We arrived in Cancun and met Rosalinda at a family member's home, She was very concerned for her safety because her 'pro bono' attorney served papers to Opresa that morning regarding their intent to pursue legal action against them.

 She told us how they first came on February 5th with their machines and devastated the shelter in the brutal manner which was previously described. In advance of this act, the Opresa workers had loaded her many freezers, refrigerators, cabinets and fixtures onto trucks - ostensibly to remove them (against her wishes and despite her protests) to the new site. Opresa had created only the most primitive arrangements there, despite their promises to have completed a new 'facility' for her by several weeks previous to that time. Rosalinda's fixtures and appliances along with the food, supplies and medicines they contained, were never seen again save for one small refrigerator and one small chest freezer.

 Then, her friends came with materials bought out-of-pocket to try to reassemble a few temporary structures, and to try to rebuild enclosures for the surviving animals. She told us how Opresa again smashed the structures and enclosures a week later, and criminally assaulted them during that incident.
 After this, she had no choice but to occupy the squalid site at the Bonfil Ejido, where 120 surviving dogs (out of 186) are now living under horrid circumstances. Here they languish while Opresa rushes to complete a slapdash, concrete and chain-link 'prison' - an ill-concieved attempt to save face and public credibility following the wave of negative publicity they received.

 Tragically, the money and energy they've devoted to this project could have actually created a wonderful alternative to the old shelter. However, in their haste, as we will show on the following page, they have only accomplished the construction of a barren concrete hulk, where the dogs will be subjected to the elements, and predictable severe weather will likely tear away cheap roofing, leaving Rosalinda and the dogs without protection or shelter at all.

After extensive conversations, we gave Rosalinda the money that was raised for her.
 Rosalinda was amazed and moved to tears by the generosity of those who supported her. She had felt truly alone in the early days of her ordeal - even when the media had picked up the story, not a single Cancun Vet stepped forward with an offer of help. We're saddened by this, but also accept that the climate in the region we are working in is often unsupportive - even from those whom we might hope for to be closest to the problem. This makes the contributions from those few who do step forward there even more meaningful, and we cannot mention the negative things without stressing our gratitude for the positive.

Many graphic pictures and new accounts verified the events - click [HERE] for a .pdf file with clear, readable images of the following documents:

Opresa released statements to the media suggesting that Rosalinda was only trying to grub for money, and really didn't care about the dogs. We would ask why she would operate her little shelter for eleven years without concern for economic gain - long before any developer came along with plans for her land. Further we would ask who it was that operated the machines that maimed and killed her dogs, who it was that beat her and her son, and who it was that attempted to create a bogus deal and then defaulted on their commitments therein?
Opresa tried to suggest to the public that the land actually belonged to her brother (as if she had no right to negotiate or sell her land) - telling only a piece of the story. In fact the land was a family holding, with the plot divided between her father, who owned one half, Rosalinda, and her brother, who each owned equal shares of the remaining half. The land that Rosalinda used for her shelter was clearly her own. Opresa made an agreement with Rosalinda to acquire her land, and then violated it's terms by their failure to provide the new facility as promised on the agreed date. They then commited their egregious acts, for which they now attempt to portray Rosalinda as being the cause. No shame is great enough for this cowardly example of a rotten company.
No amount of purchased PR or contrived spin against Rosalinda can justify their criminal, inhuman acts - even if every fabricated 'point' was somehow true.
To demonstrate that she is in no way seeking to gain from this whole episode, Rosalinda and her friends have formed an association for the promotion of animal welfare, which will receive any awards, including her old property, which may come out of her action.

(Legal documents for the creation of the Association, to be called "SOS for Animals")

This is a very touching story, written by a supporter, telling the events from a dog's point of view (included in the .pdf file, at the above link).
 We'll provide the translated version in English very soon :

We visited the site where once was Rosalinda's shelter...
There were no corpses of dogs laying in the rubble - Opresa had removed the exposed ones soon after the incident, as well as the bodies of the dogs which had been run down on the street in front of the shelter. But the stench of death was sickeningly present near the piles of rubble under which many bodies remained - piles of debris which were once a place of sanctuary from an otherwise uncaring world.
 Some of the more wary, semi-feral dogs still wander around at the site - too difficult to capture, and too little socialized to transport without sedation, as Rosalinda plans to do over the coming days. They have no place else to go. These dogs will have a very difficult time adjusting to life at the new shelter, which is far different than the environment that they've known here over the years...

