Chile Forum

When I moved to Providencia with my family 5 months ago there were stray dogs everywhere...muy tranquilo...accompanied me on runs down Pocuro...very polite in their search for snacks...now they seem to be gone...all of them...is there a quiet poisoning or dog catching program I'm not aware of?? Or do they migrate South for summer with the rest of Santiago??

i was thinking the exact same thing as i walked to work this morning,

I came up with the same 2 conclusion... they have been clearing them off hte streets, or they are hiding away for summer as its too hot?

interesting to know why?

Don't dogs head for the hills right before a big earthquake or tsunami?

There's a rather infamous curve on La Cuesta Dormida between Santiago & the central valley where 15-20 stray dogs used to congregate. Not very safe, but it seemed to be one of those Chilean "things". The dogs seemed to stay mostly on the sides of the highway or along the white line, as if they realized that it was a "safe" zone. Sometimes I saw cars pulled off with the doors open as if they were feeding the dogs...but since December they've been gone. Sorry to say that poison was the first thing that came to my mind but I don't know what happened to them...

xxx

I've heard rumors of poisonings or general round-ups of the street dogs by the government every so often when they want to cull the numbers. I would like to think they've been round up by a shelter, cleaned and given to nice families where they will spend the rest of their lives in bliss. I would really like to think that, but I know better

There was legislation passed that gave money from the central government to municipalities to deal with strays and I think they are all dealing with it differently. Some are doing spay and neuter programs, many are using "euthanasia". A lot of people's pets are indistinguishable from strays here, they must be getting picked up too....or whatever. Licensing might make sense but I see most pets with no collar, nothing. Really a shame(i miss seeing the dog parties in the park) but you see a lot of complaints about strays.

My only complaint about the strays is the noise they make a night time.

I can deal with having to watch where I step and the majority of them are really well behaved. But when they start barking and howling at 3 am and get the house dogs going I just want them to disappear.

I have never seen a poisoning campaign in Chile, and I don't think they can for a whole mess of legal and social reasons. Most importantly being voters in Chile generally love animals, even if they do not take very good care of their own. It is one of the reasons if you are being attacked by dog, I doubt you are going to see the police step in to shoot. They did that once a few years ago, and heads rolled all the way down the chain of command when the media got a hold of it.

Maybe they are doing capture and release (not our problem now, ¡JaJaJaJa! ¿How much gov granted lukas left after that roundup and drive to el campo? ¡Looks like Escu'o time at the local fuente compadres!).

Maybe they rounded them all up and dumped them in El Tabo. There are more stray dogs on the street in the last month then there have been in the previous 6 months.

xxx