[Animals] An abandoned dog grows in Venezuela

[WilkerCSBD]

"Affectionate puppies looking for home". "Hi, I'm Vicenta. A six-month-old mixed-breed dog. I am very playful and energetic. I am given up for adoption so that I can enjoy a home with a family that I promise to love very much.

" "Hi, I'm Puki, my mom wants to give me up for adoption because she can't have me because she's leaving the country." The Foundation I want a dog from Caracas offers dozens of similar advertisements daily. So does the Canine Support Network. "You can change the life of an animal," he tells the people of Caracas to observe their surroundings. A scene has adhered to the landscape of the pauperization of the city: the growing presence of the famished and abandoned dogs.

Their owners left them because they cannot feed them or they became part of the migratory stream. According to Lupe Fernández, vice president of the NGO Rescate Chacao, between seven and eight pets are abandoned daily. They drift from here to there. They are usually found alone. But sometimes, when the sun flees from the Venezuelan capital, they are seen in groups. Small packs on the night of scarcity. They go through it like little ghosts.

Four years ago a demonstration was held with almost 500 dogs and owners united by the same claim: they walked along Avenida de Francisco Miranda to attract the attention of a community that oscillated between impotence and lack of sensitivity to the Apegate Foundation's calculation. : about 200,000 dogs and cats were left adrift per year. Barking and cries for help melted that day when they reached Plaza Altamira, in one of the most affluent areas of Caracas. Things have gotten worse since then in a country where, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the drop in GDP reached 35% last year. The decline in 2020 is expected to be 10%. Venezuelans themselves say they lead a life of dogs.

Impossible prices

At the beginning of the year, President Nicolás Maduro decreed the 30th increase in the minimum wage since he came to power. This time it was 66%. The 250,000 bolivars are equivalent to about 3.3 US dollars. People with lower incomes in turn receive food aid of about 200,000 bolivars (2.6 dollars). In this context, the provision of dog food has become a luxury for many. The 12-kilogram bag ranges, depending on its quality, from 100,000 bolivars ($ 1.3) to almost four million of the battered national currency ($ 53).

Families that still refuse to part with their pets sometimes turn to cheaper solutions like chicken liver and ground beef mix ($ 0.7 per kilogram) that they administer with the severity of a finance minister. Prices change dramatically at the rate of inflation, which in 2019 was 7,300%. The magazine Tal Cual has estimated that the price of food for pichichos is 300% higher than what is purchased in the US But at the same time there are other costs that may be impossible to assume: medicines, veterinary consultations and the necessary documents to get them out of the country in case the owners decide to migrate.