The Sato Project 2019 Program Report

Photo by Caroline Okun
PROGRAM
UPDATE
September 2019
It has been two years since Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico,
bringing with it an ongoing humanitarian and animal welfare crisis. But The Sato
Project has not faltered. In the first year after the storm, we rose to meet the crisis
head-on. We dramatically expanded the scope of our rescue efforts, launched a new
program to reunite dogs with their families who had to flee to the mainland, and
distributed thousands of pounds of humanitarian and animal relief supplies across
the island. In the second year after the storm, our efforts have continued to evolve.
Now, in addition to continuing to rescue, rehabilitate, and fly hundreds of dogs to new
homes off the island, we have adapted our work to address Puerto Rico’s stray animal
epidemic at the heart of its cause. Thanks to our role in The Spayathon for Puerto
Rico Initiative, we have been able to change more lives than ever before.

The crisis is not over.
But thanks to our generous supporters, we are
still in the ring, fighting harder than ever.
For many, Hurricane Maria never ended.
September 20, 2017 is a date that will stay imprinted
in Puerto Rican history forever. The entire island was
left in the dark (nearly three million people) in what
became the longest blackout in U.S. history. Overnight,
hundreds of thousands of residents were left homeless.
Thousands more were left without access to basic
necessities like safe drinking water and medical
care. Hurricane Maria officially claimed the lives of
almost 3,000 people. The causes of these deaths were
exacerbated by the slow recovery process, a process that
continues to be marred by bureaucratic red tape, poor
management, and lack of political will.
Until this summer’s wave of protests and political
upheaval on the island, the national media had largely
moved on from Puerto Rico and Hurricane Maria.
But for many of us still living on the island, the
storm’s effects are still being felt. The island’s power
capacity has still not returned to 100%. What has
been repaired remains unstable and outages are still a
weekly occurrence in our team’s homes and veterinary
offices, sometimes lasting as long as 24 hours. Tens of
thousands of residents are still living under FEMA-
distributed blue tarps, instead of roofs. The healthcare
system is fragile and under-funded.
Food insecurity rates for families in Puerto Rico are
estimated to be over triple that of the mainland. Almost
half of Puerto Rican families with children under the
age of 18 are dependent on food stamps for survival.
According to U.S. Census data, at least 130,000 people
left the island after the hurricane. Since the slow
recovery process has brought little improvement to job
security or quality of life, many people are still leaving.
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THE SATO PROJECT PROGRAM UPDATE | SEPTEMBER 2019

What does all this mean for the animals of Puerto Rico?
It means a multitude of difficult questions and daily
suffering. If families can’t afford to feed themselves,
how can they afford to feed their pets, let alone take
them to a veterinarian? As more people leave the island
and/or struggle to survive themselves, more pets are
being left behind, neglected, or abandoned.
Many of these pets are not spayed/neutered, leading
to a steep increase in the number of unwanted litters
being born, further contributing to a snowballing stray
animal population. We have also seen an increase in
diseases such as heartworm, ehrlichia, and leptospirosis,
which can be deadly to humans. We routinely rescue
extremely malnourished dogs in need of emergency
veterinary care, as well as entire families of female dogs
and their puppies.
By law, each of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities is
mandated to have an animal control facility, but only
five actually do. As a result, the animal shelter system
on the island is overwhelmed, with a euthanasia rate of
94-96%. The Sato Project’s social media channels and
email inboxes are constantly flooded with messages
from people asking for help with stray and abandoned
dogs. We respond to as many calls for help as we can;
however, sadly, we cannot help everyone and our rescue
team is forced to make difficult decisions every day.
But thanks to the support of our community, we have
remained as determined as ever to keep fighting for the
satos of Puerto Rico.
Transformation Story: Kaelen
Kaelen gave birth to nine puppies while trying
to survive as a stray. She cared for them as best
she could; however, she was suffering herself.
We found her living in an abandoned house,
surrounded by trash, debris, and mud. All of the
dogs were covered in dirt and in desperate need
of medical care. Sadly, by the time we found this
poor family, six of the puppies had already died.
We rushed the remaining four vulnerable satos
to the vet, where we unfortunately lost another
puppy that was just too weak to survive. But
the remaining three survivors, Kaelen and two
puppies, went on to thrive under our care. Now
all three dogs are beautiful, happy, and healthy.
They took their Freedom Flight together at the
end of August on Mission Possible 10, where all
three were picked up at the airport by their new
forever families.
Photo by NYC Pet Photographer/Stacey Axelrod
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Rescue & Rehabilitation:
Expanding from Dead Dog Beach
The Sato Project continues to fight back.
The Sato Project’s rescue and rehabilitation efforts
have historically focused on an area in Yabucoa
unfortunately known as Dead Dog Beach. When
Chrissy Beckles founded The Sato Project in 2011, this
infamous dumping ground for unwanted and abused
dogs was home to hundreds of abandoned dogs. Thanks
to over eight years of our rescue and community
outreach work, this beach has been almost entirely
cleared of dogs. Only a handful of feral strays remain,
whom we feed daily. We patrol the beach regularly, and
immediately rescue any of the newly abandoned dogs
we encounter there.
In the first year after the storm, our
team rehabilitated and transported
over 1,500 dogs, reunited nearly
200 dogs with their families who
had to flee after the storm, and
distributed over 69,000 lbs of
humanitarian relief supplies to
people and other organizations all
across Puerto Rico.
Photo by NYC Pet Photographer/Stacey Axelrod
It is for this reason that we were able to exponentially
expand the reach of our efforts to other areas of the
island immediately after Hurricane Maria. In the
first year after the storm, our team rehabilitated and
transported over 1,500 dogs, reunited nearly 200 dogs
with their families who had to flee after the storm,
and distributed over 69,000 lbs of humanitarian relief
supplies to people and other organizations all across
Puerto Rico. We are so grateful for the support from
our community that allowed us to step up and aid in
the disaster relief efforts across the island. However, as
a small (though mighty) team, we also know that we
cannot change the whole island all at once. This is why,
in the second year after the storm, we have returned
our focus to our original home community of Yabucoa.
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THE SATO PROJECT PROGRAM UPDATE | SEPTEMBER 2019

