The Aniplant Project
Les Inglis, Founder
P.O. Box 451
Osprey, FL 34229
website: TheAniplantProject.org
email: TheAniplantProject@comcast.net
4th QUARTER NEWSLETTER 2014
REDUCING HOMELESS ANIMAL POPULATIONS
Ask any professional in the animal protection field how to reduce the population of
homeless animals in a city, and you'll likely get the same answer. The only effective
humane way to reduce the homeless animal population is through massive, longterm spay and neuter campaigns. Nothing else has permanent results. Such
sterilization campaigns are primarily what The Aniplant Project has been helping our
friends in Havana to do. We got started early in 2006 after my first trip to Cuba, and
we've been helping with anesthetics and
medicines ever since.
Each year Aniplant must report its progress in sterilizing animals to Cuba's Ministry
of Agriculture. Now, with several years' results, we can draw conclusions about
Aniplant's humane work and how many animal poisonings it has saved through low
cost sterilizing programs.
THE CRUEL ALTERNATIVE
The Cuban Government has an old
fashioned, inhumane way of dealing with
homeless animals—they poison
them. Work crews in trucks prowl the
city in search of vagabond, sick, and
injured animals. They are taken to a
killing center miles east of the city where
they are kept without food for a few days
to check for rabies. As soon as the
rabies quarantine period has lapsed, the
hungry animals are finally given a
meal—lamentably, their last one. The
food is laced with strychnine, and there begins a slow, painful decline and death for
thousands of dogs and cats every year.
MEASURING OUR RESULTS
The killing center produces statistics to show how many animals they kill. After a
year of asking we finally got some general information. We were told that in the
1990's the average number of killings was 13,000 to 15,000 per year.
Today, that nUmber (the kill rate) has fallen to an average of 9600 per year. If we take 14,000 as
the 1990's rate, it is fair to credit Aniplant's saving animals from cruel poisonings with a rate of 4400
animals a year—or a 31% reduction in killings. Those saved animals were never born, but result in a
real reduction in
animal suffering.
AN EYE TOWARD THE FUTURE
Nora Garcia, Aniplant's President, is talking with those who control the killing center
to urge the use of humane euthanasia drugs in place of strychnine. There are
resistances to change and major cost
issues. No one now
can know if that will happen, but it's an
effort worth making. Unless or until
Cuba's procedures are modernized and
made humane, the best hope the animals
have is continued high numbers of
sterilizations.
WHERE YOU FIT IN
You, the friends and supporters of The
Aniplant Project, can take a bow for the very
real improvement we've made in the lives of Cuban animals. The sterilizations accomplished since
2006 are the central reason for this
improvement. Those 4400 animals avoiding poisoning this year are repeated every
year so long as we can continue our massive sterilization programs. This is real
animal suffering stopped because of you.
OUR ANNUAL FUNDRAISING
APPEAL
At this time of year we make our yearly appeal to
you, our supporters, for donations. Your gift to
TAP is one of the biggest humane bargains you'll
find. In Cuba, they do the hard work—educating
the public, advertising the campaigns, conducting
the sterilizing sessions which move through
Havana's neighborhoods, doing the vet work,
etc. Here, all we have to do is support them.
Won't you please make a donation to
TAP so we can continue helping Cuba's
animals? They deserve our efforts to
give them decent lives and to militate
against cruel extermination methods.
For Cuba's animals,
Les Inglis, Founder
Contributions can also be mailed to:
The Aniplant Project
P.O. Box 451
Osprey, FL 34229
The Aniplant Project, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation registered in the State of Florida. All
contributions are tax deductible to the full extent of the law under IRS Code 501(c)(3) - ID# 272345012. A copy of our official registration and financial information may be obtained from the
Division of Consumer Services by calling toll-free 1-800-435-7352 within the State of Florida, or 850488-2221. Registration does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by the State. TAP's
registration number is CH32635. All fund-raising is done in-house.