Watch Thousands of Dogs Run Free in This Magical Sanctuary | Short Film Showcase

It was also he was the first dog who got me thinking. So what if I didn't want to keep? Also, he wasn't gonna find a woman, anybody else, and he'd be put down. So a hundred dogs became 200 dogs, and then 300 dogs. And then all of a sudden we thought, "Okay, so how can you stop helping them? Do so many out there!" To me, and I hope to them, it's their little mountain, where nobody's gonna hurt them again, and where they're lucky they might find a home.

I said what the... or a mutt is the product of a survivor with a survivor. Not that I think three dogs are not... I mean, any dog, any animal is beautiful. But if a mutt gets to survive past his first months of life on the street, he's pretty much bulletproof. And Costa Rica has a serious problem with strays. We have about two million dogs on the streets, but the streets are not home to anyone.

First, I went to visit promoters. "Me gustan los alamitos, pero realmente el alma de esto le see no cure low psyche." Telesto a las casas Tamara's y vamos a tener siento Chen Tetris parathas. Entonces en ese momento super problematic Odessa demos, pero nunca sermo pensando vamos. It has to start with children. Children have to grow up knowing the good and the bad. I mean how to treat an animal properly. That's a nice part: how to consider part of your family and not an object.

And also what happens, that you don't... but people still need a little bit of coaching there. And it can't happen, but it has to happen from school. It has to be taught to kids, and kids will teach their parents. [Music]

"Tanea on supple echoes, it in your bathrobe is data yester convinced." Either case, what will a marvelous animals turning? Estaría, well creo que el mejor Rousseau. "Play Polaris in honor." I kissed Elena and "where is Nick?"

"Oh, I'll get her; I'll get her back." Yeah, what else? Since we don't euthanize the dog for any reason at all, some of her dogs needed therapy. We had dogs that would come to us dragging their back legs because they had been hit by a car months ago. And a few sessions of therapy, and in a month they were wobbling and walking, and then strong enough to get their muscles back.

It's wonderful. Dogs in general are so resilient, so much braver than we are, and they take hell with such class. Little dogs I've seen, though, are the dogs that get the news. Part of their ability to function have to make up with personality, and they do.

So you see little wiener dogs sort of dawn on... say they have weak backs, and it happens a lot. And you see them, and they're happy. They feel no self-pity; they just feel it's another challenge. And dogs function on challenges. You see them. I mean, don't go past this point, and they'll try to go past this point. Don't eat that, and they'll try to eat. But don't survive, and they will survive.

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I noticed America. "Minnie-rella personas complicado." Part element alpha rapidly are recommended. I stock antivirus, "iskimoon cup with impressive as a bit for Paris economy." So now we just have the longest troughs. We place the strategically place to Sachs. The guy standing... it's like a ceremony, and they all come, and they start getting in and shouldering their way in. And some of them will lie on top of the food, so we do have to patrol behind them.

But basically, that's their routine. It comes full circle because we feed them, and then we have these really sturdy sacks leftover. So what we do is we collect the poop during the day, and we fill the sacks. And then the sacks are placed in special bins that are later connected by... they're connected by a company that specializes in sort of composting. That's our thing. So it's not my face or the tossing in the river.

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At least some of my proudest moments are when I can see dogs walking and running around here that were either dogs that were supposed to be put down for whatever reason, or really weren't supposed to survive. We have... and that for that, we have to thank our vets.

"Territorial representa muchas cosas. Representa todo lo que una persona puede hacer para cambiar el mundo, pero al mismo tiempo, y muy triste mente representa lo mal que estamos en Costa Rica con respecto a lotta MENCIA responsable de mess castas." Es un lugar donde yaga todos los casos que las otras personas completamente volte erin su cara.

When you get into this, into rescuing animals, you come into contact with the lowest, lowest form of humanity very often. But even if it's very few sparks compared to very big blotches of darkness, there are enough, there are enough to make it worth it. Entonces es una combination de sentimientos, sentimientos muy buenos cuando la Gramma's excelente resultados.

He sentimental muy triste z-- cuando ellos lo que una mano. Whereas earlier... "una mascota, oh c'mon." Okay, sir Leon ser que no se puede.

There are a lot of the dogs we have here who are all messed up. They've had a hard life, and they get wet and dirty and muggy in. But they're happy; they've healed the inside. And that's sometimes the hardest part. You think of human beings... I mean how much makeup you put on if you're sad, if you've got a broken heart, it's not gonna... it's not gonna go away.

We make every dog becomes your baby, and at the beginning it was harder. But then after years of watching these dogs who have had so much fun here just gravitate towards people when there's a public walk, you understand that they all want a home.

So when somebody takes them, the bittersweet part of letting go, the bitter part is gone. It's like I'm trusting this person with what I think this dog wants. And I think they all want homes. It's not how many times you're happy; it's how deeply happy you can be.

And I don't think I could be happy turning my back. Sometimes, like I get asked, "Why do you keep doing it?" You know because somebody has to take over. Somebody has to learn that it is possible to give this to dogs, to have dogs that don't have homes.

And I have engaged in and sentenced to a death if they're not adopted. If I could do this, imagine a government with funding. They deserve at least this, at least as much. And if we can't stop them from being born with God, then guarantee them some happiness and a future that doesn't involve cages. So I can't stop. I can't.

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