Ride to promote message on pets

Sure, everyone knows a pet lover who will go that extra mile for a furry friend.

But Davide Ulivieri is about to go roughly 4,000 miles — on a moped scooter, no less — to raise awareness about the need to spay and neuter animals.

The Italian native is set to leave Sunday from the Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha on his Vespa (which means “wasp” in Italian). Ushering him out of town to Lincoln will be members of the Omaha Scooter Club.

“Like one of those stubborn wasps that doesn't leave you alone, I will remind anybody willing to listen that if we don't spay and neuter, we will never overcome the tragedy of homeless pets,” said Ulivieri, 47.

It's just the latest animal rescue adventure for the former kayak and fitness instructor who is in Omaha visiting supporters.

He biked around Central America to raise money to protect homeless animals in Costa Rica.

He cared for abandoned dogs in remote woods of California, and worked at another sanctuary in Utah.

This latest project will take him back to the shelter in Kanab, Utah. On the way there and back, taking nonfreeway and back roads, Ulivieri plans to tout (it's not a fundraising effort) his message. In Utah, he'll meet with animal advocates interested in promoting population control methods that Ulivieri applied in Costa Rica.

So what possesses a man to ditch a cushy career to protect strays?

Ulivieri wanted a change after a decade catering to wealthy folks in Miami. He simplified his lifestyle and camped around the country with his three dogs before winding up at the Utah and California sanctuaries.

When his last pet died, he volunteered in rural Costa Rica for the McKee Foundation, which aims to solve the problem of homeless animals without resorting to building shelters or mass euthanasia.

Funds from the 500-kilometer charity bike ride helped put on a series of mobile clinics to spay and neuter dogs and cats. It was a first for that impoverished area, where rural families struggle to feed children, let alone wandering animals.

Pet ownership was a mostly foreign concept there, Ulivieri said. Dogs and cats typically roam and have multiple care-givers.

The clinic itself was crude: operations on animals were done on top of a desk in a school.

But Ulivieri said the effort produced immediate results. People began to ask about post-surgical care. They took an interest in the animals as pets.

Ulivieri plans to return to Omaha to stay with friends and plan his next project. He wants to create additional “no shelter, no kill” clinics in Costa Rica and other developing nations.

Contact the writer:

444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share