Mary Carmen with Oliver

Animals have been with me since the day I was born. I grew up in a small town at the north of the Mexican Republic, where black bears and pumas used to live, I’m sure there were the last survivors of their spicies in that region. I lived surrounded by chicken, racoons, pigs, horses, dogs & cats. No animal was ever used as food at home. In that small town as in the rest of the contry, animals are seen as objets, for human consumption. I have fresh images of abused animals, fighting before been slaughtered, I saw them dissapeard of the next door ranches before any festivities, I saw how people used to go hunting for pleasure, to show their power. I was never able to see this as something natural.

When I came back to Mexico City I started to recue dogs and cats from the streets. I found a good home for a great deal of them, but this city is very cruel place for animals, there were many that I could only help to die in peace. I felt it was a vicious circle. No matter how strong my effort was, I was not changing the reality that more and more animlas will be suffering until the end of time.

I decided to work for the conservation of the environment. I joined as an activist in some groups and later on I began to work in a organization dedicated to the biodiversity conservation. I was there when I realized that big changes require a long time, sometimes big projects are not the answer for urgent needs. Species are becoming extinct everyday, hundreds of dogs are electrocuted everyday, consumption animals die terribly helpless, the mexican forests and jungles will desapear in 50 years time if we do not do something about it.

I needed to do something else, something that would impact the present reality.Thus we decide to create Gente por la Defensa Animal, a commited organization were we could take effective and immediate actions to fight against cruelty, where education and the creation of regulations were a priority.

The way is long, but I have the rest of my life to walk through it.

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