As talked about on another thread, the ministerio de salud publica y asistencia social came round for the free anti rabies vaccine.....
This is campo, by the way. The 1 old lady based in the nearby local hospital, and 2 gvt workers are going around delivering the shots.
As they drove past on another day, they had already been around to our village the past week end, they stopped for a chat.
She praised us on the care we have for our dogs and also the fact that our dogs keep the "strays" away from our small village ( even if I never allow the dogs out ).
So we come to the notion of dog ownership in the dr.......... this is based on my own observations and from the conversation with the gvt team.
#1. At night the roads are FULL of dogs. The other night driving home, I counted over 20, yes TWENTY dogs congregating in a nearby village.
#2. They are all medium size or small, no big dogs.
#3. Dominicans either tie their dogs up on a chain or leave them free to roam the countryside.
#4. Tied up or free to roam, dr dogs look dirty and under fed, generally poorly cared for.
#5. If there is a problem due to a dog, he never has an owner.........
#6. During the day the dogs are very weary/scared of humans. But at night in packs they are downright a danger to humans.
#7. Dominicans will NEVER pay money for anything concerning their dogs.
So a couple of days ago a man in the nearby main village killed 3 dogs with a stick........ sick of them barking and whatever at night in front of his house.......kind of horrific.......
The gvt team admitted this was xtreme, but actually encourages people to poison the strays......... because, says they, the gvt neither has the means, neither the political will to vaccinate and sterilise the strays.......
Also the strays/chained up poor doggys, howl and bark all night long for no reason.
I am a dog lover, but a responsible one. Poorly fed, chained up dogs horrifies me. Free roaming dogs too.
Mine are well fed and enjoy free rein on about a 1000 sq meters of land, which enables me to "own" a pack of dogs.
So a year or 2 back I got into a squabble with a neighbour who lives, say 50 m down the road. He lives in wooden house, no gate or fence and has lile 5 dogs. They knock bins around, howl all night and scare the kids once the sun is down.
I went round for a talk about his dogs and also about his habit of burning plastic and medical waste in his garden ( and wonders why his wife is dying of a throat illness.......). He gruffly said his dogs could do what pleased them....... ok, so do mine I said.
That night I set 2 of my dogs on his who, as usal, were growling at my gate. Now they never come near my house.
Just an example of the lack of responsibilities of dog owners in the campo.
After that we had someones bitch chained to a wall. Of course dozens of strays turned up every time. Locals spoke to him. Keep her inside when in heat, spray her...... to no avail.
Result. A whole bunch of dead poisened dogs. Someone took the matters into their own hands. Not a very humane way to solve the problem, but nontheless problem solved.
So any ideas about how to solve the feral/stray dog problem in our campos ???
This is campo, by the way. The 1 old lady based in the nearby local hospital, and 2 gvt workers are going around delivering the shots.
As they drove past on another day, they had already been around to our village the past week end, they stopped for a chat.
She praised us on the care we have for our dogs and also the fact that our dogs keep the "strays" away from our small village ( even if I never allow the dogs out ).
So we come to the notion of dog ownership in the dr.......... this is based on my own observations and from the conversation with the gvt team.
#1. At night the roads are FULL of dogs. The other night driving home, I counted over 20, yes TWENTY dogs congregating in a nearby village.
#2. They are all medium size or small, no big dogs.
#3. Dominicans either tie their dogs up on a chain or leave them free to roam the countryside.
#4. Tied up or free to roam, dr dogs look dirty and under fed, generally poorly cared for.
#5. If there is a problem due to a dog, he never has an owner.........
#6. During the day the dogs are very weary/scared of humans. But at night in packs they are downright a danger to humans.
#7. Dominicans will NEVER pay money for anything concerning their dogs.
So a couple of days ago a man in the nearby main village killed 3 dogs with a stick........ sick of them barking and whatever at night in front of his house.......kind of horrific.......
The gvt team admitted this was xtreme, but actually encourages people to poison the strays......... because, says they, the gvt neither has the means, neither the political will to vaccinate and sterilise the strays.......
Also the strays/chained up poor doggys, howl and bark all night long for no reason.
I am a dog lover, but a responsible one. Poorly fed, chained up dogs horrifies me. Free roaming dogs too.
Mine are well fed and enjoy free rein on about a 1000 sq meters of land, which enables me to "own" a pack of dogs.
So a year or 2 back I got into a squabble with a neighbour who lives, say 50 m down the road. He lives in wooden house, no gate or fence and has lile 5 dogs. They knock bins around, howl all night and scare the kids once the sun is down.
I went round for a talk about his dogs and also about his habit of burning plastic and medical waste in his garden ( and wonders why his wife is dying of a throat illness.......). He gruffly said his dogs could do what pleased them....... ok, so do mine I said.
That night I set 2 of my dogs on his who, as usal, were growling at my gate. Now they never come near my house.
Just an example of the lack of responsibilities of dog owners in the campo.
After that we had someones bitch chained to a wall. Of course dozens of strays turned up every time. Locals spoke to him. Keep her inside when in heat, spray her...... to no avail.
Result. A whole bunch of dead poisened dogs. Someone took the matters into their own hands. Not a very humane way to solve the problem, but nontheless problem solved.
So any ideas about how to solve the feral/stray dog problem in our campos ???