Rosarito animal shelter is in a tight spot
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20041028-9...
Group forced to move, faces legal problems
By Sandra Dibble
October 28, 2004
ROSARITO BEACH ? An animal rescue group that gathers stray dogs and sends them across the border for adoption in the United States is facing increased
scrutiny by Mexican officials that could result in the closure of its shelter.
The Baja Animal Sanctuary, supported largely by U.S. donors, has come under fire in recent weeks after complaints that mangy dogs had infected
children from a neighboring orphanage.
Rosarito Beach officials said Friday that four children from the Rancho del Ni?o Nueva Vida had tested positive for scabies. Though there has been no
conclusive proof that dogs from the sanctuary were the cause, the complaints have drawn the attention of federal, state and city agencies.
"I haven't done anything but help this city," said Sunny Benedict, the sanctuary's founder and president. She says her group has taken in 7,000 stray
dogs over the past seven years. "We're picking up dogs from the street. Is that a bad thing?"
Rosarito Beach city officials say they are concerned about the conditions of the dogs and the possible public health hazard they represent. In
addition, they say, the center doesn't have the proper land-use and building permits at a new facility where it moved the animals this month.
"At the beginning, the animals were very well cared for (at the original shelter), but they let it go," said Dr. Arnulfo Bracamontes, the director of
medical services for Rosarito Beach.
Bracamontes said he is awaiting reports from state and federal health inspectors before taking any action against the shelter. Closing the facility
could be an option, he said, but that could only be done through a series of legal steps.
Until this month, the Baja Animal Sanctuary operated in a semi-built villa in Colonia Morelos, outside the town. The landowner had been asking the
shelter to leave, Benedict said, because he wanted to subdivide the property. The landowner could not be reached for comment.
But the sanctuary had trouble finding a new site.
Complaints from the orphanage next door compounded the pressure. "They didn't have the hygiene that they were supposed to," said Beatriz Morales, the
orphanage's director. "Dogs were loose out on the street."
Morales said she had been complaining about the center, but got little response from public officials until Ecos de Rosarito, the local newspaper,
wrote a series of critical articles about the shelter.
The shelter was forced to vacate this month, Benedict said, when the landlord ordered them out within a week. The animals ? 280 dogs, 40 cats and one
horse ? were hurriedly moved several miles away to a new shelter the sanctuary was building at an unpopulated location in Rosarito's backcountry.
Last week, some dogs roamed freely inside the walled compound at the new site, while others clustered inside concrete-block stalls. The cats sat
inside a used trailer bought by the group.
Benedict said the criticism mystifies her. She highlighted the sanctuary's successes: nursing animals back to health and finding loving homes for many
of them across the border.
"We did the best we could with what we had to work with," Benedict said about the former site. And once completed, "the new site will be ten times
better" than the city's dog pound, she said.
At its new shelter, the sanctuary has been caught between the new landowner and the city ? the former saying the shelter doesn't need any permits,
while the latter insisting that it does.
Though there are few fond feelings these days between Benedict and Rosarito officials, they agree on one point: Rosarito Beach, a city of 90,000, has
a serious problem with stray dogs.
Dr. Jes?s Velasco, the secretary-general of Rosarito Beach and former head of medical services for the city, said the dogs sift through garbage, hang
around taco stands, transmit disease and sometimes become aggressive.
Benedict, a former Orange County real estate agent, opened the shelter in 1997, after moving to Rosarito and noticing the number of stray dogs.
Rosarito officials at first welcomed the sanctuary, she said. An official certificate of appreciation hangs in her office.
Today, the group, registered as a nonprofit on both sides of the border, claims nearly 3,100 members who support the center with donations. Last
year's budget was more than $80,000, Benedict said. The sanctuary is trying to raise $90,000 to complete its new shelter, staffed mostly by recovering
drug addicts from a local rehabilitation center.
The center has strong links with a number of San Diego groups and businesses. Together with the Petco and PetSmart corporations, it operates dog
adoption programs in San Diego County on weekends.
Rosarito Beach's government has taken measures to control the stray dog population in recent months. In June, the city opened its first dog pound. And
now city officials say they can take care of the stray dog problem without the sanctuary's help.
The dog pound catches 40 to 50 dogs a day, said Bracamontes, the city's director of medical services. Every third day, about 100 dogs are
electrocuted, in accordance with state regulations, Bracamontes said.
Benedict insists her sanctuary is still necessary. It doesn't kill the animals, and conducts spaying and neutering programs, she said. "We believe the
animals have another option, that they don't need to be electrocuted."
The sanctuary's capacity is limited to 500 dogs ? a number that Rosarito Beach officials say does not even make a dent in the stray dog population.
And the city cannot afford to sterilize all the dogs wandering the streets, said Velasco, the city's secretary-general.
The Baja Animal Sanctuary can stay if it gets the proper permits and meets health standards, Velasco said.
"They can keep having their sanctuary, as long as they respect the law."
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