International Partners

GUANICA ANIMAL RESCUE PROJECT

Feeding the three Homeward Trails is proud to partner with The Guanica Animal Rescue Project (GARP), based in Guanica, Puerto Rico. GARP is 100% volunteer, 100% donor funded, and 100% of donations go to medical care, foster care and shipping costs for the animals.

Guanica, Puerto Rico on the southwest side of the island and has long been known as a small fishing village on the coast with beautiful beaches, lovely scenery and a rich history in agriculture. Unfortunately, like many other towns in Puerto Rico, it has fallen upon bad economic times and is considered one of the poorest areas on the island.

As a result of the economic downfall, and even cultural mindsets, many dogs, cats and horses are left to fend for themselves and are abandoned on the streets. The suffering of these animals is great. Most suffer from broken bones as a result of being hit by cars. Most suffer from mange, skin infections, ear and eye infections and overall malnourishment due to a lack of food as well as parasitic infections. GARP’s mission is to help as many of these animals (dogs and cats primarily) as they can with much needed veterinary care, foster care and securing forever homes in the United States.

We involve ourselves in the local community by providing educational materials in the schools and homes on the importance of sterilization and vaccinations, as well as proper care and compassion for the animals that still live on the streets. The homeless animal population impacts businesses, tourism, the island economy, the drug trade, bullying and domestic abuse. Our aim is to work on providing safety for the animals and draw the correlation in the community to these problems.
Please consider donating or sponsoring one of our rescues.

Homeward Trails has been a partner with GARP since 2013 and starting in 2017 provides financial assistance for animal trapping and vetting, fostering and shipping and outreach materials aimed at engaging community members to help the animals of Guanica. HT also supports large-scale TNR (trap-neuter-return) for community cats, of which there are thousands.