Like many local charitable organizations, the Operación Amor spay and neuter program has been obliged to adapt to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic in order to carry on their good work.
Fortunately, in this case, the process of innovation was already underway when this group was forced to suspend its free sterilization clinics offered to pet owners of limited means.
Since 2011, Operación Amor (OpAmor) has sponsored 3,797 clinic surgeries, averaging 414 procedures per year up to 2019. The program was tabled when Covid-related complications cropped up in March. By then Pet Taxi, an alternate approach to reaching out to low income families and their canine and feline companions, was already in place.
Since its inception in 2013, Pet Taxi has proved to be an effective method to identify and assist people who lack the time and transportation to get their pets to the clinics.
Once clients are located, Operación Amor volunteers arrange for pickup and post-operative delivery of animals taken in for surgery by affiliated veterinarians.
Chapala vet Daniel Borrego, OpAmor’s medical director, started out providing two no-cost spay and neuter procedures every week. Between 2014 and 2016, Dr. Luis Maciel and Dr. Mayra Ibarra boosted the project with 118 free surgeries.
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