Dear Friends,

Costa Rica is a place of great beauty. This beauty and the abundant wildlife here have made it a popular tourist destination. The recent tourist boom has helped to fuel rampant development. Accompanying this growth are a great many side effects, some seen and some not. Some of these invisible impacts have devastating consequences. It is one of these unnoticed horrors that has prompted us to call out to all those with compassion for animals and beg you to act. This devastating consequence is the horrific electrocution of the native Howler Monkey.

These appalling electrocutions are not only the direct result of the recent and unregulated development but also the lack of environmental and social awareness in the past. In many areas most of the existing power lines and transformers are left unshielded. These lines are draped through the thick canopy of trees to houses, condo’s, resorts and businesses mimicking the vines that the monkeys use to travel between feeding grounds. Unfortunately, the building continues and the multitude of new power lines and transformers installed are predominately still unshielded.

The injuries resulting from the monkeys grasping the un insulated electrical lines or transformers leads are gruesome, painful, and often fatal. If an animal does survive, it will be severely burned and likely loose a hand, Many females have babies in tow when injured. If the infant doesn't’t die from electrocution, or the fall from the high lines, then they have to try to survive, injured, orphaned, and abandoned in the jungle. The odds of survival for these helpless infants are very poor. The low number of naturally surviving infants, compounded with the reckless negligence of deforestation and fragmentation of their habitat is having a devastating impact on the Howler Monkey population. This impact has resulted in an estimated population drop from 107,000 in 1998 to only 37,000 Howler Monkeys in 2004. Current numbers are likely even lower.

There are those working to improve the survival odds and even prevent these injuries. However, without veterinarian facilities, necessary supplies and medicines, their efforts are often frustrates. They have subsisted financially and physically on their own for the last 10 years, overwhelmed dealing with day to day operations and care of their patients to be concerned with the search for external sources of funding. Together, they share a common mission: to rescue injured, orphaned, and displaced wild animals and provide them immediate medical care, rehabilitation, and eventual release into the wild. Animals unlikely to survive in the wild receive attentive long-term care. They are educators and advocates who work cooperatively with other organizations to encourage respect for animals' lives and preservation of their habitat. Their work is complimentary, but different. Due to the broad spectrum of these programs and the enormous undertaking of this task, they have created Refugio Animales de Nosara and SIBU Sanctuary. The Refugio provides for the immediate rescue and medical attention while the Sanctuary provides a step-down release program for re-integration into the wild, as well as a natural life long care habitat for those who are not able to be released.

However, the situation is now dire. With numbers of Howlers rapidly declining, and tourism and development seeing a rapid increase every year, serious financing is desperately needed to meet the increasing demand for the care of injured and displaced animals. Your participation in this struggle will substantially improve the success of the efforts of both non-profit organizations, the Refugio Animales de Nosara and SIBU Sanctuary.

Donations will be used to meet both immediate, and ongoing objectives:

1. PREVENTION
   a) Continue the educational programs throughout the region to bring awareness to these atrocities.
   b) Implementing measures to shield electric lines and transformers, to prevent injuries.
   c) Working with the Costa Rican government to implement legislation requiring insulated power lines and transformers.
   
2. Continue to rescue, provide immediate medical care and day to day maintenance of rescued animals
3. Construct and staff a veterinary clinic to attend to those injured.
4. Complete the transitional habitat, needed now by those animals ready to return to the wild.
5. Complete the permanent, enriching habitat for those needing lifelong care.
6. Continue conservation programs to breed threatened species.

Your contribution can help make this vision a reality. Please help change the future for these unique and breath-taking animals, prevent these horrific injuries and excruciating, painful deaths. All donations will make a substantial difference in slowing, and hopefully preventing, the torture of these special creatures. Please donate to these Non-Profit Associations, Refugio Animales de Nosara and SIBU Wildlife Sanctuary today. Donate now ...