The Chapala area has no shortage of animal protection advocates, but step into the private world of Siegrid Hernandez and you’ll find someone in a league all her own.
While others focus on tending to stray and abandoned pets, Hernandez devotes time, energy and personal resources to rescuing and providing loving care to all kinds of creatures in distress, whether they are wild fauna, farm animals, or cats and dogs too physically or emotionally damaged to be apt for adoption.
She carries out her mission at the shelter she maintains on the eastern outskirts of Chapala and surrounding farm land, relying on her grit and two allies: husband Pepe Magaña, one of Chapala’s best known vets, and one hired hand.
An upcoming benefit open house at Siegrid’s sanctuary will present a special opportunity to experience close up encounters with an astounding array of species and hear some amazing creature tales. (See details at end of story.)Behind the door
Viewed from the shelter’s austere exterior, one would never guess the wonderland that lies beyond. An entrance way set behind a simple metal gate serves as a buffer zone where people and vehicles can safely slip inside. A family of green turtles lounges in a burbling fountain. A fluffy kitty dozes in the warmth of a sunbeam. You pick up serene vibes and subtle hints of the singular environment lying behind the next doorway.
Just inside a small pond tucked beneath lush foliage houses a variety of coy and other fish. Another holds a herd of black turtles. Between the two is a short pathway leading into the inner sanctum, a place that almost defies description.
A long roof covers string pens holding a diverse selection of farm animals – turkeys, goats, pot-bellied pigs, rabbits, hens and roosters, ducks, horses and burros and a lone goose. Each beast has a name and a story.
An adjacent living area looks something like a cross between a cozy country home, funky Mexican bazaar and offbeat natural history museum, filled with rustic furniture, an eclectic assortment of handicrafts and decorative doodads, and Siegrid’s prized collection of bejewled animal skulls.
Standing at one end of the barn is a tall cage filled with softly cooing tumbler pigeons. Nearby a larger cage is occupied by a handsome pair of crested caracaras that Hernandez rescued as featherless hatchlings. “I had to hand feed them as babies,” she recalls, explaining why it would be perilous to release the grown birds into the wild. “They can fly, but don’t know how to hunt. They have learned to trust and depend upon humans.”
At the opposite end Chipotillo (little lump) the goose keeps close guard over his animal companions. He got his name from surviving surgical removal of tumor from under one of his wings that had grown so large he lost sufficient balance to waddle about.
Palomino filly Blondie paws the ground in a nearby stall. She was rescued as a foal after her mom was run over on the Ajijic bypass. Not long afterwards she was saved again from a nearly fatal allergic reaction to penicillin.
Siegrid spells out the genealogy and background of the trio of burros kept in a neighboring corral and four others living in a field outside the premises. She can recount many more intriguing animal histories, such as the goat saved from the birria cooking pot and a snake that lived through a brutal beating inflicted by the startled homeowner who found it slithering into his abode.
Open house
Don’t miss a chance to meet the animals and hear their stories when the sanctuary’s doors open to the public Saturday, December 8, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Discover Dr. Magaña’s lesser known talents as a culinary master with the day’s menu of Mexican fare featuring turkey in mole sauce and beef barbacoa. (Don’t worry, no shelter animals will be sacrificed for the occasion.)
The cost for attending the event, meal included, is set at 200 pesos per person. Drop-in visitors may also tour the grounds, enjoy some soothing music, purchase drinks from the cash bar and even get in the on the dinner if extra food is still available.
For reservations and further information call Siegrid at cel. 331-153-0116.
The shelter is located on the Chapala-Mezcala highway about 1.5 kilometers east of Avenida Pepe Guizar.