-Christi Payne, CWOB Cofounder

The dog and cat overpopulation tragedy in Mexico is so overwhelming that it can, at first glance, seem unapproachable. Millions of animals roam the street each day, most malnourished, diseased, and mistreated. "Animal control" in most regions consists solely of rounding up animals of the streets, where housing them without food or water in facilities called "Antirabicos", and then electrocuting them.

During our time in Mexico, Compassion Without Borders has inspected various Antirabicos. However, no many how many I enter, I never seem to be prepared for the horror of what lies inside.

Such was the case when I visited the Juarez Antirabico during a weeklong spay/neuter clinic we were organizing in the region. We found dead and dying animals mixed in with live animals in overcrowded, filthy pens. Convulsing, injured, and sick animals were mixed in with healthy ones, nursing mothers were thrown into group cages with aggressive, hungry, larger dogs. There were even dead animals in various stages of decay outside the pens, laying in the aisle ways. We were told that in addition to electrocution the facility was killing animals via injections with strychnine.

After rescuing 12 dogs immediately, (all of whom have been successfully adopted to date), we decided to initiate a comprehensive plan to bring about humane reform at the facility. We developed a strategy to not only improve the conditions and quality of life of animals being housed at the Antirabico, but also to ensure that they are fed daily, euthanized immediately if sick or injured, and that all animals are killed via an intravenous injection of euthanasia solution.

The project was formally initiated in early March during a humane euthanasia training that was coordinated by Compassion Without Borders. Doug Fakkema, an internationally renown humane euthanasia advocate, lead the two-day training, which was very well received by antirabico employees, animal advocates, and government officials. In fact, representatives from all over the state of Chihuahua (where Juarez is located) attended and expressed great interest in switching over the entire state's antirabico system to intravenous euthanasia.

Since that training, the project has been coordinated and overseen locally by Asociacion Pro-Defensa Animal [APRODEA], our local partners in Juarez, who report that everything is running smoothly and that the transition has been smooth and successful.

We also held a humane animal handling class at the Antirabico, which was taught by the Marin Humane Society's senior animal control officers. Again, representatives from all over the state attended the course which focused on teaching them how to handle animals safely and humanely, a skill that is desperately lacking.

And, thanks to Animal Place , we also continue to actively rescue dogs from the Juarez Antirabico. Dogs are either adopted out locally via APRODEA's incredible efforts or are brought to Animal Place in California for a temporary quarantine and then adopted out through various local shelters and rescue organizations.

Last, but not least, we are not only helping to end these animals lives humanely, but are also actively fighting overpopulation in order to prevent the suffering before it is born. Thanks to Saving Animals, Juarez now has a full-service veterinary clinic that performs free spay/neuter all over the city.

Helen Keller once said: "The world is full of suffering, but is also full of the overcoming of it". This statement seems absolutely appropriate for our work in Juarez, where the seed of humane reform is gradually blossoming.