Yabucoa remains one the poorest municipalities of
Puerto Rico, with over half of the population living
below the poverty line. And as the place where
Hurricane Maria first made landfall, it is also one of
the communities most affected by the slow recovery
process. Over 90% of the municipal buildings in
Yabucoa were destroyed in the storm. Fallen trees still
block roads, broken street lights and signs remain
unfixed, and many families are still living in houses
badly in need of repair.
Beyond the border of now-cleared Dead Dog Beach,
there are thousands of stray dogs suffering in the
streets, desperately awaiting their chance to be rescued.
Many of these dogs are in critical condition, struggling
to survive. The animals of Yabucoa still desperately
need us and we remain committed to doing everything
we can to help them.
Transformation Story: Zora
This past April, our clinics were completely full
of dogs, yet we were still being inundated with
requests for help. Sadly, we had to keep turning
many of these requests down because we just did
not have any more space. But then a follower on
social media sent us a picture of Zora in the streets.
She was extremely emaciated and suffering from
severe demodectic mange, anemia, and parasites.
We knew she would not survive much longer
without our help, so we rotated some animals
in our clinic and rescued her that very day. After
months of veterinary care, medicated baths, good
food, and most importantly love from our team in
Puerto Rico, this sweet ten month old sato grew
into a beautiful blonde. She took her Freedom
Flight at the end of August, along with over 200
other satos, on Mission Possible 10.
Photo by Roberto Kozek
An amazing team of super stars headed by Chrissy Beckles. This group knows each
of their dogs individually, cares, and loves them as they are sent on their Freedom
Flight to their forever homes…TSP has not only embarked on rescue but addressing
the root of the issue by organizing their spay & neutering programs. Their dedication
is endless even when conditions seem hopeless. #satostrong
- Hope L., Adopter and Volunteer
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When Chrissy Beckles first started rescuing stray
dogs from Puerto Rico, she began by rescuing one dog
at a time. Gradually, her efforts grew from one dog a
month, to one dog a week, to hundreds, and then over
a thousand dogs a year. Our strategy remains the same.
One beach has been cleared. Gradually we hope this
will evolve from one beach at a time, to one community
at a time, to one city, and to one county, until the entire
island is cleared and every sato has a loving home.
Since Fall of 2018 we have rescued,
rehabilitated, and flown almost 400
dogs from Puerto Rico to the mainland.
These ‘Freedom Flights’ either
take place as privately chartered
airplanes containing anywhere from
30-150 dogs, or as a handful at a
time on commercial flights.
FLYING TO FREEDOM
Our team was determined to save as many lives as possible before the height of Puerto Rico’s hurricane season
began at the end of August. A critical part of our hurricane preparedness plan included organizing the biggest
transport ever in our history, a mission we dubbed Mission Possible 10. On August 18th, 2019, two airplanes
filled with a combined 240 rescued animals (221 dogs and 19 cats), flew from San Juan, Puerto Rico to one of
several stops along the East Coast. Once on the ground, every dog was greeted by their new forever family,
foster family or one of our trusted shelter partners.
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Photo by NYC Pet Photographer/Stacey Axelrod
Photo by NYC Pet Photographer/Stacey Axelrod

