RESCUE PETS - Lighthouse Animal Rescue in Costa Rica

I'm Mr BudBud. I'm the Perro Primero (that means top dog!) of Lighthouse Animal Rescue in Atenas Costa Rica!!! Me and my human Mom and Dad do animal rescue here. When we moved here, 6 years ago, from Florida we brought 8 dogs and 2 cats with us.

Mom has been doing' rescue since she was 4 years old!! That's 59 years!!!! I've been the "Perro Primero" since I was about 4 years old so me and Mom have a lot in common!!

I keep things running' smooth and tell all the other critters what to do!! There's usually LOTS of them to look after and it keeps me awfully busy!! It's a lot of work for a little white dog!!!

All us critters have full run of the property and the house. We sleep in the beds with Mom and Dad or in our dog beds and NOBODY has to live in a pen or a cage except for the first few days when they might be contagious. After that they run with all  of us!!! There's 21 of us right now!!

 We take in animals from the streets and from abusive situations. Did you guys know that some people treat their animals really BAD? What's up with that?

Anyway, we get them all healthy and have them spayed or neutered. Mom and Dad teach 'em about love and trust and then we find real good homes for them!!

Some of them have had a pretty hard life and it takes longer for those to learn about trusting humans but with a lot of love they come around.

Mom is always bringing' some new critter home. Mostly it's dogs and cats but sometimes it's possums, squirrels, birds, goats or just about ANY critter that needs a helping hand.

Mom and her friends rescued lots of animals from the earthquake zone. It happened in January of this year, 2009, and it was pretty bad. There were about 50 people killed and lots still missing.

Everybody was helping the people but nobody was helping the animals. So Mom and her friend went in and did that. They took about 250 animals out of the dangerous areas.

A lady named Karin, in Heredia, has a great BIG shelter and, since Mom was going to the earthquake zone every day, she we took them to Karin's shelter after giving the officials photos of the animals. Some of them got claimed. Some didn't But Miss Karin found good homes for all of the ones that were still there after a month.

Mom and her friends also fed and watered a few thousand animals, (cows, chickens, pigs, etc) who were in safe areas but were stranded without food or water. It was a HUGE job and took about a month to finish up! There's lots of pictures of the earthquake rescue on my photo site.

You folks can keep up with what all is going on here at Lighthouse by going to our blog at www.mrbudbud.blogspot.com

You can see some of our pictures on my photo site at www.mrbubdbud.shutterfly.com

We're in a competition right now for a $1,000.00 grant!! That would help feed the animals here for about 4 to 6 months!! If you go to help us win just go to www.animalrescuesite.com

Look for the purple tabs on the right and click on Shelter Challenge. Then type in Lighthouse for the shelter name and Click on Costa Rica for the country. Then click search.

When our name comes up just click VOTE!!

Thanks!!!
Frances

YOUR PET AND THE LAW

While you're alive, your dog is, legally, your property. Aside from the restrictions of cruelty laws, you can do almost anything you want with an animal you own: sell it, give it away, or have it humanely destroyed.

What about when you die? If your will directs the executor of your estate to have your dog humanely destroyed, and the executor or a local humane society doesn't object - quickly - the dog will be destroyed soon after your death.

If someone does object, the probate court, which oversees the administration of your estate, will rule on the validity of the will provision. Almost always, these provisions are found to be invalid, and the court may forbid the executor from carrying out your instructions. Courts have always frowned on wills that order the destruction of any kind of property, on the ground that it goes against public policy to needlessly destroy valuable property. (This prerogative, of course, isn't exercised logically or consistently: if it were, a court could intervene whenever an owner wanted a healthy pet killed, not just when the owner tries to do so from beyond the grave.)

Generally, the court's rationale is something like this: Someone leaves instructions in a will to destroy a dog because of the worry that the dog will not be cared for properly or will end up in a pound or somewhere worse. The owner wishes to prevent pain and suffering. So, if the dog is old and ill, or so attached to the owner that it couldn't adjust to a new home, the owner's request that it be humanely destroyed may make perfect sense. But if an executor has found a good home for a young, healthy animal, and the animal seems well adjusted and well taken care of, a court may decide that the previous owner's wishes are best fulfilled by not carrying out the will's order.

For example, a court faced with a will provision ordering the humane destruction of two healthy Irish setters concluded that the owner wouldn't really want them killed, because the dogs were happy and well cared for in a country home: "There is no lack of care. There is no reason for carrying out the literal provision of the will. That decedent [the deceased owner] would rather see her pets happy and healthy and alive than destroyed there can be no doubt."

One state legislature, moved to action by the public outcry over the impending death of Sido, a little mixed-breed dog that was being temporarily protected by the San Francisco SPCA, used the same rationale to pass a special law to save the dog's life. The legislature found that the dog's deceased owner, "having the best interests of her pet dog in mind, would not wish her instructions for the destruction of the pet dog carried out" if she knew how happy the dog was now. On the same day, a judge ruled that wills could not be used to destroy property.

Although courts rarely mention it, there is also overwhelming public opposition to carrying out such a will provision. It's hard to imagine a judge who wants to become famous for ordering the death of a happy, healthy pet that hundreds of families have offered to take in.

Many question the motives of dog owners who put such directions in their wills. Most pet owners who are truly worried about what will happen to their pets could arrange, if they tried hard enough, to have them go to loving homes. Obviously, there are exceptions: some dogs' attachment to one person is legendary, and such dogs can't be expected to adjust to new homes. The same goes for dogs that are incorrigibly bad-tempered around anyone outside the immediate family. And, of course, older dogs who are not in the best of health are not easy to place in new homes. But, unfortunately, there are times when using a will to order a healthy, normal pet to die when its owner does seems reminiscent of ancient rulers who had servants, wives, and animals buried with them.