About Us

Amigos de los Animales – Isla Mujeres

Who are we? We are eager volunteers, local residents, capable medical staff, concerned visitors, involved city officials, and so many more. We are everyone who cares about our animal population and are striving to make a positive difference.

Main Players

Some of our amazing and tireless volunteers are listed below but not in order of importance as each one offers a unique service to Isla Animals.

Alison Current. We know her as the woman who currently holds the island animal’s project together. You may know her as that near saint who fosters all the dogs on North Beach. Together with her wonderful husband Jeff and with endless help from both Rudy and Marcelino, she has opened her home to literally hundreds of homeless pups here on Isla. After fostering up to 40 dogs at a time, Alison created the Dog Gone Foundation, an adoption program that has placed hundreds of beautiful pups in loving homes. Alison is grateful to everyone who comes to help her walk, feed, bathe, and love her dogs… Please contact her in advance if you would like to visit.
Dr Pepe Vega. Pepe came to us from Monterey where he graduated from one of the best veterinarian schools in the country. He works in Cancun and Isla Mujeres and often performs surgeries at the house to avoid extra trauma to our dogs. We are lucky to have him.
Erica. Erica Altbach Sanchez is an angel to my puppies. She has a veterinary practice on the mainland and often visits the island to check on our dogs. She has many years of experience with the dogs that show up in a sad state of health after being on the streets. We are very great full for her expertise and dedication and she is way up there on the list of humans that love animals almost as much as me, Alison. .
Pet Project Rescue. We met Matt and Maia many years ago when they visited Isla Mujeres and adopted one of our dogs. Since then they have started an incredible animal rescue project in Minneapolis, Pet Project Rescue. They are excited to do anything they can to help our Mexican dogs find loving forever homes in the US. Now we can’t imagine Isla Animals functioning without them. You can read more about them at www.petprojectrescue.com
Alex West. Here is an individual who has dedicated her life to making a positive change in the world. Alex has been the invaluable second half of Alison’s Dog Gone Foundation, receiving as many homeless dogs as Alison can find funds to send to Denver. Not only does she find loving homes for these animals but she takes them back if things don’t work out and continues to search for the right home until she finds it.
Darci Galati. Isla Animals is a humane partner with CANDI, cats and dogs international. This organization was started by Darci Galati to be part of the solution for cats and dogs in Mexico. Her mission is to raise money through the tourist industry in the destination countries. Darci has been the driving force behind many spay and neuter clinics in this area. She also helps hotels set up Cat Cafes and much much more. You can read all about it at www.candiinternational.org
Melody Nichols. Melody Nichols works with CANDI. She has performed miracles finding homes for Mexican dogs. She works with rescue groups and individuals, matching each dog to exactly the right destination. Last fall she found locations for over forty dogs when a local shelter closed down. Her hard work and persistence has changed the lives of many many Mexican mutts and the lucky families who adopted them.
Rescate Malix.Edie and Angie started and run a wonderful animal rescue on the mainland, just across the water from Isla Mujeres. BUT….what they do goes way beyond that, they care for sick and injured dogs, they have programs to teach the children and are working with other groups in Cancun to inforce new animal cruelty laws. You can read all about them at www.rescatemalix.org
Jeff Current This is my husband who has supported me through all the trials and tribulations of animal rescue. He is the one that understands when I take in another dog and we are already full. He is the one that lets the new dog that needs more time with humans sleep in our bedroom. He is the one that helps me out when we lose a puppy or it all gets overwhelming so he is the one that keep Isla Animals running. Thank you Jeff.
Marcelino. Many years ago we hired Marcelino as a maintenance man, when your house is on the coast the salt air ruins things faster than you can fix them. Little did Marcelino know that he would soon spend most of his time taking care of dogs. He does an awesome job and we couldn’t do what we do without him.
Irene. Irene has been an enormous help with the puppies. She comes three to four times a week and gives all the dogs the special attention they need. This has been wonderful for me, puppies are very time consuming and without extra help I couldn’t get anything else done e.g. getting to know how to work this new website. Irene is also way up there on the scale of “crazy about dogs.”
Molly Fisher. Without Molly’s perseverance and amazing determination it is unlikely that this group would ever have formed. From the moment she arrived on Isla Mujeres, Molly’s heart ached for the local animals and she began doing what she could to improve their living conditions. After adopting and caring for countless cats and dogs she recognized that the only real solution was to begin a massive spay/neuter campaign which she successfully initiated in November of 2001. Molly moved to Puerto Vallarta in 2002 where she has implemented many more spay/neuter clinics and continues to support the Isla project through fundraising, administrative support, as well as returning to help with the annual clinics.
Genevieve Pritchard. For Genevieve, a tender love of animals is a relatively new thing, grown out of the heartbreaking way she saw dogs and cats living on Isla Mujeres. Working with Amigos de los Animales, that love slowly evolved, so much so that she eagerly kept up the program in Molly’s absence. In 2004 she initiated the weekly Spay Day program ensuring at least 300 alterations per year.
A special mention to Claudia Levy who owns a vet clinic in Playa del Carmen; she has cured some of our most complicated cases. She cares for these extra needy animals for free, only charging a minimal fee for medicines. Thank you Thank you. There are some of her cases in our dog story section.
One more animal angel that we can’t forget is Lupita, who lives on Isla Mujeres and tirelessly cares for any cat that needs help. She feeds them and brings them to the clinic for spay/neuter and or medical care when needed.

Plus many other dedicated volunteers!! We thank you all!