Two Catalyst Pet Partners Join Mission to Help Animals and People at Nicaragua’s Largest Landfills
At two of Nicaragua’s largest landfills, animals and people live side by side—often competing for the same resources. Recently, a team of animal welfare advocates traveled there to do something about it.
The week-long trip was organized by NicaLove, an American nonprofit founded and led by Julie Burke that partners with local organizations to serve animals and the people who care for them in Nicaragua’s most vulnerable communities. Joining Julie were two members of the Catalyst Pet family: Nathan Kehn—known as Nathan the Cat Lady, a longtime Catalyst Pet ambassador—and Alexane Ricard, founder of Saaving Lives, an organization that travels the world to host spay/neuter clinics and support animal welfare, and a member of the Catalyst Pet marketing team.
Together, they spent a week hosting free spay/neuter and wellness clinics at two landfills—treating hundreds of animals and building relationships with the communities around them.
On the ground
The team’s first stop was La Chureca in Managua, the largest landfill in Central America. At a free clinic set up just a block away, they spayed and neutered 200 cats and dogs, treated eight horses and provided vaccines and medical care to countless other animals.
“Seeing the animals so skinny, so sick, living on dumps—it’s really sad,” Alexane says. “But being able to help them is so rewarding. People are so grateful. They kept hugging us and kept saying thank you. You feel like you’re really making a difference.”
From there, the team traveled to La Joya, outside of Granada, where they set up a clinic directly on the landfill. There, they spayed and neutered 80 cats and dogs, treated 20 horses and addressed 13 cases of TVT, a transmissible disease common in stray dog populations. They also rescued two dogs and a cat and brought them to NicaLove’s shelter in Grand Pacifica, which is currently home to around 300 animals, including dogs, cats, horses and parrots.
The team also spent time at the shelter building houses for the cats out of repurposed pallets. And they visited a local school, bringing uniforms, backpacks and a piñata for the kids—a reminder that NicaLove’s work extends well beyond animal welfare.
Helping animals by helping people
What sets NicaLove apart is its understanding that animal welfare and human welfare aren’t separate causes. The organization builds trust with local communities by showing up for the people, too. They do this by bringing rice, beans, oil and sugar, helping with medical needs and fundraising for individuals in crisis.
It’s something that left a deep impression on Alexane, who was making her second trip.
“For me, the project in Nicaragua is the first time I really saw how connected people and animals are,” she says. “When you’re in the dump, you see people fighting for the same resources as the animals. We can’t help the animals without helping the people. You can’t separate the causes—to help one is to help the other.”
Nathan, who raised $20,000 for NicaLove leading up to and during the trip, came away with a similar feeling.
“The emotional toll of seeing animals and people living in these conditions is hard,” he says. “But it’s so important that we help them. I think this is going to be a yearly trip for me because the amazing people at NicaLove need the support for the amazing things they are doing. Who am I to turn my back on that?”
Nathan also brought a cameraman, Robbie Ryde, along to document the mission. Footage from the trip has already been shared on his TikTok and Instagram, and a four-part documentary series is in the works for his YouTube channel.
What’s next
The work isn’t slowing down. Julie and NicaLove are teaming up with Alexane and Saaving Lives to return to Nicaragua in July for another week of clinics and community support.
“I want to continue traveling, keep meeting people like Julie with NicaLove and keep helping as much as I can,” Alexane says. “Learning from each other and making the world a better place for people and animals.”
If you’d like to support NicaLove’s mission, visit nicalove.org.
Photos by Robbie Ryde
