Life (and death) in the fast lane.....

Is anybody looking for you?

Did you have a home, and an owner that loved you?

Were you loved, and taken care of?

Will you be missed?

OR...

Will you just lie there until the birds clean up the mess?

Will nobody notice that you´re missing?

Was your life so insignificant???

Cart horses

It has been some time since we have updated our blog...busy times! This past week, the representatives from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) came to Valdivia to visit some of the animal related projects that are currently underway. It was a fantastic visit, and we also learned a lot about what other projects are going on locally. Here are some pics of an awesome project with working horses run by the Animal Welfare group at the University Austral de Chile, called Amigos Veterinarios de los Caballos Carretoneros. This project has been in operation for some 15 years already, and the objective is to raise the level of health of the working horses in the city, give an opportunity for students to have hands on experience working with horses, and to teach the horse owners about essential health care and responsible horse ownership. Each horse has a "Health Passport" that travels with it for life. It is a really amazing project- we were all impressed with the success of the program and the community participation.
This is a group photo from left to right: Tamara Tadich Gallo-organizer of the cart-horse program, Maria Nelly Cajiao- WSPA South America, Luis Carlos Sarmiento Martinez-WSPA South America, myself and Guillermo.




These are some of the participants:





You can see that this young mare is underweight- part of the program addresses nutrition concerns for these hard-working horses...

This young fellow was here for a full lameness exam:




We were really impressed- the whole event was quite the community event. You can see in the pics below how many owners, vet student and local children turned out to watch!

Animals and fences....or lack thereof.

I know we've discussed problems concerning dogs being in the street, but this week, I want to focus on it a little closer.

Over the last two weeks, we've been thinking a lot about the lack of good fencing keeping dogs and livestock within their respective properties, and what kind of problems we are seeing as a result. Although people visiting Chile from other countries automatically assume that the street dogs they see are all dogs who have been abandoned or born in the street without owners, the reality is actually that the majority of the dogs that we see in the streets have owners that do not contain them in their yards , and generally maintain a low level of responsibility for their pets. These dogs roam the streets looking for food, breeding with dogs in heat, chasing (and often killing) livestock and/or wildlife and spreading diseases among themselves and to other species. Additionally, they pose a great risk to themselves and others when they run across highways, and cross busy city streets.

Here are a few pictures of the type of fencing that allows for free passage of owned dogs in and out of their yards (click on the pictures for a much better quality photo):

Here are a few pics of uncontained dogs and livestock- you can imagine the problems they could cause in busy traffic! We have barely escaped hitting numerous dogs ourselves since moving here, and are coming to realize the daily risk of hitting something larger like a horse or cow.

This mom and all her pups were all standing in the highway when we stopped to take pictures. One puppy barely escaped being hit! We ushered the pups back to the side of the road where they stood for a family photo!

Think of the potential environmental contamination (parasites and diseases) from this very common event....

This little guy walked right in front of our truck way out on a back road one day, and gave us this look...we had no idea where he was coming from or where he was going.

After seeing some of these pictures, it seems obvious that if people were to fence their yards properly, it would solve a lot of problems. However, if the solution was so simple, we would probably not be here working together with Chileans! Consider this: the culture of animal care and what constitutes responsible pet ownership in Chile is very different from that seen and expected in Canada for example. Certainly dogs that are contained safely in their yards pose no risk to the general public, other dogs or livestock. But what about the quality of their lives? What about their ability to access supplementary food and water if they are not receiving enough? Is it fair to expect that owners struggling to earn a living, or those whose pets are just not a priority in their lives, should be expected to spend time playing with their dog, training them, socializing them and taking them for daily walks?

This dog for example, is well-contained, safe from traffic, and poses absolutely no threat to others. What do you think about the quality of this guys life?

So perhaps some people should not have a dog...??

With respect to dog welfare- this may be true. Yet if you do a search on Chile and crime... just have a look at what is happening here. People use dogs for personal and home protection. In the three and a half months since arriving here, we have already been robbed once and been seriously chastised many, many times for being "careless" - for example driving in the city with our backpacks on the back seat where they could be easily stolen if someone broke our window at a stop light, leaving anything in the truck including an empty bag or box, leaving our house door or gate unlocked at any time of day or night, leaving a laptop in a locked office, etc, etc, etc - all things that seem strange to us as newcomers. This past weekend, we found out that we are recent victims of identity theft... so before jumping to any conclusions we have to think of all the repercussions of our assumptions and actions.

