Las Olas owner finds second life in Nicaragua. Here's how she saves suffering animals

RYE — Julie Burke said she cries every time she finds a suffering animal near her second home in Nicaragua, where the local dogs and cats are often abandoned with injuries or disease.

“I would bleed every time I rode down the road and saw a sick or injured animal,” Burke said.

Burke, co-owner with her husband Matt of Las Olas Taqueria in Seacoast New Hampshire and Maine, has helped those animals in Nicaragua since 2013. She founded the organization NicaLove four years ago. She started by working with local staff through mobile pop-up clinics to treat dogs, cats, horses, and even monkeys and parrots, which are often poached and sold.

Now, the Burkes have donated six acres of land to NicaLove that is being used for the construction of a new shelter. It will provide veterinary services, sterilization and adoption once completed.

The shelter, effectively NicaLove's first headquarters, will centralize the efforts that got Burke started traveling to Nicaragua 13 years ago. Burke said the community, Playa San Diego, has few expatriates and is out of the way from tourist locations, meaning it's a long distance from important resources.

“We’re talking families that can barely feed their own people, and so these dogs are often left (without care),” Burke said. Other than NicaLove, she said, there is no veterinary care available to the locals.

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The new shelter will house up to 300 animals in what Burke considers its first phase. After that, the Burkes are hoping to grow the shelter with a fundraising goal of $177,000, half of which has already been reached. The shelter includes a kitchen, office, quarantine dog enclosures, bedroom and caretaker headquarters, intake room and storage for food and supplies. Future phases will include a vet clinic, cat enclosures, and a stable for equine rescues.

Burke, who once worked out of her backpack to help local animals, said having a headquarters will allow their services to be centralized for the community and become more consistent.

“Now they can come to us,” Burke said.

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In New Hampshire, the Burkes live in Rye and are known for running Las Olas Taqueria since 2009. They first opened one location in Exeter, then added Hampton in 2012 and Wells, Maine, in 2014. The taqueria serves burritos, salads, quesadillas and other Mexican items in a walk-up style restaurant. They have received accolades like New Hampshire Magazine’s Best Tacos Multilocational Local Award in 2020.

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The Burkes found themselves living part-time in Nicaragua after Matt visited in 2009 on a surfing trip. He fell in love with the country and its surfing community, though it took some convincing to get his wife to come as well. At first, she said she was not prepared to stay in an ecolodge with no electricity, fans, or even ice.

“He wanted me to come visit, and I said, 'No way,'" she said.

When Burke finally visited Nicaragua in 2012, her attitude changed. She felt heartbroken for the people who lived there. She said the average income in the area is below $3.20 a day, and less in the rural countryside. Work is hard to find, she said, and families live long periods of time without income.

“I’m a bleeding heart,” Burke said. “I went down there, and I said, ‘OK, someone get me involved in an orphanage.'"

The Burkes found an orphanage on that first trip and ultimately adopted their daughter Bay from there. Within a year of her first visit, Burke was working to help local animals in need, laying the groundwork for NicaLove. She began working with a local Nicaraguan veterinarian, as well as an animal welfare partner.

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Burke said Nicaraguans see their animals not so much as pets but as critical parts of their home and work lives. Horses work all day in the hot sun, she said, while dogs are valued for protection.

Without proper care for these animals, Burke said injuries and disease can cause serious problems for even the people. Dogs that are unhealthy can bring flees and disease into the home.

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She said attitudes toward animals can be less humane than in the United States. She said she sees many dogs that have been beaten, leaving them badly injured and emotionally traumatized.

Work with these traumatized animals is a challenge but no lost cause, according to Burke. A male dog named Canelo came to NicaLove from a community named El Zapote after abuse from its owners and neighbors. She said Canelo was never neutered and consequently was aggressive and prone to mating with the neighbors’ dogs. Every time it mated, she said, neighbors threw boiling hot water on him, burning him all over his body. He also developed a tick-born disease and became anemic.

Burke said she met Canelo in 2021 when its owner, who loved Canelo, brought him to NicaLove for care. At first, she gave the owner medication, food, vitamins and physical therapy suggestions for the dog, and Canelo rebounded quickly.

Canelo's health prevented it from being neutered, though, and three months later Burke returned on another trip to Nicaragua to learn the dog had been burned again for trying to mate.

Canelo was finally taken in by NicaLove for rehabilitation, where Burke said they “put all his pieces back together.” Today, the dog has a “goofy run,” she said, wobbling and stamping its leg. Emotionally, she said, Canelo is in a better place.

“He’s such a happy joyful dog. He had a second chance,” Burke said.

Another dog, Ollie, was hit by a car and left to die. He lost the use of his legs, so NicaLove helped Ollie by providing the dog with a wheelchair to support its rear. She said Ollie has been helped emotionally and now is always excited to see Burke when she returns to Nicaragua.

“He just lights up every time I see him,” Burke said. “If he’s not in his wheelchair, he will drag himself across the shelter to get to me.”

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The process of working with a traumatized animal can take patience over the course of several months. Burke said the goal is to break through their fears and change reactionary behavior so they can form trust with the people who care for them.

“They come out of their shells, and they learn how to be in a pack, and learn how to be kind to people,” Burke said. “It’s really amazing to see.”

NicaLove a passion project for Los Olas owner

Burke returned most recently on Jan. 25 to Nicaragua, where she planned to stay for a few weeks, then return again later this year. She said she usually spends a few months there a year, working alongside the veterinarian and animal welfare partner who live in Nicaragua.

Helping animals has been a passion for Burke since she was a child. She said she never expected to find her path in a developing country like Nicaragua. Today, she and her husband consider it a second home where they give what they can to help the local community by caring for their animals. There is no ceiling for how much can be done in Nicaragua, Burke said, adding she will continue to help NicaLove grow.

“It’s a dream that I’ve had since I was a little girl to be able to help animals in a bigger way,” Burke said. “I never thought I’d be doing it, but I’m doing it.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Las Olas Taqueria owner helps dogs, animals in Nicaragua with NicaLove