Looking for Solutions for the Overpopulation of Dogs and Cats in Bolivia
Each country throughout Latin America and the Caribbean is at a
different stage of development in terms of stray animal welfare. Whether
the animals are exposed to the drought in the Sonoran desert or the
frigid winter temperatures in Patagonia, countries have their own
opinions and responses to address the issue. Some governments recognize
that stray dogs are their responsibility and work with local animal
welfare organizations to bring about change. Others euthanize dogs
indiscriminately because, they say, there is no leadership or initiative
to find a solution to their overpopulation of homeless animals. In some
cases, the action appears to be the result of desperation. If people
complain about health and safety issues related to the overwhelming
number of stray dogs, or if there is an outbreak of rabies, the dogs are
culled or taken to a municipal shelter, where they await death by
electrocution, poisoning, or through the injection of a poorly mixed
cocktail of medicines that causes unmeasured pain before ultimately
leading to death. In this case we will talk about the country of
Bolivia. According to the World Health Organization
(WHO) a dog population should not exceed 10%. That is, for every 10
people there should be 1 dog. In Bolivia, there are 5 dogs for every 10
people. That means, that there are 4 million animals left over. The
offspring of dogs owned by irresponsible owners are thrown alive into
landfills or raised until they can be sold or given away to people unfit
to care for a pet.
ORIGIN OF OVERPOPULATION
The origin of overpopulation is the origin of irresponsible possession,
80% of the inhabitants of Bolivia raise dogs and then throw them out on
the street. There, many females are in heat, but their young grow up
inside a home, protected or semi-protected. These animals give birth
regularly 2 times a year until they are run over, die poisoned or die
from some disease of their species that is not treated in time in a
veterinarian, this situation is unfortunate since there were many cases
where it was found dogs and cats inside bags or drawers left to their
fate and often by witchcraft practices. There are some proposals to
solve this problem, one of them is from
ANIMALS S.O.S. which mentions:
"Eliminating dogs will NOT solve the problem of overpopulation,
since stray dogs are only a consequence of the problem. The problem
is the irresponsible owner and he originates stray dogs and
overpopulation. To eliminate overpopulation we must eliminate the
irresponsible owner", the proposal launched by Animals S.O.S. is called:
How to stop the overpopulation of dogs in a humane and short-term way , in which it proposes to have a mandatory registry.
MANDATORY REGISTRATION
That would make owners register their dogs compulsorily so as not to
receive the fine for NOT registering. After 6 months of an intense
campaign by all the media regarding the animal registry. City halls
could knock on doors and request animal registration. People who do not
have the animal registry would enter directly into a database where the
fine for not having registered them would be charged through their
taxes. Registration should be free, not registering should have a high
amount in large cities, in capital cities not registering should cost
between 1000 Bs to 2000 Bs that can be paid only with the house tax,
"The compulsory registration must be contemplated within a municipal
law, it must be free and it must be with an identification chip.
When an irresponsible owner sees that there are responsibilities to
raise a dog, he will have two options: Become responsible because he
needs that dog and register it, pay the animal tax and try not to
release it to the street so as not to pay a fine for abandonment or
take the option of not having an animal", Said the president of Animals S.O.S.
Today many Shelters and animal advocates are struggling to find a solution to this problem that this country Bolivia faces, if you have an idea, suggestion you can send us by clicking on the following button.
Well dear reader, if at any time you visit this beautiful country
Bolivia and want to help with labor, donating, spreading or perhaps
giving a home to one of the stray dogs or cats that are in the shelters,
I will leave links so you can see their Facebook pages and find out more
about the work that these non-profit shelters have been carrying out for
years, I will also provide the link a shelter of wild and endangered
birds.
To access the Facebook pages of these animal shelters, click on each
image.
