The concept of Pura Vida Perros was inspired by my experience in Ostional, Costa Rica in January 2015. I have had roughly six years of experience volunteering with low cost veterinarians and street dog animal welfare organizations in Peru, South Africa and the United States. Throughout my experiences I have always been perplexed as to why street dog issues continue to persist in communities where low cost veterinary services and the aid from animal welfare organizations are offered. The answer to this question, however, came to me while visiting Ostional, Costa Rica and talking with the locals about their community’s street dog management issues. Essentially, it became clear that while there was a local animal welfare organization and veterinary service working tirelessly to help the most neglected and sick animals from the community, there was a need for greater all around community involvement and responsibility for the street dog management. Upon reflection on my own personal experiences and review of scholarly research, it appears that this disconnect seems to be present in hundreds of thousands of other communities worldwide suffering to better manage their street dog populations. Despite the presence of westernized animal care services, there is a need to integrate, educate and engage the local communities in the importance of humane street dog treatments and the development process of a solution to the communities’ street dog management issues. Pura Vida Perros acts as a bridging organization, offering a program called Collaborative Community Street Dog Management, adapted from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), that focuses specifically on connecting communities to the animal welfare organizations trying to improve the communities’ street dog management problems. Pura Vida Perros believes that the involvement of local communities is crucial to the success of street dog management programs and promotes the idea that by involving community stakeholders, street dog management plans reflect and respect the community’s expectations, resources and cultural realities. The name Pura Vida Perros was inspired by the colloquial Costa Rican phrase “¡Pura Vida!” which means good, simple, pure life. Pura Vida Perros advocates that all communities around the world and the street dogs that live in these communities deserve to live “¡Pura Vida!” and deserve to have their basic needs of food, water, shelter, and necessary medical procedures met. For our first project, Pura Vida Perros is working in the community of Ostional, Costa Rica in partnership with Nosara Animal Care.
