Street Dogs To be Captured More Humanely Thanks to CGI!

In Iquitos, so close to the equator, night falls abruptly, without much in the way of warning.  Every afternoon at around 5:30 or so comes the mad rush from the bustle of the city to the bucolic jungle paths, children playing, laughter and smells of exotic meals wafting from open doorways.  During my brief sojourn in Peru, I would always try to soak up the atmosphere, the sights, sounds and smells, to make an indelible impression on my mind. 

Not Molly.  While I rested in the jostling moto, her eyes scanned the roadside food stands, the children, the dogs idly scratching, sniffing garbage, lying in the dusty road.  There was one she was seeking - a dog so horribly disfigured from mange his skin took on the wrinkled, mottled, cracked appearance of an elephant's hide.  He was elusive; it seemed he knew when she was without a cage or someone to help - then he would show himself.  Sometimes Molly would solicit aid, and bring Harris or Bruno with their long-poled dog-catching nets; on those occasions, the dog would make himself scarce, neatly eluding her pursuit.  As much as we want to help the street dogs, it is apparent that they are scared to death of our help, and take great pains to avoid us.

Amazon CARES thanks CGI Corporate Social Responsibility for their generous $2500 grant that will assist in our capture and transport of street dogs.

This is not the first time CGI has made a difference for animals in the Amazon.  Read more...




Harris of Amazon CARES
nets a street dog.



In my previous blogs about dog catching and treating the street dogs in Iquitos, I wrote a great deal about how difficult it was for those treating, doing operations al fresco in the bandstand or in a marketplace; the squalor of the outdoor clinics, the filthy, flea-ridden animals.  What is easy to forget, however, is that while there is discomfort and hard labor on the part of the treating veterinary workers, the dogs being treated are subject to a nightmare that they do not understand will restore their health.

A street dog is minding its own business, nosing through a garbage heap or cleverly looking both ways before crossing the road, when suddenly it is scooped up and put into a cage.  This cage is then loaded on the back of a moto, the ground whizzing underneath its feet, while the desperate animal slavers, frantically chewing the steel rods of the cage that confines it.  The fear, the panic, the outright terror of these street dogs cannot be imagined; it's got to be something akin to being abducted by aliens for unknown, malevolent purpose. 

Dogs are transported in wire cages
strapped to the back of a moto-car!

While we cannot stop treating street dogs simply because our treatment of them is scary to them, we can make it less stressful.  AmazonCARES recently received a grant for $2500 from CGI, which will allow us to transport the street dogs to treatment sites and back with a minimum of distress.  Thanks to CGI, we are finally able to purchase a small dog catching cart!!  Instead of the ground beneath their feet, the dogs instead are in a covered, quiet cage, free from the disturbing stimuli of the ride and the surroundings.  They will no longer be suspended in a wire cage over a bumpy pavement!  Once at the treatment area, the dogs are calmed after the tumult of capture, and much less dangerous to the veterinary workers as they are not frantic and panicked. 

Amazon CARES thanks CGI Corporate Social Responsibility for this generous $2500 grant.