Dogs in the West Ajijic shelter. Photo: Archive

Editor. A group of 20 Mexican and Expat homeowners and representatives of several Homeowners Associations in West Ajijic have filed a lawsuit against the SOS Chapala Dog Rescue organization, the Chapala government, and the Jalisco State Employees Pension Fund over the dog shelter established by the previous municipal administration near homes. The shelter is operated by SOS under an agreement and occupies land transferred from the municipal government to the state Pension fund by the Móises Anaya Administration.

In a copy of the lawsuit obtained by Laguna, the plaintiffs charge that the dog shelter was illegally established by the Anaya Administration on land zoned for housing only, and that the agreement between the Anaya Administration  SOS Chapala Dog Rescue was invalid.  The suite requests that the court order administrative action be taken to move the shelter to a site zoned for the correct use.

Because the site of the shelter belongs to the Jalisco State Pension Fund, which is “the one that legally has the power of deed on that land”,  the Chapala Department of Ecology  is acting as a mediator of all parties involved and seeks to ensure that everyone has a favorable response to this situation.

 The Chapala government issued a statement saying that “ the Municipal Government  has been in constant communication and dialogue to generate agreements, one of them is that the people in charge of the association  (SOS) have agreed to change the location of the shelter. 

SOS representatives contacted  by Laguna said  there was no formal  agreement, but they have agreed to move if a suitable site is located and meets the necessary criteria.  They told Laguna in a message that while negotiations are ongoing , to date “ the Department of Ecology has suggested a new site  and SOS has suggested a new site, but no one knows if either of these places is willing to provide a lease and no one knows what the rent would be.”

The shelter has been contentious since it was established by the former  Director of Ecology, José Jaime Ibáñez on land originally donated to Chapala for a cemetery but was unusable for that purpose.  Several years later, Jaime Ibáñez decided to use it for a shelter for stray dogs and other animals in the area  in response to legislation passed by the Chapala Council. But, since the land had been given to the state Pension Fund in repayments for debts, leases or permits issued by Jaime Ibáñez’s staff were not valid.

Additionally, no discussion was held with nearby homeowners by Jaime Ibáñez or his staff and he told Laguna  on October 20, 2020, that  “We did not meet with the homeowners in advance because we saw that the developments were not close to the site and we did not anticipate any problems (and) we were surprised by the opposition”.

Lawsuit filed by homeowners

The homeowners immediately registered their opposition to the shelter  built without their knowledge and the 24-hour a day barking of the sheltered dogs which upset their  lives and lowered property values . The shelter affected the residents of nearby developments of Puerta Arroyo, Sierra Viva, Los Sabinos, Villas Colorado, and Los Alebrijes and La Canacinta.  

The residents of those developments – about 200 households, half of which are estimated to be Mexican by the HOA officials — submitted a petition to 7 government agencies  in 2021 to solve the noise problem and subsequently met with Jaime on July 28, 2021, to find a new location.   Several sites were located but were rejected for various reasons by Jaime Ibáñez, despite his promises to resolve the problem. 

Just before the end of the Anaya Administration, Jaime Ibáñez  staff forged an agreement with SOS Dog Rescue to manage the shelter, although the Administration knew it was not on land controlled by the municipalidad, handing the problem to the state and  SOS to deal with the  impacted homeowners.

SOS Chapala Dog Rescue expanded the shelter and improved conditions for the dogs so that it is now one of the best run shelters in North America, according to inspections by other shelter operators.   But the expansion created more noise for the homeowners, and negotiations have continued. SOS installed mitigation measures like dog feeding schedule changes and soundproofing, but these  actions  did not mitigate the noise of the dogs, and measurements by homeowner representatives found the barking exceeded 80 decibels –  the legal maximum in Chapala.

SOS has resisted moving the shelter unless the move is paid for, the new site meets its conditions, and an orderly transition can take place to care for the dogs. The homeowners agree that the welfare of the dogs is paramount, but question why they should pay for a problem created by the municipality and now owned by the State.  However they  are willing to raise funds to rent a suitable site for three years —  a continuation of an offer they made in 2021 to the Anya Administration to no avail.  Faced with inaction and what they see as a record of broken promises the owners have filed suit.