Man Who Opened His Home to Shelter 300 Dogs From A Hurricane Deemed Hometown Hero

NBC

October 7th was the day that one of the deadliest hurricane’s was set to hit Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Placed on red alert, the people were preparing themselves to deal with what many were calling a ‘life-threatening’ hurricane.

For one particular resident, Ricardo Pimentel, not only did he need to prepare to take care of his home and family, but he had over 300 stray animals that were living in a shelter that he was responsible for. Pimentel is actually the founder of Tierra de Animales – roughly translated as Land of Animals – which is an animal sanctuary for rescued animals located around 20-miles away from Cancún, Mexico.

The wildlife sanctuary is reportedly home to at least 500 livestock, pack animals, reptiles and house pets who mostly live in some very spacious outdoor enclosures that have some areas of covered shelter. In addition to that, the building at the shelter wasn’t big enough to accommodate all of the animals located there, and it wasn’t hurricane proof either. This also meant that it would leave the animals vulnerable to mother nature’s lashing if they were left out to fend for themselves.


Considering the hurricane promised to bring winds of up to 145-miles per hour, Pimentel knew he couldn’t leave the animals exposed. He made the decision to find a way to shelter 300 rescued dogs in the confines of his very own home.

According to Pimentel, “Those 300 dogs that I took into my house are some of the ones that already live at Tierra de Animales. It’s just that we don’t have enough hurricane-proof shelters for all the dogs, so to keep them safe from that, we decided to put them in the house.”

In order to best prepare for the storm and the hundreds of shelters he was planning to take in, he posted on his social media on October 6, saying that he had already cut out branches and boarded up the windows of the shelter. He knew that the storm was going to be devastating, so he decided to ask for donations ahead of time, thinking that most stores would still be closed even after the storm was over.

Pimentel shared, “If I lived with just 10 or 20 dogs, I wouldn’t worry much, but here we have hundreds of animals and we can’t afford the luxury of not having enough food.”

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It took him a few hours to get all the dogs inside the house, and when he was done, his house was basically overrun with tons of dogs. He ended up posting a photo of all the dogs crowded together in his hallway, and eventually, the post was shared on social media until the story about this good Samaritan became headline news. Pimentel didn’t even know that his post had gone viral because of the storm, and having to take care of the animals.

Soon enough, donations were pouring in and even nearby neighbors began arriving on his doorstep to help rebuild the sanctuary and clean up the debris. When media finally caught up to him after the storm, he was asked about having all those animals in the house and he shared that it smelled horrible. But he also said that it was worth it since all the animals survived.

“It doesn’t matter if the house is dirty, it can be cleaned. The things they broke can be fixed or bought again, but what’s beautiful is to see them happy, healthy and safe, without wounds and with the possibility of being adopted.” He also shared, “They are all spayed and neutered, vaccinated and dewormed. Almost all of them are ready to be adopted.”

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Pimentel actually started the shelter almost a decade ago, having cared and rescued animals since he was a young boy. He said, “We work with the help of people from all over the world, who donate whatever they can. We are going to build more and better shelters for all the animals of the sanctuary.”

Since Pimentel cannot do everything by himself at the sanctuary, he enlists the help from workers, volunteers and family members. His 20-year old daughter, Luna, is even studying to become a veterinarian.
On the days when he feels incredibly overwhelmed by the responsibilities that the shelter brings, he explains that he just looks at all the photos of the rescue dogs that have found new homes for continued inspiration.


Given the press release and response to his story, Pimentel also shared, “We would like to think that thanks to all this attention, somebody would like to be part of the story and say: ‘I adopted a dog saved from that famous Hurricane Delta’.”

And considering that the sanctuary’s motto happens to be “Leave footprints of kindness for others to follow,” Pimentel has proven more than once that he lives up to this amazing slogan.

 

 

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