Hmm

Speaking of those perros (in the last post), I had an interesting discussion with one of our teachers about that. She said that the reason they are on the roofs, and not in the houses, is that for many people, dogs are not cuddly pets. They are protection, nothing more. They just don't have the same stature and position we afford them in the States. That also explains why there are so many on the street. In the U.S., this is unacceptable. We don't want to see dogs on the street, so we put strays in shelters, or put them to sleep, and we make absolutely sure all dogs are neutered. To our teacher, this is absurd. Why on earth spend the hundreds and thousands of dollars on puppy-operations, especially having them fixed? Well, because they're our friends, they're cute, and we don't like to see them on the street. I do realize that strays are also a public health issue, but I can see her point. If you want to talk about public health, how about people? Dogs in the U.S. generally have much better access and provision for medical care than most Peruvian citizens. It's staggering to think of the money ($38.5 billion in 2006) that Americans spend on pets, when more than 20,000 people die every day of hunger. I don't at all mean for this to be a rant against pet ownership, just an observation about the reasons for the different view toward dogs here. Resources are more scarce, and there are priorities. The strays don't really bother anyone, and the lucky ones live on food scraps from restaurants and homes. I just wish they'd go to sleep at night.