This month's feature shelter is Animal House in Jamaica. We interviewed founder Maureen Sheridan about what it's like running one of Jamaica's only animal rescue facilities, and what people reading her story could do to help. Please read below, and see some pictures of the great dogs and cats Animal House has helped.

Q. Maureen, tell us how Animal House Jamaica started and what you do.

The organization started informally in 1996 and was formally registered as a charity in May, 2003. The Animal House Jamaica was formed to fill a serious gap in animal welfare in Jamaica given that there was only one animal shelter on the entire island and that was in Kingston, 70 miles away from the north coast. I began the operation by rescuing, rehabilitating, spaying/neutering and re-homing one animal at a time. This soon spiraled into a lot more than one animal at a time! We now look after about 150 animals at any given time.

Q. What are some of your special programs or missions? 

We focus as much as possible on spaying and neutering as many animals as we can. Also, we are working on a humane education program for Jamaican primary school children which, funding permitting, we hope to introduce later this year.

Q. What is a typical day like for you or your employees / volunteers?

The typical week for me is 12/7 with no respite. A typical day begins at 5:00 a.m. with my doing the cat chores (49 cats who need to be fed and have their litters cleaned) and then coming back to look after the 12 dogs and four puppies (a lot of work!) we have at home -- the overflow from the shelter. Breakfast (two slices of toast) is at 7:00 a.m. and from 7:30 to 12:00 I work on the computer -- fundraising, dealing with adoptions, networking, etc. The afternoon is usually spent at the kennel checking on our 100 plus dogs with our kennel supervisor, giving medication where required, and spending some time with the dogs, which they love. At 4:30 there are cat chores again, then back home to do night duty with the dogs and puppies. 6:30 p.m. is usually shower time, 7:00 generally dinner time, and 8:00 to whenever I fall into bed, back on the computer.

We have two employees at the kennel. They rise at 5:00 a.m. also. They first let all of the dogs out for a run and clean all the kennels -- this takes about two hours. Next is meal-time which requires the chopping up of meat and the cooking of cornmeal or rice on an outside wood fire. Feeding time is 10:00 a.m. after which the dogs are let out again for another couple of hours. In the front room of the shelter are the puppies who require their pens cleaned out twice a day and also need to be fed (puppy chow) three times a day. They are let out in the front of the building for a run under supervision since the front yard is not fenced. After the puppies are taken care of, the men usually chop wood brought from the surrounding woodland area for the next day’s fire and do any maintenance that is needed.

Unfortunately, apart from a few people who have graciously come from overseas, we don’t have even one volunteer! Volunteering is not a part of the Jamaican culture.

Q. What are local attitudes towards animals? Give us a sense of what it's like for the animals in your community.

By and large animals have a very hard life in Jamaica. Yes, there are caring individuals and yes we have found some very loving homes for a lot of animals, but for the average dog or cat on the street (and there are many of them) what many believe is an island paradise is for them an island hell. We see some of the worst animal cruelty cases imaginable -- animals poisoned, hung, burned, and put in sacks tied to large stones and drowned.

Q. What are the biggest problems you face when helping animals in your community?

Lack of funding.

Q. Please share a heartwarming story about a special animal or a situation that you turned around, or a victory for animals in general in your community.

Oh there are so many! But, perhaps the most incredible is the story of a woman from New Jersey who had accumulated 39 dogs in her house here and had then decided to leave the island. She called us to tell us that if we didn’t take them in she was going to drive them into the bush and abandon them and then proceeded to leave after locking them in her house without food or water. By the time we got there three dogs had already died, but despite most of the others being in very poor health (many with mange so serious that they had not a hair on their body) we rescued them, treated them all and found homes for 22. The others have a permanent home with us at the shelter -- unless a good home comes along of course.

Q. How can international volunteers or friends of animals help your organization from abroad? Can travelers help you if they're in Jamaica or take animals home with them?

By spreading the word of our existence and of our animals’ needs. We would be especially grateful for any fundraising initiatives, or any drives to collect needed supplies (we need everything!). We can offer good accommodation to volunteer vets who are willing to come and help but as yet have no facilities for other volunteers.

We have adopted about seven animals to the US and to Canada. Cost averages about US$600.00. We waive our adoption fee, and we don't charge anything, but there are vet fees, export license fees, kennel, and transportation. The people who have adopted from us are very, very happy with their animals.

Q. Anything else you'd like to share with Little Lotus Hearts?

The most important thing we would like to emphasize is the difficulty of running such a shelter without regular funding. It is a very difficult thing to wake up every morning and know that you have 150 animals to feed and look after and there is no money to do this with. Gradually our support base is growing and we do have the promise of some consistent funding in the near future. But, to get here has been -- and still is -- a very difficult road. The international animal welfare societies sit on millions of dollars while small shelters who are really doing the work of helping animals struggle daily to survive.

If you would like to donate to Animal House Jamaica, you can do so via Paypal at their website, or sending a check (US currency okay) to: PO Box 775, Ocho Rios, Jamaica.