Helping Street Dogs in Peru

Written by guest blogger Emma Higgins. Emma has been writing and traveling on and off since 2009. Her blog, Gotta Keep Movin’, is full of stories and advice from her trips, which include Europe, India, Morocco, South America, the USA and Canada. Her main focuses are budget travel and volunteering, and she has been involved in sustainable farming in Argentina, animal shelters in Peru, and even tried her hand at making goats cheese in British Colombia.

Many of those who have traveled to South America will know that some regions of the continent have high levels of abandoned cats and dogs roaming free on the streets. It was in Peru that I experienced the highest number of street dogs, and I found it incredibly sad to witness them living in the streets, malnourished and ill-tempered because of bad treatment from humans. Slowly but surely, the problem is being addressed, and charities and organisations are working on solutions to reduce the number of street dogs and educate the public to keep it that way.

Why does this problem exist?

As an outsider, it’s hard to understand why local communities can let the street dog problem carry on, but for them, it’s completely normal. Many Peruvians have a different attitude toward animals: they don’t domesticate them in the same way we do and do not own dogs for companionship. Families take a much more functional and practical slant on pet ownership – dogs are owned to chase off intruders or other animals from their homes. Once the dog is older and no longer useful to the family, owners leave the dog to fend for itself. The poverty found in many parts of Peru means that many families can’t afford to keep the dog anymore if it has outlived its use. These dogs often pick up diseases which can spread to humans, another reason why locals don’t want to adopt pets. This is an attitude and way of thinking that has been passed down from generation to generation and has been normalised, but the time has come for the problem to be solved before it gets even worse.

What is being done to help the problem?

In January 2013, I worked at an animal shelter in northern Peru for a month, caring for 10 dogs and 40 cats. The owner is a half-Peruvian, half-South African woman who has a deep connection with animals and decided to set up a shelter because she couldn’t take the sight of the street dogs anymore. Her funding comes from a couple of charities in other parts of the world, and she relies on help from volunteers to maintain the shelter and to care for the animals.

The shelter has a resident vet that comes in a few days a week and spays or neuters dogs that are living on the streets. Anywhere between 8 and 15 dogs are brought to the shelter from the neighbouring towns and villages on the days that the vet is working, and she deals with them all in one day before they are returned to the place they were found. It might seem strange that the dogs are returned to the streets, but spaying or neutering is really the best solution to try and stop more dogs being born into a world that doesn’t have enough room to keep them. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough resources to find homes for the dogs or enough people willing to take them in, so eliminating the problem from the source is the best way to make sure that there aren’t future generations that could suffer.

How can I get involved?

There are spay and neuter projects operating all over the country, as well as in other parts of South America and the world, that can always benefit from extra help. Many projects have sponsorship sections on their websites which take donations, and you could pay for a dog to be spayed or neutered for as little as $15. There are also other donation packages that will pay for a vet to go to Peru to help the dogs, or pay for other health procedures for the animals.

Plenty of volunteer projects that require a more hands-on approach are available as well. Vets are almost always welcome to help at these projects, but volunteers without veterinary qualifications are still welcome, as the clinics need support for general upkeep of shelters and rescue homes.

It’s going to be a very long and hard battle to change attitudes towards animals in Peru, but it is one that can be solved in the long-run with spay and neuter programs and by helping people to see the benefits of caring for the animals around them. These efforts create a healthier environment for both animals and humans, eliminate diseases that can spread from street animals, and help future generations to live peacefully with their four-legged friends.