an issue for the past 20 years. The hotel management called us asking for help, so we offered the Cat Café program and, in less than a month, were able to set up the project.  90% of the cat population was spayed and neutered and every one was extremely happy with the results of the project.

-Buen Pastor Female Detention Center: the management of the detention facility called McKee asking for support: there was huge concern for cat overpopulation and also for the issue of the cats being fed everywhere and anywhere by the inmates. Thanks to a grant by Marchig Trust Animal Welfare, McKee was able to set up its third Cat Café in Costa Rica, bringing not only benefits to the cats, but to the women population at the prison as well.

 

 

 Nicaragua

With the support of Best Friends Animal Society (www.bestfriends.org) and a strategic alliance with recently founded Fundación AMARTE (www.fundacionamarte.org), McKee was able to introduce its population control model. Slowly, but surely people in Nicaragua are becoming more and more interested in humane methods of pet population control and McKee has found great interest in the veterinary community as far as learning and practicing advanced spay and neuter techniques. 

This is the cultural change that McKee has been promoting since being founded by Christine Crawford over 10 years ago and, little by little, people are starting to respond. We have strengthened our relationship with Fundación AMARTE, who has become an advocate and promoter of spay and neuter.

 Guatemala

During 2008 McKee was awarded a grant by WSPA (www.wspa-international.org) in order to propose a solution to the issue of pet overpopulation by training communities to be proactive and by providing advanced spay and neuter surgery training for all interested veterinarians. The goal was to inspire communities and animal organizations to offer periodic low-cost surgeries and to promote a shift from collecting and mass poisoning to spay and neuter both by veterinarians and government agencies.

As a result McKee accomplished the following:

 

 Belize

Dr. Yayo Vicente, President of the McKee Project, officially presented the McKee Model in Belize in May 2009. Among the participants, there were representatives of the Department of Public Health, the Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA), the Humane Society, Saga Humane Society, BeKind Belize and many private practice veterinarians. 

There are only 20 licensed veterinarians in Belize and McKee trained 10 of them, (the ones who practice on small animals.) We offered 4 surgery trainings at the Belize Humane Society and insisted on a radical shift from rescue to prevention, in order to start educating the public on the importance of spay and neuter as well as on the catastrophic consequences that neglect and abandonment produce and their impact on society in terms of lower quality of life and higher social costs.

 

 

Curaçao

The Curaçao Foundation for the Protection of Animals (www.dierenbeschermingcuracao.com) approached the McKee Project and WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) requesting support to train local veterinarians in advanced spay and neuter surgery techniques. They had been performing spay and neuter surgeries at the shelter, but the cost was extremely high because the veterinarians did not know the advanced technique that McKee teaches.

One of McKee´s surgery training instructors, Dr. Olman Solano, traveled to Curacao to train 8 veterinarians who are now performing safer and less expensive procedures in the local shelter and neighboring communities. 

 

Perú

Thanks to the support of Best Friends Animal Society (www.bestfriends.org), McKee had the opportunity to extend its program across the Panama canal and all the way to Perú. The interest from local veterinarians, animal organizations, independent volunteers, government agencies and universities exceeded our expectations. 

 Following are some of the outcomes of the project: