Stray Dogs in Mexico Are a Critical Problem. Can We Do Something About It? The Yucatan Times | |
go to original September 30, 2015 |
Documentary Trailer: "Companions to None" examines the overpopulation and abuse of companion animals in Mexico, featuring insights from Mexican TV journalist Lolita Ayala and actors Diana Golden and Patricia Reyes Spindola. Julio Cedillo narrates. (thinkcinco)
According to the DailyPuppy website, there are hundreds of thousands of stray dogs living in the streets and on the beaches of Mexico.
Though there are no up to date hard and fast stats for how many dogs are eking out an existence in Mexico, Mexico City authorities report that they capture and kill an estimated 20,000 dogs per month in their city alone.
In Manzanillo, a coastal city in the state of Colima on the Mexican Pacific coast, there are more than 16,000 dogs and cats living on the streets. With little food and sustenance, searing heat and very little shelter, these dogs have few friends and a lot of enemies.
Because they lack basic care, they succumb to diseases and serious problems such as claws growing into their feet and coats matting, which pulls on the skin and creates a safe haven for insect larvae. They are infested with fleas and ticks, and many suffer from mange.
But starvation, dehydration, sickness and exposure are not their biggest challenges; tragically, the root of the problem comes from people’s indifference, apathy and ignorance towards these poor creatures.
There are many stories all over the Internet of street dogs in Mexico being tortured by kids, set on fire, killed for sport and tossed overboard when they sneak onto a fisherman’s boat to look for scraps. Anti-cruelty laws, if they exist at all, are ambiguous. Authorities don’t prosecute offenders.
On top of that, spaying and neutering is not widely accepted. The “machismo” attitude of men in Mexico prevails. They don’t believe in neutering because they believe that by doing so it will “make them gay,” as reported by Smithsonian Magazine and explored more fully in a documentary about Mexican street dogs called “Companions to None.”
Read the rest at The Yucatan Times
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