I don’t even know where to begin to say how wonderful this organization is. Words don’t
do them justice… Everything about the organization is top notch. They run a very tight
ship, all from a view to protecting these amazing dogs and getting them safely into the
arms of their forever homes. Every volunteer I came into contact with was incredibly kind
and well educated about The Sato Project, informative and easy to work with. They are
absolutely the best. I will be forever grateful that they helped me turn my house back into
a home and brought me back to smiling again.
- Heather S., Adopter
The Spayathon for
Puerto Rico: Year One
26 organizations. Four week-long clinics.
34,344 lives changed forever.
The Sato Project team has always recognized that no
matter how many dogs we rescue from the streets of
Puerto Rico and fly to the mainland, we will never be
able to fully solve the island’s systemic stray animal
crisis without addressing its root cause: the lack of
spaying/neutering. We started a subsidized spay/neuter
and vaccine community voucher program in 2016
serving the Humacao and Yabucoa communities, but
we have been eager to expand this outreach to reach a
greater population of pet owners. So when the Humane
Society of the United States (HSUS) approached us
about partnering with them for The Spayathon for
Puerto Rico last year, we jumped at the opportunity to
contribute to this historic and bold initiative.
It is truly an honor to be a member of the Spayathon
Coalition. Spearheaded by the HSUS, the Spayathon is a
collaborative effort of over 26 national and international
organizations, plus the government of Puerto Rico. We
have all come together for a single cause: to help Puerto
Ricans access vital veterinary care for their pets and
curb the growth of the stray animal population.
Through four rounds of week-long clinics in different
locations across the island, pet owners have had the
opportunity to spay/neuter and vaccinate their cat or
dog at no cost.
The Sato Project was assigned as the Ground Team for
the southeast sector of the island. For our four clinics,
we were in charge of all logistics, community outreach,
and registration.
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In The Sato Project’s almost eight year history, we have rescued nearly
3,500 dogs and flown them off the island. But there are still an estimated
500,000 stray dogs roaming Puerto Rico’s streets and beaches. There is
only one way to stop the rising street dog population from getting any
bigger: we must stop the suffering before it begins and spay/neuter as
many dogs as we possibly can.
Every single morning of our Spayathon clinics during
Rounds 1, 2, 3, and 4, our team arrived before dawn to a
line of pet owners already waiting for us. Many of them
started lining up as early as midnight the night before
to ensure that they could get in. Nearly every day our
clinic reached its full capacity. We still have a long way
to go to combat Puerto Rico’s stray animal population,
but the impact of these 34,334 changed lives is going to
be felt far and wide all across the island for many years
to come.
By the end of Round 4, our team
was responsible for facilitating the
spaying/neutering and vaccination
of 4,138 dogs and cats in a single
year. The entire 26-member
Spayathon Coalition all together
treated 34,334 animals.
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Photo by Will Ferman
THE SATO PROJECT PROGRAM UPDATE | SEPTEMBER 2019

