Since 2001, Isla Animals Rescue has been working tirelessly to rescue and sterilize street dogs and cats on the island of Isla Mujeres, Mexico, offering vital free and reduced cost services to a community that desperately needs them. To date, hundreds of thousands of animals have been helped, and this year alone, they've rescued 140 dogs and performed almost 500 free spay/neuters.
Prior to the founding of Isla Animals, Isla Mujeres was an island overrun with starving, neglected dogs and cats. Unsterilized and unwanted, their unchecked breeding was bringing more and more animals into a world where they'd be destined for the same miserable life and the same risk of instant electrocution — the island's method of animal control before Isla Animals began.
But now, the brave efforts of the Isla Animals team have been upended by the government of Isla Mujeres, which recently reclaimed the space inhabited by Isla Animals, leaving the rescue organization homeless like the abandoned animals they work so diligently to protect.
The government offered Isla Animals a tiny, 10 x 8 foot building, which is far too small to even meet the storage needs of Isla Animals, so the team made the difficult decision to move to the Mainland, where they're hoping to build a new Island Animal Oasis in a property generously donated for that purpose.
In spite of the unthinkable setback, Noakes' determination — and that of her volunteers and team — remains steadfast.
"Twenty-two years and tens of thousands of dogs and cats saved — passion, sweat and tears — all of that will not be thrown away at the whim of an ungrateful government that doesn't appreciate how we have taken care of their problem," added Sawyer.
Isla Animals is in critical need of the public's help. They have launched a Go Fund Me campaign (https://gofund.me/7fe42686) to raise money to build a new shelter. More information can be found (and donations can also be made) at https://www.islaanimals.org/.