Since I found my cats in January of 2010, I have always bought my cat food and other extras here at Rocinha Pet Shop. They have always treated me well with good service and at times given me discounts. Their prices are also excellent in comparing with the other shops in Rocinha. This is where Cristiano and I met today!
Cristiano can now help more cats and dogs to get castrated with these carriers.
Receipt of the purchase of two carriers to help Cristiano with his work.
In my blog I like to focus on what’s going on in Rocinha.
Often I meet special people doing amazing things. It not always easy to get
people to tell their stories and that’s ok. But there are somewhere their
stories need to be told.
Some months ago, I saw this story on Facebook about a cat
who was living on the streets and was brought to the vet for care. The cat was
in bad shape. I contacted the lady who wrote about her connection to this cat.
The story moved me and I decided I would help. The cat went through treatment,
but unfortunately did not survive. The whole thing upset me about this cat.
In Rocinha we have many animals, mostly dogs and cats living
on the streets. These animals are not neutered or castrated. So they reproduce and
create more. Unfortunately there are owners who refuse to castrate their
animals because they think it’s cruel. But seeing homeless animals suffering is
not cruel?
I don’t understand this mentality. How can one think this
way? Would these same people allow their daughters to get pregnant many times
and just throw the babies away? Of course not. Why do people treat animals this
way? They are living beings that deserve respect too!
So with this cat “Davi”, who I wrote about some months back,
it made me want to do something to help the animals in Rocinha, but I wasn’t
sure how. I am far from being rich but I do have contacts with people who are
always willing to help. In Rocinha, an extra 100-200 reais a month to help the
animals can go a long way.
Through this experience with “Davi”, I saw that there were
people trying to help the animals here. There was a webpage on Facebook called
“Lar do Animais da Rocinha”. I inquired about the work they do a closely
followed the page for about 4 months to see exactly what they do.
Finally I made contact with “Cristiano” and asked to be his
friend on facebook as I noticed his love and caring for the animals of
Rocinha. He contacted me last night
about needing help buying carriers for some cats he wanted to bring to the vet.
We set up a meeting for today at 2:30pm. We met and I bought him 2 carriers so
he can bring these cats to get fixed.
Cristiano da Silva is 31 years old and lives on Rua 2, which
is one of the most dangerous here in Rocinha with constant battles between
police and traffickers. He lives with his parents who support his work in
helping the animals of Rocinha. He has joined with a vet here in the favela who
will fix any of the cats or dogs that he brings in. He also has a connection
with a store that helps provide him food as well.
Extra costs do come up so I have decided that I am going to
put a percentage of money from the tours away to help his project. To help
Cristiano's work with homeless and abandoned animals his page on Facebook is
P.L.A.R. “Projeto Lar Aos Animais daRocinha”.
As our tourism company grows, I would like to continue to find people like Cristiano who are actively trying to better people's or animal's lives here in Rocinha. The more money we can raise through our work, the more projects can receive help. If you have any questions about the projects that we support, please contact us at: visitrocinha@gmail.com
Thank you!
As our tourism company grows, I would like to continue to find people like Cristiano who are actively trying to better people's or animal's lives here in Rocinha. The more money we can raise through our work, the more projects can receive help. If you have any questions about the projects that we support, please contact us at: visitrocinha@gmail.com
Thank you!
