Attention dog lovers! Have you dreamt being in a place surrounded by dogs? There is a tropical mountain land which has nearly a thousand stray dogs, living happily! Yes, you read that right – a thousand!
Territorio de Zaguates in Costa Rica is an animal shelter that is privately run with the help of volunteers with a no-kill policy. As of November 2017, there were 970 dogs living here.
What’s even better? All of these dogs are up for adoption. The shelter has a wonderful message, “When you adopt a mutt, you adopt a unique breed.” There is some kind of casteism even in dogs – we look down upon strays but this shelter encourages us to look at all of them equally. After all, they are all cute, balls of love!
The 370 acres wide shelter is located about an hour’s drive from San José. When a dog dies at this shelter (a few have died recently and the owners believe that this is because of foul play of some neighbours who want to buy the land), they bury them with respect and make a grave.
According to National Geographic, the founders Lya Battle and her husband Alvaro Saumet began taking in strays from the streets of San José about 13 years ago. This farm, which is now an animal shelter was owned by Battle’s grandfather. Even though they are garnering global attention and love, the cost of running the shelter is proving to be a challenge. They need approximately $600 every day just for the food.
(Photos: Facebook/Territorio de Zaguates)
They hope that people would come together to save this ‘Albergue De Perros’ or animal shelter that is a paradise for dogs and dog-lovers.
P.S.: You can take your own dog and play with the other dogs at the shelter here too! What more is needed for a happy life?
You can donate and help them too. Visit here.
Check out their Instagram and Facebook handles.
Preview Photo: Dan Giannopoulos/National Geographic
