Chile Forum

I've been debating the subject with a few people recently and I wanted to bring it here to you all.

The last debate happened when I mentioned my intention to adopt a puppy I found on the street. She's a big puppy, old enough to be away from her parents, but still a young thing. She let me pat her but was terrified and would shy away from sudden movements. When I mentioned adopting her and taking her home, I had a veto from people I was talking to. In their opinion street dogs are perfectly happy and I would be doing her a disservice.

I know their opinion is coming from seeing some dogs getting fed by people and looking quite happy. When it comes to my little one in question I see adoption as a good thing; being a female shew would be pregnant more often than not and already she shows a great fear and mistrust of people. I would never think of adopting one of the happy-looking grown dog who has grown up on the streets but a puppy yes.

So my thoughts are; what do you guys think about the life of a street dog? Is is as good as it seems? And if you adopted any in what circumstances would it be under?

My mother in-law has 5 dogs, 4 of them from the street. 1 would for sure be dead by now and who knows about the other 3.

I say if you have the room to take her in do it. Guaranteed meals and a safe place to run around are better then savaging for food and having to avoid the "courting" rituals of the male street dogs (basically chase her till she drops). Plus it is a chance to help control the stray population… one less female street dog probably equals close to a dozen of her off spring that will be street dogs.

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
-Ghandi

If I had never had chocolate, had only ever been given something else, I would not know what I was missing. So I would not miss it right? The perspective of many Chileans, I believe. A weird analogy, but stay with me here....

Many Chileans in the city like to say that these dogs are happy, it's all they know, they get by blah blah blah. And yeah, some of them are pretty happy. And then there are the ones that you pet and they follow you for blocks, you offer them food and they ignore it, they want another belly rub. They want affection. That's what gets me. They're all so sweet and starved for affection. The street dogs here in town know me, they know when food and belly rubs are coming. There was one in particular who we befriended from the get go, Roro. He lived on the corner where the Colectivos station is. Everyone in town would throw him scraps here and there. Me I can't help myself, I see a dog and I need to pet it. So he learned pretty quickly that he could dance and play with us. He got ear scratches and belly rubs and would run up to bump our hands when he'd see us coming. The locals did their part by throwing him food here and there, but not much in the way of love.

He died on the street about a week before the qauke. No one is sure why, but they think a car hit him. The guys just found him dead on the corner. Maybe he was happy, I don't know. I DO know he could have had a better life. One not marred by cold, hungry nights, lack of affection and mange so bad that it made his skin crack and bleed.

In the past month, I have found 3 litters of abandoned puppies all over my neighborhood. We're up high on a hill on the coast, people like to come up here to drop off their unwanted pets. In fact, now that summer's over, people have gone home and basically abandoned their pets. They bring them here and when they go home, they leave them behind. The locals tell me that the vacationers from the city do this every single year. A few days ago, we were in a colectivo on the way home and we drove past the body of one of the puppies that was abandoned. It must have been a month or two old and never really had a chance to maybe sort of have a mediocre life at least.

We rescued a couple puppies in December. One was a puppy a neighbor from Santiago decided to throw into the street and leave it to fend for itself. I foolishly thought the poor thing had just gotten out and tried to return her to them. They said they didn't want it. So we took it home. The next day I found a newborn puppy in the trash. It was maybe a week or two old and mostly dead. I was on the way to the vet with the other puppy, so put it in my knapsack and off we went. The first puppy I managed to find a home for with a local woman in Algarrobo. Her story is here: http://www.refinedhedonist.com/2010/02/stella.html The second puppy, the one who was almost dead and who even the vet doubted would make it, is my avatar. She's snoring on the chair nearby right now. She's still available for adoption. Her story is here http://www.refinedhedonist.com/2010/02/georgia.html Much as I would love to keep her, we have two dogs, both rescues, whom I rescued in Chicago and refuse to travel without. The house is a wee bit crowded and the ideal would be to find her a home. Even the vet is in love with her and would have taken her if she didn't already have multiple dogs, the story of most Chileans who actually care for animals.

Maybe we've only rescued these two dogs, but it's two less dogs that are abandoned and ignored. Two more dogs that have a chance at good life. So yeah, many Chileans might say street dogs are happy and whatnot. What I find interesting is here in my town, when I remark to the locals about how cruel Chileans can be with animals, not one of them argues. They all agree and tell me about the vacationers who abandon their dogs, or the ridiculous supersitions that hold people back from neutering or spaying their dogs. They all agree that if the government would make a concerted effort to educate it's people on the importance of sterilization, things would get better eventually. And then they say, "...but the goverment will not do this. People will continue to believe silly things like neutering my dog will make it gay, we will continue to be overrun by dogs at the end of the summer. And we will continue to feed them when we can, and bury them when we have to."

Maybe many of these dogs are happy. They don't know any better, but we do. My life is better for having found my dogs. I am happier person. If you have the time and room in your life for a dog, you should absolutely go for it. Just make sure that you can honour that commitment regardless of where you go in the world. Rest assured it is a commitment, which is how my dogs were adopted in the US, but ended up living in Canada and now Chile.