What would happen if the majority of people had no dogs???

Lots for us all to think about...comments are most welcome!

Winter in July

It´s been a wet couple of weeks here in Valdivia, normal winter weather for here apparently. Being so close to the ocean, the storms are intense with buckets of water spraying in every direction, and windy weather causing lots of damage to peoples homes, fences, and out buildings.




Below you can see the trees bent over nearly in half from the wind off the ocean:

Animals suffer during this weather- it is hard to find shelter, and a dry place to sleep. This dog found cover in a weekend food market, curled up out of the rain, but he was still wet and shivering when I took this picture.

These little guys were just standing in the rain, totally soaked, they both approached our truck, maybe hoping for us to throw them a bit of food.

The electricity is frequently out in the city and all the towns around Valdivia, flooding is extensive, and life is generally harder for some families- especially those with fewer resources.

Think about the challenge of convincing people that animal welfare and conservation are issues, when their homes are flooded, money and food is scarce, it´s cold, and jobs are hard to come by….. this is the reality in every developing country. Clearly there are other priority problems other as well….

Yesterday we stopped by the Wildlife Centre to see what happened with the little pudu, but unfortunately he didn´t make it. He was humanely euthanized as his foot was not healing properly, and he would never be able to be released.

While in the rehabilitation centre, we met a Chilla fox that was brought to the centre after falling in an open pit full of ash, where the university burns the garbage. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonian_fox for better pictures, and more information on this Chilean fox.

We also saw a Magellanic penguin in the centre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Penguin who had been caught in a fisherman´s net and brought to the centre to rehabilitate. He is doing very well and will be released in the next few days. Amazingly friendly little guy - apparently very difficult to keep them wild as they are so drawn to people, but he is in the last stages of being checked to see if he is strong enough to manage back in the ocean, and they will let him go quickly to avoid permanent habituation to people.

Hasta luego!

Good days, Bad days...

Some days are just great here! There are so many exciting things going on, and we are truly honoured to be included in some of them.

Some days are not as good.
On Monday, we saw a dog that had just been hit by a car. It was a gorgeous, big, black cross-breed with an unusual blonde colouring on it's face and ears, paws and tail.
About a km down the road we saw another dog that looked almost identical, trotting down the road...looking lost.
On our way home that night, we looked where the dog had been hit, and there was the other one, lying right beside it!
Every day this week, we have gone by this scene, and the dog is still there. Today is Friday, and the dog is still there, waiting loyally beside his dead friend.
It is such a sad sight, and brings us such feelings of despair, wondering how long this poor fella is going to wait for his buddy to get up.
It is strange to be inspired by such a sad event, but it is a reminder for us to dig in our heels and work hard at what we are trying to accomplish here.
Until next week,
Elena

Daily life in Valdivia

Well I haven't posted for a while, although lots has been happening. H1N1 is running it's course in this area now. It's heavy flu season here because it's winter, so combined with the introduction of H1N1, people are lying low, and many are sick. Chile is fourth in the world for number of confirmed cases right now.
I had confirmed contact with a little girl with H1N1, and I've also been sick for the last week....but all is well.

So I wanted to let you know about a few of the interesting things we have heard people tell us since we've been here- specifically on the topic of animals. Hopefully these quotes will give you some sense of why it is so important to develop long-term sustainable programs that are community-driven, because if you don't address the problem at the source, as soon as the organization running the program pulls out, everything goes back to what it was before because that is the way the people think.

Note that many of the following quotes were made by professionals and highly educated people:

"Animals have no feelings"

"I would rather see my dog dead than have him neutered"

"If you spay or neuter your dog or cat, they'll get fat"

"Castrated dogs are not aggressive anymore, so they won't protect us or our house"

"Surgical sterilization is cruel"

"I didn't know it was even possible to sterilize male dogs!"

"All female dogs should have at least one litter before spaying, for their health"

"It's not our responsibility to pay for surgery to sterilize my pets, the municipality should pay"

"My male dog needs a girlfriend, so that he can fulfill his destiny to breed" (We see posters just like this one all over town)

These are just a few examples of what we hear every day, and you can see that things are different. It will take a great deal of time to change peoples minds about the benefits of pet sterilization. Lowering the reproductive rate could alleviate a lot of the dog suffering that we see everyday, but it will only last if the people here believe in what we're doing.

Education is the key, and this is where we will be focusing a lot of our attention!