"The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Mahatma Ghandi
They only want to love you...
... but instead of having the opportunity to show their love they are dying, unseen, lonely, tortured, hungry or just broken-hearted.
Do you enjoy a warm soft beach of Mexico or other Latin American country when snow and ice cover most of North America? Do you spend a week, two or a couple of winter months south of the border?
Folks, look beyond the boundaries of the resort, or a town you are in. There the most horrific fate awaits the best of all creatures that ever walked on this planet. Dogs are dying. Beaten, hated, abandoned, hungry, or ill. You won't see them in Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco or any tourist destination, where they are scooped up regularly, impounded, and electrocuted to death.
Five minutes outside the borders of any tourist resort, just beyond its jurisdiction, you will see the extent of the gross lack of compassion and awareness of the conditions in which these dogs suffer that will make your hair stand up. These creatures don't live, they suffer from birth to early death. No laws exist to protect or help them. The only laws that touch on the dogs’ lives are those that require the impounding and killing them. Smaller communities, particularly aboriginal, should be considered crime-scenes and taped off by the police. Here, even toddlers who can barely walk, know how to kick a dog. A dog with broken limbs is as normal a sight as a mariachi band at a zocalo. Just visit the towns around Patzcuaro to witness the extent of dog misery where a single stall selling tortillas might be surrounded by as many as 20 hungry dogs. Bad faith awaits not only street-born mongrels, but all pure-breds. I have seen German Shepherds, Bernese, cocker spaniels, poodles, rotweilers, golden retrievers, terriers, dobermans, saint bernards and many others. It is fashionable to buy puppies, play with them and throw them onto the street as soon as they grow up. There are no homeless adult dogs in Latin America. They simply don't make it to adulthood. If they aren't put down, they die out of starvation, dehydration or under the wheels of cars.
Folks, the source of this horror does not lie in poverty. Even the poorest of communities I have been to throw out enough food scraps to feed its dog population, only instead of allowing the dogs to feed in peace, the locals prefer to seize the opportunity to throw rocks at them. It is as if the pain was a domain of humans only.
Education is what is required to bring an end to the most heart wrenching torture: hurting that who only knows how to love and serve you.
Planning a trip South? Please, consider saving a life. Don't throw away the breakfast you can't finish. Take it along on a stroll and feed a dog. Visit a local market (mercado) where a 2 pound (1 kilo) bag of meat scraps costs mere pennies and give it to a dog. If you spend the winters in the south please Support a local Amigos de Animales group. They are still rare but are growing with each year. They offer the so needed education that makes living or dying less cruel. They not only propagate the neutering of animals to help control the overpopulation, but also promote less cruel ways of killing, for example: lethal injection rather than electrocution.
You may also be surprised to find that many dogs need a petting hand more than food, as many are abandoned as they grow out of puppyhood.
Folks, if you have a choice between buying my book or a handful of pet foot, go for the latter. Save a dog's life.
They only want to love you. Give some love back.
Click here for Animal Welfare organizations in Mexico
Other Organizations:
.Animal Testing - see which corporations are and which are not testing their products / torturing / experimenting on animals (list does not include pharmaceutical corporations and the farming industry which are mandated by law to torture animals - yes your and my governments mandate these to test products on animals! Please contact your elected officials to stop the suffering.)
.IFAW - International Fund for Animal Welfare
.PETA - People for the ethical treatment of animals
.SPCA - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Various local and national chapters exist - browse to find one nearest to you.
.WSPA