Have you noticed the ubiquitous stylized hearts painted on facades around town? I’ve been trying to figure out why so many have recently opted for this particular decorative feature, figuring that perhaps both the stencil and rust-colored paint were on sale recently.

Turns out that ice cream company Holanda made a deal with the city to inundate high-traffic areas of Vallarta with their logo in exchange for putting up cute little wrought iron street signs that also bear their logo.

I don’t know about you, but I think this promotion strategy dilutes Holanda’s image rather than enhancing it. Enough already! Check out the corner of Venezuela and Peru and see what I mean.

Sometimes efforts being made on behalf of the community get diluted, too. Many well-meaning people, including expats and visitors, want to do “something that matters” here. So they get involved in a worthy cause, sometimes “reinventing the wheel” rather than following the groundwork already laid, because they figure they know a better way of doing things.

Since there are as many approaches to “fixing things” as there are people, reaching consensus and then maintaining that vision despite the inevitable, unanticipated challenges inherent here means it’s not easy.

Take the urgent need for an animal shelter, for example.
I often hear the question what’s the difference between the two proposed shelters we’ve been hearing about? So, I asked English-speaking representatives of the organizations behind both, the Friends of the Animals and S.O.S. Animal, to explain, since merely saying one is “No Kill” and the other isn’t puts too simplistic a spin on it.

“S.O.S. is a group of volunteers moved by the necessity of building a shelter where street dogs and cats can be treated medically, neutered and spayed, and kept until loving homes can be found for them. We have already rented a house in Pitillal, which we need to get into shape so we can start bringing animals there as soon as possible. Our objective is to keep animals safe, and we will never put them to sleep unless they are very sick or very old.” For more information contact Monica Gonzalez at 293-2018 or monchicris@hotmail.com

For many years the Friends of the Animals (AdlA, which stands for Amigos de los Animales), affiliated with the Vallarta Ecology Group, pushed for a refuge for street animals. Eventually they got the ear and, recently, the cooperation of City Hall, which designated land for this important project in Colonia Santa Maria and promises construction will begin shortly. In the meantime, the municipality has given AdlA “a two-room house on a fairly good-sized property surrounded by an eight-foot wall to be used as a temporary shelter until the permanent one is built.” For more information contact Roie Griego at 223-3576 or roieg@prodigy.net.mx.

Double hurray! Finally there are refuges for those animals we simply don’t know what to do with – and they didn’t materialize one minute too soon. In the span of the past week, just two friends have notified me of more than 30 cats left abandoned when their owners moved, and I found four in the same predicament.

Needless to say it won’t take long to fill these shelters to capacity. And therein lies the philosophical bone of contention. While Adla plans to have relatively healthy animals adopted, sheltering as many as possible for as long as possible, they say inevitably some will have to be put down. Griego explains it this way: “Think about it. Once a shelter is full, you have to start turning animals away. And that, in itself, is a death sentence.”

So, the way I see it, the two groups are not that different in intent, both consisting of people trying to do the best they can for the animals. Because the City is involved with AdlA, however, it can speed things up, as well as potentially interfere with the running of the place. S.O.S., on the other hand, is on its own and a newer entity, so it may take longer to accomplish what AdlA can, but it does have autonomy.

I’m rooting for both and hope to see mutual cooperation for the sake of the wee furry ones. If you care about the plight of street animals here, please get involved.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about what you’re reading, you’re encouraged to let me know at heather@mexmags.com.