EN32 Sep 2014 Return to cover-page
Argentina: A cosy place for little paws
The TOS in Portugal is not the only group supporting an animal refuge. The TOS in Rosario, Argentina is not just supporting one: Marcela Riaudo, the local coordinator of the TOS in that city, has actually started a shelter herself with the full support of her fellow members. Forty dogs and four cats are now living together peaceably at “Little Paws under a Roof”.
It all started when Marcela opened a dog grooming salon as a way of earning her living. After a time she added a pet minding service but before long she and her associates couldn’t resist looking after dogs and cats they found in the streets as well: hurt, sick, battered, abandoned or lost.
Marcela and friends now bathe, feed and lodge neglected dogs. They take the females to the municipal vet who sterilises them free of charge. Their campaign to find homes for both adult dogs and puppies is going excellently. Sharing their work through Facebook is a great help in this regard: https://www.facebook.com/patitasbajo.techo?fref=ts
Marcela and her team are particularly happy when an adult dog is adopted as most people want puppies.
During Christmas and New Year many dogs are so frightened of the firecrackers that some run away and get lost. When the Shelter finds this sort of well-cared-for dog, the team takes a picture and uses the internet to find its owners. We can just imagine the joy of the reunions!
In Buenos Aires, TOS members have long been raising money to help support an animal protection centre named San Roque.
Our Argentinian sisters and brothers are not neglecting their fellow humans, however. The new TOS coordinator in Ciudad de la Plata volunteers a great deal of her time in assisting the elderly and also the psychologically distressed people looked after by compassionate and devoted nuns in a convent.
The TOS in Argentina recently organised a theatre show performed by a TS group named Chalten to collect money for two children’s hospitals in Buenos Aires.
The National TOS Director, Norberto Cicirelli and the local TOS coordinator in the city of Carlos Paz have also been delivering clothes and other items to the Cura Brochero Institute that offers food and shelter to the homeless and those in transit.
The TS is represented in 15 cities in Argentina and several of the branches
have a TOS group operating within them. They are creative and constructive
teams doing as much as they can as a community outreach for Theosophy.