How To Help The Animals In Puerto Rico After Hurricane Fiona

Puerto Rico was recently hit by a Category 1 Hurricane named Fiona on Sunday, September 18^th ironically on the 5^th Anniversary of Hurricane María (one of the worst hurricanes to strike Puerto Rico in recent years). And just as they were still rising up from that tragic event, Hurricane Fiona made landfall and dropped upwards of 30 inches of rain completely without electricity and water… The south and southwest of the Island were the most affected by floods that destroyed houses and access roads.

To this day, Puerto Rico still has areas and communities without access to basic necessities like electricity and water, they also have been under a heat advisory since Wednesday, where the temperature and humidity will make it feel like 100 to 112 degrees… shelters and animal sanctuaries were flooded and damaged, and over 100 pets were relocated with their families to shelters because they have lost everything. To put this into perspective, statistics indicate that 2 out of 3 Puerto Rican households have one or more pets.

Local non-profits around the Island are joining forces to help as much as they can. For example, Pet-Friendly PR joined forces with Gustazos Puerto Rico by doing local food drives for both humans and animals and transporting everything to communities and areas that were most affected. The Sato Project is also doing a Sato Drive to collect food, leashes, towels, beds, and toys to help with the efforts.

Just recently, a public health emergency was declared in the U.S. territory and President Joe Bidden approved a disaster declaration for Puerto Rico.

If you would like to help, apart from sharing this information, we encourage you to follow and donate to any of these amazing pet-related non-profits that do everything in their power to help our animals across the Island.