Save a Sato

The Save A Sato Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for homeless and abused animals on the island of Puerto Rico.  Many of these animals live each day awaiting their untimely death whether it be from starvation, disease, injury or abuse.  The organization operates on a 100% volunteer and private donations basis.  It reaps the rewards knowing that through its efforts, each of its rehabilitated dogs and cats will eventually be placed into loving and stable homes. 

From the Salem News
Local shelter provides new hope to abandoned dogs
By SEAN CORCORAN, Correspondent

SALEM - With the exception of Cody herself, no one really knows how the small white dog came to be dumped by the side of a country road near Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

Somewhere along the way, Cody lost some of her teeth. She also had a quarter-size hole ripped in the flap of her ear. Perhaps it happened during a fight, or maybe someone tried to pierce it for an earring.

Only Cody knows of her life on the streets and how she survived for days, months or perhaps years as a "sato" -- the Puerto Rican slang word for a mixed-breed street dog.

On Friday, at a reunion for dozens of former satos along a grassy area of North River Parkway, Pat Fleming of Wenham told as much of Cody's story as she could.

Weighing less than 15 pounds and with much of her fur gone, Cody was found by a group of nuns, Fleming said. A worker for the Save a Sato Foundation, Carmen Crescioni, then rescued her from the streets.

Crescioni took Cody to a veterinarian. She fed her and treated her skin until she was healthy enough to travel by air to Massachusetts, where Fleming adopted her from the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem.

Cody became a member of the Fleming family. She soon saw her first snowfall and learned what a leash was, Fleming said. Sometime later she was diagnosed with cancer, and she survived that ordeal, too.

As Fleming finished speaking about her little dog, Cody began to excitedly wriggle about in her arms as a woman walked up to them. It was Crescioni, and neither dog nor rescuer had forgotten each other.

"I remember," Crescioni said, "she was in the country. She was very, very skinny. Now she is very, very lovely."

Fleming, also excited about seeing the rescuer, began asking Crescioni more about Cody's story. Crescioni could tell her little beyond what Fleming already knew. It didn't really matter, though.

"Thank you for rescuing my dog," Fleming told Crescioni. "She is very, very lucky," Crescioni replied.

Crescioni has been a member of the Save a Sato Foundation since 1996. She estimates that she has rescued about 1,500 dogs, while the foundation has saved thousands.

"At first," Crescioni said, "we started rescuing the dogs from the streets and taking the dogs to the local shelters. But they killed the dogs. So, we got tired of putting the dogs to sleep."

The foundation soon started looking to place dogs in non-kill animal shelters in the continental United States, but it was not an easy task to find facilities here that would accept them. Shelter administrators told Save a Sato that they did not want to "import additional problems."

Andrea Loughlin of Magnolia was one of the people instrumental in bringing the satos to the Northeast Animal Shelter, which has since placed hundreds of the dogs.

Eight years ago, Loughlin was traveling in Puerto Rico on business when she saw three emaciated, scab-covered dogs beneath a bridge. Two of the dogs — a mother and a daughter — were standing next to a third family member that was lying in a gutter. According to Northeast Animal Shelter director Julie Potter, it is not uncommon for dogs to stay with sickly or dying relatives.

"I couldn't believe that this was part of the United States and people were driving by and telling me not to go near them because I might catch something," Loughlin said.

The older dog was friendly and easily caught, but Loughlin and a companion had to chase the second dog for 45 minutes before trapping her on a river bank. The third dog who was "lying on the side of the road in a lump" died on the way home.

Loughlin brought the two dogs back to Massachusetts herself and found them a home. On Friday, with the dogs, now named Lucy and Ethel, standing beside her and their owner, Loughlin recalled how she made it her mission to help the Save a Sato Foundation find a shelter in the area that would take them. Northeast Animal Shelter agreed.

"They get placed very quickly," shelter director Potter said. "They are such good little dogs. They are survivors."

The dogs are not, however, taking homes away from local abandoned animals.

"People want little dogs, and there are not enough little dogs to go around," Potter said. "We are not displacing any home from dogs locally."

At Friday's reunion, dozens of dogs greeted each other playfully as owners shared their stories and wondered aloud if their pets had known each other in their previous lives. Some clearly seemed to recognize both each other and the rescuers who were there.

In one case, two dogs now living in different homes certainly had met before, said Bob and Sylvia Hope of Rockport, the owners of Chi Chi, and Cathy Gallagher of Salem, the proud owner of Maggie.

Chi Chi and Maggie are siblings who were born in the same litter 2 1/2 years ago. They saw each other again for the first time on Friday. The Hopes said they were looking forward to the family reunion for weeks.

"They are friendly," Bob Hope said as the dogs sniffed and greeted each other. "But there is none of that, 'Wow! How's life been for you?'"

While the streets of Guaynabo have significantly fewer dogs today than when the Save a Sato Foundation first began its work in the mid-1990s, there are still plenty of forsaken canines that need homes.

"All they want is love, affection and caring," Loughlin said. "Some of them have never had a home before. This is their first loving home."

For more information on adopting a sato, call the Northeast Animal Shelter at (978) 745-9888.

Please visit Save a Sato!

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