In only 6 years, one unspayed
female dog and her unsterilized
offspring can produce up to
67,000 puppies. The Spayathon
for Puerto Rico is preventing
millions of unwanted animals
from being born and living lives
of suffering in the streets.
The Spayathon is truly a dream come true for the animals
and people of Puerto Rico. The Sato Project is extremely
proud to be a part of it. The initiative was originally set
to conclude at the end of Round 4 in May 2019. But there
has been such a high demand for these services that the
initiative was extended for an additional six rounds over
the next two years. Given the current political shift on
the island, the future of the Spayathon is not entirely
clear as of the publication of this report. But regardless
of the broader coalition effort, The Sato Project is
determined to build on the experience we have gained
through the Spayathon and to continue to offer largescale
clinics in the southeast sector of the island, and to
turn the tides of the stray population.
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Spayathon Success Stories
Our team has learned many valuable lessons through
our participation in The Spayathon Initiative, but one
has become abundantly clear: Puerto Ricans truly love
their animals. During every day of The Spayathon
clinics, thousands of pet owners line up before dawn
and wait all day for their pets to be treated. Even
though many of these pet owners are struggling to
provide for themselves after Hurricane Maria, they are
still doing everything they can to care for their pets.
These are just a few of the lives that your support has
helped us change.
We are honored to help
these pet owners access vital
veterinary care for the pets
they love, while also actively
addressing Puerto Rico’s
systemic stray animal crisis.
Jesus & Snowy
Jesus & Snowy
Jesus has been on active military duty for 18 years,
serving tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. After
Hurricane Maria, he was deployed to his native Puerto
Rico to assist in the recovery effort. At the end of last
summer, he was patrolling a beach with several other
soldiers when they saw a box floating in the ocean.
They thought they heard crying coming from it, so
they pulled the box out of the water. Inside they found
three tiny white puppies. An animal lover with two
dogs already, Jesus decided to take one of the little balls
of fur home to his daughter, where he was promptly
named Snowy. Snowy’s two siblings went home with
two other soldiers as well. It was an honor for us to
treat little Snowy during Round 4 of The Spayathon.
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Ramón & Ruby
Ramon was in line at a food truck one day when he
a saw a group of young adults kicking and hitting a
small dog. Outraged, he marched right into the middle
of them and made them stop. He grabbed the dog and
took her to safety and ultimately, back home with him,
where his other two dogs and wife embraced sweet
Ruby as a new member of their family. Ramon brought
Ruby to Round 2 of The Spayathon last November. He
told us that he sees a lot of stray dogs around the island
and felt that the Spayathon was a great way to help cut
down on the large number of dogs like Ruby, who, by
no fault of their own are subject to needless abuse and
suffering in the streets.

Jocelyn & Milagro
Omar, Kilo & Kimbo
Omar rescued Kilo and Kimbo’s very pregnant mom
during Hurricane Maria. He took her in so she could
have her puppies in safety. But then two weeks after
giving birth to eight puppies, she suddenly died. Omar
had no idea what to do with such tiny newborn pups,
but then his uncle had an idea. He had a goat and
started bringing its milk over every day to help Omar
feed them. Sure enough, they all grew into beautiful,
healthy puppies. Omar found homes for all of them
except for Kilo, whom he decided to keep. But then
Kimbo’s family could no longer keep him, so Omar
took him back. Now the two brothers are a pair who
both got treated during Round 2 of The Spayathon.
Jocelyn & Milagro
Milagro was a dog who lived in Jocelyn’s neighborhood,
which is unfortunately not a very dog-friendly area.
Jocelyn often witnessed people mistreating her,
including throwing hot water on her to scare her away
from their yards. Jocelyn is an animal-lover who does
everything she can to feed stray animals whenever
she sees them. It made her very upset to witness this
cruelty to Milagro, but with one dog and three cats
already, she did not feel ready to take another dog
into her home. But then in a horrible act of cruelty,
someone poisoned Milagro. Jocelyn could not stand by
and watch her suffer. She brought her to her house and
nursed her back to health herself. Now, Milagro (which
means “Miracle” in Spanish) is officially a member of
her pack of two dogs and six cats, who are all animals
that Jocelyn and her family have rescued. She was very
grateful to be able get Milagro spayed and vaccinated
during Round 2 of The Spayathon.
Omar, Kilo & Kimbo
Ramón & Ruby
Photo by Estefania Rodriguez
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The Sato Project team would like to extend a heartfelt
“Thank You” to everyone who has generously supported our rescue
and community outreach efforts over the last year. During an
especially trying time in Puerto Rico’s history, your donations have
helped us save lives, end suffering, and build permanent change for
the dogs and people on the island.
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS WORK POSSIBLE
Due to a combination of economic hardship, infrequent spaying and neutering,
and the mass exodus of residents since the devastation of Hurricane Maria, an
estimated 500,000 stray dogs are a sad reality of life on Puerto Rico. Many of these
dogs are suffering and struggling to survive. Founded in 2011 by Chrissy Beckles,
The Sato Project is dedicated to ending this suffering and helping as many of
these satos (“stray dogs”) as possible find the safe, loving lives they deserve.
The Sato Project is working to make permanent change in Puerto Rico through a
threefold mission: 1. rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming abandoned and abused
dogs; 2. addressing the underlying causes of overpopulation, abandonment,
and abuse through community outreach and low-cost spay, neuter, and vaccine
programs; 3. bringing international attention to the problem of abandoned and
abused dogs in Puerto Rico.
For more information about our work visit www.thesatoproject.org
Facebook.com/thedeaddogbeachproject
Instagram.com/thesatoproject
Twitter.com/thesatoproject
130 Water St.
Brooklyn, NY 11201
www.thesatoproject.org/donate