Pay de Limón, at the Milagros Caninos animal shelter, south of Mexico City ALFREDO ESTRELLA (AFP)
Pay de Limón was found in 2011 at a dump in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, the community with the highest perception of insecurity in Mexico. The Los Zetas cartel, one of the most violent in the country, had been hunting the dog, who was barely a year old at the time. The toes of his front legs had been cut off one by one, which were eventually amputated. Twelve years after he was saved from terror by the owner of the sanctuary, Milagros Caninos, the history of Pay de Limón has taken a remarkable turn. Three days after the conclusion of America’s Favorite Pet contest, he stands as the first of the finalists to be voters’ favorite.
The sanctuary’s founder, Paty Milagros, compares the Pay de Limón case to organized crime kidnappings. “They cut off one finger after the other, like they cut off kidnapped people,” he says in a telephone interview with EL PAÍS. The dog now walks with prostheses, which it renews every year. The first ones were made in Denver, Colorado, and later those came from Washington and Virginia.
Milagros says she received the message from one of the cartel’s components. “He contacted me and told me where he was [Pay de Limón]. This person liked dogs,” he defends. After picking it up, they took it to Xochimilco in Mexico City, where the sanctuary for dogs subjected to extreme violence is located. For the first few months of care, they kept him in hiding for fear of possible reprisals from the drug dealer until they decided he should go on with his normal life. Competition organizers describe Pay’s case as “simple, brutal and poignant evidence of the cruelty of drug cartels.” Violence in Mexico is a daily reality. The country ended 2021 with 35,625 homicides, almost 5% of which (1,776) took place in Zacatecas, the state where he was rescued.
The animal organization tried to rally support with a photo showing him with ears pricked, eyes closed and a prosthetic limb clad in camouflage. “He is already over 13 years old and we know that time is against him. He is a hero, a survivor of human cruelty. It’s an example of unconditional love, resilience and strength,” they shared. The founder of the sanctuary confirms that Pay de Limón is “happy and healthy” at over 13 years old.
America’s Favorite Pet bills itself as “the world’s largest online pet competition as of 2020.” If he got the biggest endorsement, Pay de Limón could appear on the cover of Dogster magazine and win an additional $5,000 in cash (around 92,000 Mexican pesos). With this award, he would succeed Willow, a collie who won the award in 2021.
At the Xochimilco dog sanctuary (“the first in Latin America,” in the words of Milagros), they continue to take care of dozens of dogs that roam the town’s lawn. Milagros Caninos is supported by donations, which they use to rehabilitate and later train them to become therapy partners and donate blood to other dogs.
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