Dogs

I love dogs. Everyone who knows me is aware of this. It is difficult for me to deal with people who don’t love their dogs adequately, leave them outside all day, and never walk them or socialize with them. Even more difficult though is the sheer incredible amount of dogs I see in the streets every single day. Driving through El Alto I once counted 60 street dogs in a six block radius. Estimates say that the cities of El Alto and La Paz combined have an estimated half million street dogs. However, it is assumed that about 80% of these dogs actually do have owners, just in a very loose sense of the word. There is clearly an overpopulation problem and this very loose definition of ownership contributes to this problem. People do not feel that it is their responsibility to get their pets spayed and neutered, while instead letting them run around the city all day, making overpopulation inevitable. This immense number of animals in the streets lead to obvious issues, such as fecal contamination of the environment, car accidents, increased transmission of illnesses (rabies, parasites etc.), and biting incidents (around 7.000 every year just in La Paz). Numbers were lower before the city passed animal protection laws, which now prohibit the killing of these animals.

Murder obviously isn't the solution here, but it is a problem that needs to be addressed. But again, as with so many things, I believe it’s clear that people are at the heart of the problem. Due to cultural, financial, and educational issues many people are not responsible pet owners (this is a common problem in the US as well). Some people keep 10 dogs around for security at night, but during the day they throw them out to fend for themselves in the streets. These dogs are also not being feed, instead scouring through inner-city trash. Educational initiatives and free sterilization campaigns need to supplement rabies vaccination drives.

These issues will not resolve themselves easily, solutions are expensive and time intensive. A lot of southern European countries suffer from the same problem and the only way the US is able to combat overpopulation is through euthanization. Teaching people how to be responsible is painstakingly difficult (as seen by the fact that some people refuse to vaccinate even their children) and made harder when of lack of funds (both on the side of governments and owners) are an issue. There are attempts being made, but sadly billboards and graffitis such as this one are simply not enough.