|
|
Mexico's
Dogs-for-Food Trade
August 1999
Mexico has a dog problem.
In almost every street in every town, stray dogs wait for scraps or
lie in the sun.
To tackle the problem officials in one state have decided to offer
food parcels to people handing in stray dogs.
The relatively small state of Puebla estimates that it has more than
one million loose animals.
Mexico also has a serious poverty problem, with more than half of
the population officially living on or close to the breadline.
Now the authorities in Puebla are trying to tackle both problems at
once.
The dogs will be killed. The state health secretary Jesus Loreno Aarun
said the scheme is cheaper than trying to vaccinate and sterilise
the dogs.
He said the programme is aimed at reducing the risk of diseases.
But the idea also has its critics. A spokesman for the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the offer of food for hungry
people would encourage them to go to extraordinary lengths to get
a dog to trade.
He says he is worried that people will try to raise puppies or steal
pets so that they can get food.
It is not clear just how big the impact on the state's stray population
will be. So far, the state government has just 5,000 food packets
to give away.
|
|
