NATUWA Wildlife Sanctuary — Attraction in Pitahaya

Hello everyone, I want to share with you my volunteering experience in Costa Rica at the sanctuary « Natuwa » I booked through World Wide Vets. At 18, my goal was to travel and make a positive impact on wildlife conservation. I found Natuwa Volunteering on Instagram through World Wide Vets, attracted by the promise of meeting similar minded dedicated people and animal care and conservation. I was a bit anxious since it was my first time travelling alone that far from home. Despite the high costs, I thought it was worth investing my hard-earned money for a 4-week program. The Zoom meeting with Sarah K. from World Wide Vets seemed promising and professional. She told me I could travel on January first since there was another group of volunteers arriving the same day. I arrived on January first at 5.30PM, it was almost dark. I was received by the night guard and another guy. The night guard barely talked with me. He brought me to a lonely container in the middle of the jungle, with no one else inside of it. The accommodation was not even clean, nor the toilets or showers. There was even blood on the shower curtain. I didn’t expect luxury but at least a bit comfortable and clean places for people who are paying to work for a month! I had been left alone in an environment I did not know. I was very scared. If something would have happened, there would have been no one to contact on site. (WWV gave me the number of Henry to contact but fun fact no one knew him at the sanctuary and I have never seen him during my stay.)I worked every day from 7AM to 3-4PM. There was minimal interaction from the workers, they barely talked with me, except to tell me how to cut a banana. Despite daily exhaustion from 7 AM to 3-4 PM, I felt like an outsider, more of a nuisance to the workers than a valued contributor. On the third day I finally got to meet the owner of Natuwa, Rodolfo, who gave us information about safety! After 4PM there were no activities, nothing to do and no possibility to go anywhere. After a week, safety concerns and questionable animal welfare practices prompted my decision to leave. Reporting my experience to World Wide Vets led to the program's removal from their website, reinforcing my belief that it is a dubious place. Despite seeking a refund for the remaining three weeks, my efforts were unsuccessful, they just kept the remaining 1500£(1900$). Further research revealed similar programs at a much lower cost on “volunteerworld” for example. This experience taught me the potential dangers of volunteering, especially for young and ambitious individuals. Be cautious—social media depictions may not reflect reality. Another alerting thing I should have noticed is that there were very few independent ratings of WWV which were difficult to find. I strongly discourage considering Natuwa or booking through World Wide Vets. Take care and be mindful of...

warning. completely falsely advertised. !Please do not go here! on a tour this place may seem okay but I promise as a behind the scenes vet volunteer that that slept there I seen the truth. I planned this trip for a year as my first out of the country trip. I am a rehabber here in the states and I help rehab and release animals. I went here because on their website, they talk all about being a rehab in Sanctuary in Sanctuary in general. In reality when I got there, nothing that they promised was true. to start we got there at 6:10 so 10 minutes after dinner and they had no food for us after a day and a half of travel even though this was planned for a year and they said would, there was nobody to show us around. They just brought us to dark rooms in the jungle. There weren’t even other volunteers around at the time and we were very freaked out. Once we actually seen the facility, we noticed how sad everything was while I was there two other girls left because of the creulty. They do in fact have big flat cages with macaws, but they also have 20 small cages in the back with macaws that have been there for two years because they’re a part of a breeding program. They aren’t supposed to have yet because they are still waiting on permits. Please macaws don’t have branches leaves any sort of enrichment. They can’t even spread their wings. Yet they are surrounded by free macaws trees above them. You can see how angry and distraught and sad they are. It is so sad to see as an animal lover that does not support zoos for this reason. They also had blue macaws dropping dead with no reason why. They threw two macaws into a cage, and immediately their tail feathers were ripped out. I have pictures to prove it. They literally just get the animals for the vet program to pick at most of these animals. Don’t even need done what we’re doing at that moment there’s no way that animals constantly need these things done every week. The worst thing was that when I felt uncomfortable and tried to leave, they made it extremely hard and canceled my taxi three times I had a breakdown because I felt so unsafe at this point because I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just let leave. And yes, I did pay for my stay, so it was not that. Finally they approved the taxi to come and I left two days later after planning my dream trip for a year. do not go and do not support. the website is clearly not even made by the sanctuary. They are all out for money and the owner is trying to open a new “rescue”. If you do go and see these macaws jailed in the back, please get pictures. I seen one bad review and didn’t listen. This is your sign not to go. also I realize every response I ever have gotten was from the receptionist who tried to take more more from me. they use google translate to respond to these reviews and texts when you book. they don’t actually care about you or...

I understand that as a sanctuary, the animals you have are the animals you take care of. Due to regulations, space and finances you can’t take in any more as unfortunate as that is but sometimes other animals simply find their way in or they’re left there by people. When I arrived at the sanctuary as a volunteer there were 2 cats by the volunteer area — which is a fairly good distance from the main area of the sanctuary where the wild animals are kept. The two cats appeared to be malnourished but since I just got there I made the assumption that they’re being fed and taken care of and maybe they’re in the process of recovery. A few days later I find out that the cats are actually not being fed at all, and the owner and/or workers of the sanctuary don’t know that they’re there and/or chose to ignore them. My heart broke, so some of the volunteers and I bought them food and decided to start feeding them on a regular basis and when we leave we’ll just let the next batch of volunteers know and that way they can continued to be fed and looked after. Since the cats were a male and female, we also asked the veterinary in charge if the male can be neutered. The veterinary agreed to the idea but still had to ask the owner. The very next day, the owner came with a couple of his workers and horribly mishandled the two cats (grabbing them, holding one by the tip of his tail) as they tried putting them in carriers — they work in an animal sanctuary, so I know damn well they know how to properly handle cats. Their actions can only be taken as complete and utter lack of care and compassion. When the volunteers tried to intervene and ask where they’re being taken, they were told that the cats were being taken back to the owners house because they’re not being looked after properly. I don’t know if they were telling the truth (for the cats sake I hope they were) or if they just dumped the cats somewhere and left them for dead. What I do know is that the way they handled the situation was horrible and cruel. Given that the volunteers were already paying for their food, we wouldn’t have minded contributing to the cost of neutering if money and resources were the issue. Regardless, the owner could have let them stay in the sanctuary at no cost to him. Or if he really wanted to get rid of them he could have done it in a more humane way. This incident, no matter how small it may seem, and other disagreements, tainted my view. While the sanctuary isn't entirely bad and the animals they have seem to be taken care of, the balance between profit and compassion is...