These piles of debris represent what was Rosalinda's mission for eleven years. Many of the dogs were cowering, terrified in their dog houses when the bulldozers leveled them into oblivion. Only shards of the shelter remain, protruding as unrecognizable fragments of tarpaper, ragged chunks of broken concrete and splintered wood.

The busy street in front of the shelter is such that approaching vehicles are accelerating after rounding a long curve, so that they had little reaction time as fleeing dogs ran into their paths.

A blood-soaked rag that was once bedding still marks the location of the recent, cruel events

 During the second assault on the shelter Rosalinda's friend, Elvira (see next page), saw an oncoming backhoe approaching this minibus with it's bucket raised - as a litter of puppies scurried under it in panic. She ran to scoop them up from beneath it, seeing that the minibus was about to be bashed by the backhoe. In spite of the fact that she was in full view of the machine operator, it continued it's approach, without regard for the fact that it was about to crush her. She jumped into the minibus with the puppies in her arms, making a split second decision that she didn't otherwise have time to escape the path of the oncoming machine. Just as she did so, the backhoe impacted the minibus - shoving she and the puppies across the site for more than 50 meters from it's original location, knowing full well that Elvira was inside. She was scraped and bruised, and obviously staggered by the experience.

This was the very machine the Opresa worker used to terrorize Elvira:





 Rosalinda and her friends return to the site

to put food out for the at-large dogs, until they can be safely brought under control.



 






Only Rosalinda is able to approach and touch these dogs - now more frightened of humans than ever.





A single remaining make-shift doghouse

Rosalinda identifies some of the workers who participated in the assault. She states that a number of those who participated in  the assault had actually been bailed out of the Cancun jail by Opresa specifically to act as hired thugs. Rosalinda says that a company representative was directly witnessed threatening a police official should charges be filed against them. All of those participating in the assaults were released by the evening of the day of the assaults. She is seeking her remedies now through the less corruption-plagued civil system, though she and her attorney have serious concerns for their physical safety.

Idyllic imagery  - would that the sign pictured the cruel truth. We sincerely hope that this project never comes to completion, and that Rosalinda's dream of winning the land back for the association comes to pass

...There should be no mistaking that Rosalinda's shelter was any kind of Valhalla. In fact, she was a poor woman trying to do the best that she could on very meager resources. Her structures were old and somewhat improvised. There was much disrepair, in the fashion of many things common to the less affluent aspects of Mexico.
 Rosalinda is a strong woman with an immense, stout heart, a person of great character. Many of her dogs, as we will show in the ensuing pages, were in drastic need of health care. This was not for want of compassion or caring, but for lack of economic support from the community. As we also clearly noted - all of the dogs were well fed. A remarkably large number of them were highly socialized, and even in the midst of the remaining hundred-plus barking, excited canines at the new 'shelter', I had no sense that I was at any risk of aggression or fractious behavior. This only happens when dogs have positive interactions with humans - enough to over-ride their territorial, defensive, and 'pack' instincts. The alternative to Rosalinda's struggling shelter was for these dogs to live continued lives of starvation and great suffering on the streets, where they were destined to be injured without treatment, poisoned, or subjected to inhumane destruction - and worse.

 The strategy for prevention of travesties such as this incident is multifold in nature:

• Sterilization to reduce the numbers of unwanted, neglected animals is foremost.
• Reaching children with a message of compassion and understanding is equal in importance - to break through the old ideas and stereotypes which foster the tolerance for cruelty.
• The encouragement of the establishment of even the most minimal animal welfare laws in Mexico -  through the setting of legal precedents, through economic pressure, or through the raising of public awareness, perhaps a combination of all of these elements.
• The continued encouragement of sound, sustainable economic and social development - to create a climate of opportunity and dignity for future generations, wherein values and ethics can flourish in the absence of poverty and negative cultural pressures.

NEXT PAGE (The new 'shelter')

VIDEO OF FOLLOWUP VISIT (Our Visit to the Scene 0n 3/1/05)

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