Just outside of Mompiche, on a road leading south towards more spectacular beaches, there’s a sanctuary for those with no voices. Fabiola Minda has dedicated her life to taking care of the dogs, cats, chickens, and horses that nobody wants.
The refuge, Rescate Animal Mompiche, houses 35 dogs, 37 cats, 13 horses, and countless chickens and ducks. When a dog or cat has been abused, Fabi swoops in to the rescue, removing the animal from its owner and carefully nursing it back to health at the refuge. She does this with few resources, and more love and care than these animals have ever seen.
Frequently, people dump boxes filled with unwanted kittens and puppies at her gate, without leaving a single penny for their care. Despite running regular sterilization campaigns, there are still people who refuse to sterilize their animals. They’d rather dump boxes of kittens and puppies than have the visiting veterinarians perform a short one-time operation on their cat or dog.
Fabiola takes all this in her stride. It does infuriate her that some people can be so heartless, but she loves all the animals and cares for them as if they were hers, regardless of how they arrived. She has them all sterilized and vaccinated, they’re de-fleaed and de-wormed, and they have a healthy diet. They’re all prepared for adoption.
Fabiola vets all applicants who apply to adopt so she can be sure her animals end up in loving forever homes. She wants to know how the animal will be treated, where it will live, and what it will be fed. She has killer instincts for sizing up people and knows whether or not the animals will be safe. Already sterilized and vaccinated, she’s less concerned if the applicants have other animals. All her animals have adapted to live with each other, dogs and cats alike, while at the refuge. Even the chickens and ducks are safe!
Every three or four months, Fabiola runs a sterilization campaign in the village. Veterinarians from Quito are summoned. They set up their clinic in front of the park. Fabi collects donations from all over the world and works day and night to ensure that as many animals as possible are sterilized. When she started this program twelve years ago, very few local people wanted their animals sterilized. They (mistakenly) thought it was cruel and unnecessary. The evolution from a reluctant population to long queues of local people with their dogs on leashes and their cats in cages whenever the vets are here has been a long and hard road.
Fabiola never gave up, despite the obstacles. I remember years ago when we’d have to run around the village in a truck and collect all the animals from the owners, having to talk them into it, and convince them that it was for the best. Eventually, most of them would hand their pets over to our care, but wouldn’t bother to come and see how they were doing. After surgery and recovery, we’d return the animals to their homes. Except for the obviously abused animals, every dog and cat made it back to their owners. Over time, people saw the benefits of sterilization and vaccination and began to bring their animals to the clinics.
Persevering through the highs and the lows, Fabiola never stops working. Animals don’t take weekends off. They don’t sleep in on Sundays. They don’t take vacations. Seven days a week, they need to be fed and cared for. Before the pandemic hit, there were volunteers at the refuge to help out with feeding, bathing, de-worming, laundering the bedding, and building facilities to house more animals. For a year and a half, Fabiola has been on her own doing all the work herself. She never complains. She never stops. Her passion for animals is what keeps her going.
Educating the locals on animal care has been challenging over the years. Most people don’t see their dog as a pet or as part of the family. They’re working, providing security or killing rats, and are frequently maltreated, if not abused. I’ve even seen a chicken being slapped for flapping its wings and a pig kicked for squealing. Teaching people to be kind is an uphill battle. Fabiola has enough on her plate and doesn’t have time for education programs, but would support one if we could come up with it. It’s another one of those things we’ve added to our ever-growing list of things to make Mompiche better.
Meanwhile, you can find cute pics and videos of all the cats, dogs, horses, and chickens at the refuge on Instagram and if you have a few spare pennies, you could also help provide food, medicines, shelter, or even sponsor an animal for sterilization on GoFundMe. It would be greatly appreciated.
Apart from the fabulous weekly podcast, Mompiche? Yes, Mompiche! all paid subscribers have access to exciting chapters from my current non-fiction work in progress, Ya Mismo: Thirty Minutes North of Zero every month with the good, the bad, and the ugly stories that are part of life in a remote corner of northwest Ecuador. There’s also my upcoming cookbook Going Freaking Bananas and we’ll discover some of the delightful treasures hidden in those pages…
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