So yeah, I could have gone my whole life without trying chocolate and been happy. But I did try it and my life is actually better for it. In fact, my boyfriend's life is better for it as once a month, it's the only thing he can fling at me that keeps me from killing people

If you can make a dog's life better, why wouldn't you? Good luck!!

More pictures of Georgia, just in case anyone is interested. http://picasaweb.google.com/audeo13/Georgia# She's gotten a bit bigger since these were taken, so I'll happily supply more if you want them

The animals here. This is a tough one. Chileans seem to think what they think and the culture is so different. I'm from the US and in my little area in Chile, i find people don't even treat pets terribly well(at least from my US viewpoint). I have little doubt that most local dogs never experience a pet or a belly rub until we silly gringos do it. I actually know a father who recently taught his one year old to kick all dogs as he goes by. And this was a nice guy. Some of that is changing I see, with younger people but such a long way to go. I've seen horses half starved. I came down thinking less government intervention is good but when I see people treat animals that way...I just can't get "used" to it.

Full disclosure, my last trip back to the US, I went to the local dog park. I love the dog park, about 100 of all shapes and sizes of dogs that somehow get along. And they have a smaller area for small dogs and I saw a little girl of 2 or so just hugging all the dogs, very gently. I miss that.

I had wanted a pet but no more, I go back stateside for periods of time now and can't imagine anyone would treat my pet properly.

Chileans may agree but it is part of their "nod and smile' culture, they may not really agree at all. I don't want to sound too negative but I can't count the number of times I thought I had agreement and it turns out I didn't. I have a feeling they go tell their friends "You wouldn't believe the crazy ideas she had".

Laura55llc wrote:...i find people don't even treat pets terribly well(at least from my US viewpoint). I have little doubt that most local dogs never experience a pet or a belly rub until we silly gringos do it. ...

Agreed, while my mother in law feeds and takes care of the dogs in her yard I would barely consider them family pets. Especially the 4 from the street. Most days they only get any human contact is when they are getting chased out of the flower bed.

Also a valid point and undoubtedly true. I do found here though, in El Quisco, the locals complain more about the people doing the leaving than about the dogs being left behind. The general consensus is "Poor thing, it's not their fault their owners don't care." Generally speaking, it doesn't take much to get them talking about the stray dog issue and they can go on for a while. I just sit back and listen and lot of times I'm lucky enough to agree.

That being said, apparently here in Chile, "caring" for your pet basically means you just feed and water it. They treat most of them like outdoor plants. In terms of pets being treated as family... I don't know what Chile's deal is. I see alot of people with little lapdogs, they wander everywhere with them. Treat them like children, but the bigger dogs seems to get neglected. Less love if they're less cuddly?

On the positive side to it all I used to live with a Chilean family here that had three dogs and all of them were treated amazingly well. All three had different personalities and were treated in regards to how they wanted to be treated: one was a bit of a princess, one was amazingly active all the time and the third just wanted belly rubs all day long. Three of the happiest dogs I've ever seen.

I grew up (in Chile) with dogs, many of them, and cats and birds, and a turtle and a parrot. We either bought them - the more exotic ones - or picked them up from the street and brought them home. My parents still have 5 (big ones, labradors, alsacians, siberian husky, mutts) dogs and 3 cats and they treat them better than us - almost - and they are in their late 70s/early 80s.

I cannot stand to see animals suffer but if I were to find a weakend, sick animal and I knew that I couldn't care for it myself, I would much rather spend the money on the Vet giving it a quick injection to terminate its miserable life, than delaying the inevitable. Sure, it feels nice to know that you saved the life of a creature on this planet, but for what? if we did more on reason than emotions perhaps Chile streets would have less tortured dogs.

A

if we did more on reason than emotions perhaps Chile streets would have less tortured dogs.

As I think I posted before, there is no warm, fuzzy answer to this one.

Oh piggy, you look so warm and fuzzy yourself!

Remember that next time you order carnitas or chorizo!

there really is a different mentality towards pets here. my family always had a dog or two and a cat or two. the doge were generally kept outside but they were well fed and we played with them a lot and took them on walks and car rides.

when i moved to santiago and started living with my girlfriend, she had a little cocker spaniel. she was good about giving the dog food and water, but very little attention. of course, with dogs being the social creatures that they are, the dog behaved badly because she was starved for something fun and interesting and connected to another mammal.

i started playing with the dog, and we got her fixed and cleaned up. i take her with me when i walk to the local botilleria to get beer. i am fairly strict with her...she isn't allowed on any of the furniture, she gets scolded when she barks too much and she gets spanked when she pees in the wrong place....over the past year she has become a fairly obedient dog, eager to please the owner.

veronica and her daughter are slightly miffed that the dog follows me around and obeys me much more than she obeys them. they also think that it is too much to expect a dog not to bark continually or to learn to pee in the place i want her to pee in.

i see a parallel here to the way children are raised......a distinct lack of discipline and a reversal of what i think of as the natural order of things... the children shouldn't run the household and they should be expected to fulfill a certain minimal portion of responsibility in the household. same for dogs.

as for the street dogs...well...they are mellow enough, but many of them are sick and/or crippled and probably should be euthanized. but that won't happen here. it's not a popular idea and the local governments don't have the funds for such a program. i suppose we should be grateful they pick up the corpses.