Brownie left the Canche-Authie SPA refuge in Saint-Aubin in Nord-Pas-de-Calais in Metropolitan France last Saturday with his new family who owns horses. Brownie is one of those abandoned coconut trees in Saint-Martin who was taken in by the SXM Animals Collective and sent to France to find a family there for life.
Since the beginning of the year, nearly sixty dogs have traveled and joined the refuge of Canche-Authie or others. “We have placed around fifty dogs from Saint-Martin and still have five,” reports the president of the shelter.
The Canche-Authie SPA is one of the last links in this chain of solidarity formed by the Collectif Animaux SXM on the initiative of Elise and Camille in September 2021. The main action is to rescue abandoned dogs from the streets. An elephantine mission insofar as Saint-Martin has no refuge. The collective has set up an organization. “We have divided the territory in two and have a referent per party, to whom reports must be made. Then we pick up the dog, take him to the vet for a check-up and place him in a foster family waiting for him to be adopted. If the dog is sick, a treatment is administered to it,” explains Elise.
The island being small, the people able to adopt are few. This is how making the dogs leave appeared as the alternative solution. The Animals SXM collective has created its own network. "We have done a lot of research work and are also working with the associations Truffes Sans Roof, Chats, Chiens et compagnie, Destin Animalz and Les Loulous de Gwada", explains Elise.
Over the months, this chain of solidarity has grown. The founders of the collective have added several links that have become essential. First of all, individuals who welcome a dog to their home for a few days while waiting for it to leave and those who feed dogs in the street who cannot be accommodated for lack of space. Then come into play the “escorts”, that is to say the people who agree to escort the animal during the plane trip. On the other side of the Atlantic, the chain continues with the people who pick up the dog at the airport, take it to the shelter or those who act as new temporary foster families. Not to mention those who are responsible for forwarding the transport cages to Saint-Martin.
of all these volunteers is undoubtedly one of the keys to the success of these rescues. However, these stories cannot become beautiful without another element, and not least, money. The expenses are indeed immense. It takes an average of 350 euros per dog sent to mainland France. The SXM Animals Collective covers all veterinary costs, animal identification, passport and airfare. More than 25 euros have already been committed since the beginning of the year by the collective, which only works with donations.
Aware of the interest and the necessity of their action, Elise and Camille better structured the collective by giving it a legal legal framework. Thus it became a 1901 law association declared in the prefecture; a new status which will notably allow it to be eligible for subsidies and other means.
Today, the structure has five volunteers; in their fight, Elise and Camille were joined by Ornella, Sarah and Alice. It relies on ten host families in Saint-Martin and calls on all other animal lovers to help the dozens of dogs that still roam the wild in Saint-Martin.
(more details on www.soualigapost.com)
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