Cartoon by artist German Osuna is captioned "Dogs of the World united with the dogs of San Luis Rio Colorado."
People who live in San Carlos and see a homeless dog on the street might leave food for it, or catch it and try to find its owner, get it spayed or neutered, try to find it a home. But if those who live in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, are likely to just shoot it or poison it, and turn it in for a $200-peso bounty. I've seen a photo of the results of this bounty, showing dozens of dead dogs heaped together, but couldn't bring myself to share it here.
Pata de Perro, a Facebook page for rescue pets in Hermosillo, reports a 200-pesos bounty is offered by the mayor of San Luis Rio Colorado, for live or dead street dogs. The mayor refers to these ownerless dogs as a source of waste and pollution. (He cleaned caca off his shoes one too many times?) I'm looking for a protest petition that's being circulated and will be submitted to Guillermo Padre, Governor of Sonora, but I'm not sure gringos are entitled to sign it.
San Luis Rio Colorado is at the border of the US and Baja California. According to one article, published online by Sociedad Protectora des Animales, the bounty will be distributed as credits on water bills or property taxes. This might be a safeguard to prevent youths from going on greed-driven execution rampages. Still...
Supposedly the aim is to rid the town of all dogs or puppies not on a leash or confined indoors or in a yard. But what a barbaric way to go about it! My greatest concern is that this idea might catch on in other parts of Mexico.
6 comments:
It is still common practice in many developing countries that municipal governments periodically place strychnine laced raw meat on streets to poison homeless and stray dogs and cats. The results are predictable.
A. McGregor
Sad that they have not figured out about education.....
But then there is a lot of neglect which even crosses the gambit of the animal kingdom!
How horrible! And how sad that they couldn't come up with a better solution. This reminds to much of those "Wanted: Dead or Alive" kind of signs from the Old West.
But I do love the cartoon! :)
Anonymous - It's a Mexican custom to just open the door in the morning and let the dog out so he can hang out with his buddies all day, come home for meals and naps. Mexicans often don't spend money on collars and leashes. So bounties and poisonings, affect not only homeless strays and lost dogs, but domestic pets.
Tancho - I saw a Facebook page for San Luis Rio Colorado much like "San Carlos Loves Dogs" so I know there are people there who are trying to find homes for animals. I can only imagine how they are feeling about this.
LL - Well, you'll see a lot more leashed dogs, a lot more confined dogs in SLRC now. But it's painful to think of all the dogs that aren't going to have those benefits.
This is heartbreaking. The only good I can see in this is that it forces owners to keep their pets at home. But at what cost in pain and suffering to the unwanted dogs and cats who wander the streets?
Ann - A dog that has been allowed by its owner to run free all its life is going to escape, no matter how hard the owner tries to restrain him. This is just one of the shortcomings of the bounty system: there's no way to be sure whether the dog has an owner, since many Mexicans don't put collars on their pets, much less tags.
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