Vieques Humane Society, Vieques Puerto Rico

VHSAR would love to have you volunteer at our shelter. We can you use your help with:

Plumbing, painting, electrical work, cleaning and maintenance of:

- kennels/Cat facilities
- veterinary facilities
- other buildings
- fences
- vehicles
- lawn and yard care

Photography of our facility and animals (please provide own photographic equipment)

Animal ( mostly dog & cat) bathing, grooming and care, veterinary assistance, community outreach.

We request that all visiting volunteers committ to a minimum of 1 week and work for a minimum of 20 hrs/week.

Please email or write us for a volunteer packet.

Vieques Humane Society & Animal Rescue
Box 1399
Vieques, PR 00765

Our mission is to relieve the suffering of the animals of Vieques. We have many ways in which we try to accomplish this and they are to spay and neuter as many animals as possible to reduce the overpopulation on the island, to promote responsible pet ownership and animals care, and to adopt out as many animals as we can off the island. Most importantly,we aime to be a community oriented organization where our services are available to everybody and to be a source of education about animal care and animal rights. At this moment we are visiting local schools educating the children about proper animal care and animal abuse and neglect. We hope to further our reach with education through camps and activities and we also hold fund raisers throughout the year to raise awareness and funds. Our dream would be that there would be no strays on the island, no dog that is left chained up in someones back yard, no cat left to have many litters, no unvaccinated animals left to suffer from disease and most of all to have all the people share in these dreams.

Vieques, Puerto Rico, a small island located off the mainland's east coast, for many years offered no veterinary or animal rescue services. During the early 1980's, a handful of concerned "immigrants" from the states and a few local residents took a serious interest. They began by feeding the island's multitudinous strays, then soliciting the help of Puerto Rican veterinarians to sterilize them. By 1987, the Vieques Humane Society and Animal Rescue, Inc. was officially established as a non-profit organization. Today, we still offer the only veterinary services on the island and have developed many strong community based programs.

Currently we have a totally local team of dedicated, creative people. Having local personnel helps increase the confidence of island residents in VHSAR.

Our staff is devoted. They provide our animals with food, water and clean shelter. Aida Martinez, Yashira Torres and Ivelisse Corcino are shelter care givers who show their love and compassion in everything they do. Our office stafsf is headed by Aleida Tolentino, manager and Sheila Burgos, receptionist, program specialist/outreach coordinator. Juanito Hernandez does everything from building cages and wood work to keeping our cars running. We also have two new people on staff that have been volunteering here over the past few years and they are Katie Green and Emily Dark. They do everything from adoption coordinating, to assisting the Veterinarians to grooming and bathing. Our board members include Penny Miller, Celia Romero, Christa Larson, Maryanne Miller, Laura Cohen, Noel Mercadio, Bob Zak, and Barbara Rumore. We also have two wonderful veterinarians, PedroWattlington and Jose Santiago, that come to the clinic every week. Volunteers also play a very important role in our success as they help us with day to dya work as well as projects.