Moving from Canada to San Carlos, Mexico offered an exciting world of wonderful new experiences for myself, my daughter and granddaughter. What we weren’t prepared for was the heartbreak of seeing so many homeless dogs in need of shelter, love and basic care. The more I investigated this situation the more convinced I became that these precious animals desperately needed assistance. With the right support from the community as well as dog lovers everywhere, a huge amount of canine suffering could be relieved and prevented. Tanta Vida Perros was created to facilitate and provide that assistance, and I am pleased to report that thus far much has been achieved. Sadly, the need is greater than our resources can handle, and we are seeking your loving and generous support to help us bridge the gap and provide these furry friends a better life.

One of our early success stories was a beautiful dog named Angel. When we first encountered Angel, he was recovering from obvious burns. We came to learn that Angel had repeatedly returned home to his previous owners who no longer wanted him. Their solution – throw boiling water on him. We are pleased to report that Angel is now fully healthy and is living on a ranch with a loving family. Although we can’t achieve such a perfect ending with all of our rescues, we have seen a huge difference in the health and enjoyment of life in most of them. We hope that through your generosity and love of these wonderful dogs you can help us to create more stories with happy endings like Angel.

Tanta Vida Perros is a U.S.-registered 501 (C)(3) nonprofit dog welfare organization.

Our Story

So
Much
Life!

We have a two-fold mission:

Work to alleviate the suffering of street dogs in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico, and surrounding communities.

Assist families in keeping their dogs at home by providing dog support for spay/neuter education, and dog food, supplies, medications, and medical treatments.

When my daughter, granddaughter, and I - Jessica, Taylor and Daryl - moved to San Carlos 2022, we noticed immediately that many of the street dogs needed food, water, and medical care, and that the shelters were overtaxed. Soon thereafter, we created Tanta Vida Perros to work collaboratively with the shelters to improve the welfare of dogs in our community.

How do we accomplish our mission?

Spay/Neuter:

We are very fortunate to have a phenomenal free spay/neuter clinic in San Carlos that provides surgery one weekend per month. With the help of volunteers, we round up the street dogs we’ve been feeding and monitoring, and transport them to the clinic. Our goal is to have every street dog spayed/neutered.

Most street dogs are males because female dogs who give birth on the street frequently die. Also, unneutered males get into many more fights than do those who are neutered. Sadly, fights can result in fatal infections among street dogs. Clearly, the more spay/neuters, the fewer puppies. Street puppies often die from various viral and tick-borne diseases or are hit by cars.

SBPA Clinic,  San Carlos, Sonora Mexico.

Food and Water:

With our team of volunteers, we currently feed and provide water for up to 50 dogs, twice a day, from feeding stations set up around town. Although street dogs are on the move, they do have territories and will go to their “neighborhood” feeding stations for food, water and rest. We also feed individual roaming dogs.

Medical Care:

We work with an on call mobile vet. If a dog appears to be ill or injured, the vet is called to come and assess and treat the injury or illness. Common issues include infections from wounds from fights and to their paws from stepping on glass, nails and thorns, and tick-borne diseases. Any dogs that are going to be fostered or adopted, a standard blood panel is run to assess their health. The blood panel provides us with the data on whether further testing is required. For stray puppies, every effort is made to give the full round of vaccinations assist in keeping them healthy. Surgeries and other necessary medical treatments are provided as our funds allow.

We also assist in stabilizing dogs [psychologically] by working with each of them to desensitize them from trauma, fear, and stress they have experienced before placing them into vetted, loving homes.

In Home Help:

To help families care for their dogs at home, we offer dog welfare and spay/neuter education, as well as food, medications, medical treatments, supplies, and training for the dogs. Transportation is also provided to the spay/neuter clinic if needed.

Fosters and Adoptions:

Substantial resources are dedicated to help dogs find a fur-ever loving home and families through adoption events, sponsorships, and other outreach opportunities

Check out our Adoptions section for our current listings of friends looking for a good home.