Saving Baja Paws was founded by Victoria Timm and Gelacio Villalobos in 2020 in Todos Santos, Mexico. To date we have personally rescued over 500 dogs from the streets and other shelters in Baja, transported more than 1,800 dogs out of Mexico, and offered free spay and neuter services to over 2,000 dogs and cats in the Baja Sur region.

Victoria says, “What started as 5 foster dogs in my first rental house home in Todos Santos quickly turned into 30. Before I knew it I was looking for land and a new rental!”

In early 2021 Saving Baja Paws opened the only adult and puppy shelter in Todos Santos, just 20 minutes outside of town on a ranch. However, our team quickly was hit with harsh realities and challenges of being so secluded and far from resources. Then that the summer the hurricane season was too rough and we eventually had to abandon the property and move all our pups to La Paz.

Then in fall of 2022 Victoria Timm, the director and founder, purchased an acre of land in Todos Santos to restart her dream of building an indoor shelter for the pups of Baja. About 80% of the land will be dedicated to building a shelter, and most importantly a medical building to help host spay and neuter events and provide low-cost services to the community.

Currently, just in Baja, SBP has around 40 dogs under our care. About 90% of those pups are located at our shelter in La Paz. Around 70% of our dogs come from the Todos Santos areas and the other 30% from other regions of Baja.

Our shelter manager and caregiver, Yukiko, lives on site at our La Paz shelter with the dogs 24/7/365. Our goal in the next two years is to finish building our shelter in Todos Santos and have 2 operational shelters.