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Sawyer Current's first visit to Isla Mujeres, a small island off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, was meant to be a getaway. But instead of relaxing on white sand beaches Current was disappointed at the number of unwanted animals wandering the streets. "Dogs were everywhere, coming out of the bushes and along the sides of the road," she recalls of that trip 25 years ago. "They were dirty and covered with fleas (跳蚤)and scars." It was sad, she says. "I just couldn't stand to watch it."

Current decided to help fix it. She built a second home on Isla Mujeres in 2000, and beginning with a skinny, toothless cat she rescued from the streets, she went on to find homes for more than 2,000 dogs and cats. Today, thanks to Current's efforts, the island no longer has a wild-dog problem, and "people are more aware of their pets' needs," says Marcelino Velazquez, 34, a property manager from Isla Mujeres. "They vaccinate(打疫苗) them and don't abandon them on the streets. The way of thinking has change."

For Current, it was a hard-fought transformation. "At first I was angry and thought it was horrible Current says of the conditions on the island when she began her work. "But these weren't bad people. They were people without resource." When she first arrived, the community had no small-animal vet(兽医), and animal control consisted of a team of government workers who'd round up street dogs in a truck and kill them " I used to follow the truck, and when they'd go for lunch, I'd let the dogs out," she says. "One time i let the air out of their tires(轮胎)."

At one point she was caring for more than 65 rescued dogs in her home, and she estimates she has spent about $1 million of her own savings on her efforts. "It was exhausting," she admits. Now Isla Animals has an on-site shelter with a small staff, and many volunteers and donors among the island's tourists Each year the group re-homes more than 170 pets many of which fly with volunteers to families in the U. S. and Canada.

"There's nothing in the world like finding a starving dog nursing it back to good health and finding it a loving home," Current says.