Sad to see all the strays...

The staff at many of the establishments seem sort of oblivious to the plight of these poor animals. Some are downright hostile to them. Not cool at all ! Is there any kind of organization here on SXM that helps them? I do see that the strays at LaPlage that we've been feeding all week have one ear clipped. Maybe that denotes that they've been stayed or neutered. I've seen guests at various locales feed the dogs ribs and burgers. We have done the same. It's really heartbreaking to see these animals left to the four winds.

St. Maarten Animal Welfare Foundation has been around a long time. We have also personally donated money at a couple of different veterinarian offices that went towards this group.

Trust me though, the situation is not as bad as it once was and not near as bad as after a really bad storm.

And there is also this shelter and adoption facility on the French side:

http://www.ilovemyislanddog.org/home

Another option that has been around a while also.

There are a lot of cats at the Towers with clipped ears, which means they have all been neutered or at least that's my understanding and they are fed at a feeding station set up by one of the animal rescue groups and supported by Towers guests as well as the humane society. We do a cash donation every year through one of the Towers employees since she is such a very strong animal advocate. Not very many dogs though we do see an occasional stray run through the property.

The beaches at Mullet, Rouge and Simpson Bay are a whole other story, though, as the dogs seem to hang out there and frequent some of the same fine dining establishments we enjoy along those beaches. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

the 2 animal organizations mentioned above work very hard to solve the problem of the strays. In addition there are other individuals and organizations working on the animals' behalf. A lot of people volunteer to do what they can.
The situation is much better than it used to be.
In addition, many of our strays...we call them coconut retrievers..are adopted and taken to the USA.
It is a drop in the bucket but at least people are trying.

I think that some of them actually have homes -they just wander around during the day-sort of like the goats.

The Shipwreck Shop in Maho used to have a donation container at check out for one of the animal rescue organizations.

...and they (rescue group) sell tee shirts to help with their funding

The little shop at Royal Palm had one also, the last I knew.

oh AND if I remember correctly the Peli Deli has a jar out too!