1/2/11: BREAKING NEWS — A 7.1 earthquake hit Chile, about 43 miles northwest of Temuco (U.S.G.S.), some 150 miles north of Concepcion. We quickly contacted our Chilean colleagues to assess this quake's damage. They report power and water outages, but no causalities yet. Contacts near the quake's epicenter in Temuco are okay, but we await news from Tirua — a seashore village where Kinship's Sister Michael Marie and Bonnie Morrison reunited with Socorro Animal Chile veterinarians this summer, to assist in ongoing aid clinics for quake/tsunami harmed animals.

Kinship Circle disaster teams spent months in this ravaged part of Chile's coast — engaged in rescue, vet aid, surgeries — for some 700,000 animals impacted by last year's earthquake and tsunami.

Many towns like Lebu, Tirua, etc. were nearly washed away in the 2010 tsunami. Some evacuees and animals still live in the tent camps we brought food and vet aid to. We continue to support the animals and people we fell in love with there...and hope, as one colleague states, that animals “rode out this latest earthquake relatively unharmed.“

We believe he does, along with hundreds of thousands more like him in a country with the largest stray population in South America.

On 2/27/10 an 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile, displacing two million people. Tsunamis flattened coastal towns. Aftershocks lasted for months. Kinship Circle Animal Disaster Aid was there to save animals0.

We helped treat gashes, broken bones, missing limbs, mange, worms, cancer, venereal disease...even stray horses rummaging for food. We treated hundreds of mange puppies roaming a giant trash quarry. At one point an evacuee camp in Talquahano wanted to kill all its companion animals because they could no longer feed them. Kinship Circle and SACH intervened with food and vet aid, but the outlook for Chile’s animals, exacerbated by disaster, often looks grim.

FUNDING FOR SECOND CHANCES...CAN YOU HELP?
People and their animals line up around the block for veterinary aid at post-disaster clinics focused on vaccination, animal care and adoption. Animals don't stand a chance in the next disaster if these clinics stop.

Kinship Circle seeks Funding For Second Chances to support:
♥ Animal Disaster Preparedness & Rescue (new for Chileans)
♥ Responsible Guardianship
♥ First Aid/Sterilization: Low-cost/free vet clinics in disaster hit areas
♥ Medical Training/Rescue: Courses for first responders

These low-cost or free projects are underway (as funding permits) in the Eighth Region of Bio Bio, the vast stretch north and south of Concepcion that takes the brunt of Chile's earthquakes and tsunamis.

Kinship Circle member Lauretta Prestera returned from Chile with images etched in her mind forever: “I saw a dog with a broken leg hobbling across a traffic filled street; a female dog in heat ’raped’ by male dogs in front of University of Sebastian students who ignored her; and a dog with mange so advanced, he no longer resembled a dog.”

Lauretta’s recent memories overlap with images our disaster responders found after the quake/tsunami. Now, pre-quake strays blend with more homeless animals, upping the degree of mange, malnutrition, infection. Donations are needed for veterinary medicine, equipment, supplies.

From March to June 2010, Kinship Circle worked with Socorro Animal Chile (SACH) — a coalition of Chilean animal groups — and Chilean veterinarians. We sent teams to aid animals in Chile's ravaged Bio Bio Region, along the southern coast, for:

• Search and Rescue / Trap
• In-Field First Aid
• Wound Transport to Veterinary Clinics
• In-Field and Tent Camp Sustenance (food/water program)
• Assessment and Tracking of Animal Populations
• Support SACH Care Efforts (vaccine, spay/neuter, adoption)

Chile Quake/Tsunami And Beyond:
Help give animals a chance