The foundation discontinues its program with gratitude to everyone who helped make accessible spay and neuter possible throughout the island.
Today, with a heavy heart, Stimami Sterilisami announces the discontinuation of its program, effective November 10, 2026. Eligible procedures already scheduled through November 15 will be honored.
What began in 2016, when Yesenia Farro-Arends brought Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort an idea to make sterilization more accessible, grew into an island-wide effort that financed more than 52,000 spay and neuter procedures. Together, they established Stimami Sterilisami with a simple purpose: to prevent animal suffering by removing financial barriers to sterilization. Its subsidy made procedures accessible and free helping families care for their animals, allowing rescuers’ limited resources to reach further, and preventing millions of unwanted litters and the suffering so often accompanying them.
Over the years, that purpose brought together public and private donors, veterinarians, rescue organizations, volunteers, and pet owners. Bucuti & Tara remained the program’s largest donor and principal supporter, matching contributions from the Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA), the Tourism Product Enhancement Fund (TPEF), One Love Foundation and other donors. When more was needed to keep procedures available, the resort contributed beyond those matching amounts. In total, Bucuti & Tara devoted more than AWG 3 million of its own funds to sustaining this work.
This year, the resort provided AWG 400,000 in anticipation of confirmed public contributions that it had committed to match. Together with funds generously raised by One Love Foundation and donations from other private supporters, this allowed the program to continue until November. The anticipated public funding has not materialized, and those resources have now been exhausted. The money has run out and the foundation has reached the limit of what it can responsibly continue to finance.
It is a conclusion the foundation would have wished to avoid, knowing how much the service continues to mean to the community. It nevertheless looks back with gratitude on what this partnership made possible.
Every cent contributed to Stimami Sterilisami was used to fund spay-and-neuter procedures for the wider community. Pet owners and rescue organizations throughout Aruba could access the program, allowing the generosity entrusted to one foundation to support the efforts of many.
That support included financing spay and neuters through Animal Welfare Alliance Aruba (AWAA) and supporting campaigns by Luna Foundation Aruba, helping reach animals and
families with limited financial means. Stimami Sterilisami warmly thanks both organizations and all other rescue organizations that used its subsidy, whose daily dedication helped this shared effort reach animals throughout Aruba.
Making the funding go further also depended on veterinary collaboration. Veterinary Specialty Hospital Aruba (VSH), the program’s primary veterinary partner, was instrumental in keeping procedure costs low, enabling more animals to receive care within the available resources. The foundation extends its sincere appreciation to its team and to every veterinary clinic that has contributed over the years.
Particular heartfelt thanks go to One Love Foundation, whose all-volunteer team has turned a love for Aruba’s animals into devoted support from the United States and here on the island. Through dog walks with Bucuti & Tara, Pawfest with The Village Aruba, comedy benefits with Aruba Ray, and many other efforts, they brought people together and raised vital funds for spay-and-neuter. Their generosity of time, heart, and effort has meant so much to this program and the animals it served.
For the foundation’s board—Ewald Biemans, Yesenia Farro-Arends, Rik van der Berg, Crescenzia Biemans, Emile de Cuba, Tina Bislick and Randy de Cuba—this work has always been a labor of love. Each gave their time, resources, and expertise voluntarily, united by a love for animals and the hope of sparing them suffering. It has been a privilege to serve our community in this way.
To every pet owner who participated, every volunteer who helped, and every person who supported a fundraiser: this achievement belongs to you, too. More than 52,000 procedures became possible because people across Aruba chose to contribute to the same goal.
As the government considers the future of an island-wide spay-and-neuter program, Stimami Sterilisami sincerely wishes those carrying this work forward every success. Its hope is that they will receive the reliable support needed to continue serving animals and the people caring for them.
The foundation also hopes that this next chapter will bring the action it has advocated for over many years: consistent enforcement of existing laws and meaningful legislative reform. Spay and neuter is essential, but even the most dedicated program cannot, on its own, resolve the
conditions that continually bring more animals into need. The proposals submitted by the foundation offer a basis for that work, and it sincerely hopes they will now receive the priority and follow-through they require.
It has been an honor to serve Aruba in this way. Stimami Sterilisami closes this chapter with heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped write it, and with the hope that its legacy will be more than the animals helped: a future in which fewer animals need help in the first place.
