Life in a pack

19.Mar.2010

A pack of dangerous dogs in Villa Dolores

More than ten dogs which live in a house in the area of Villa Dolores in questionable sanitary conditions have been bothering neighbors who have reported frequent bites.

It’s midnight. A lady walks down the street using a metal stick as a cane and walks up to one of the houses from which a distinct and pitiful howling can be heard.  She opens the door and ten wild dogs come out, savagely attacking everything in their way, confused in a cloud of jaws and barks. An hour later their shepherd leads them back to their home.

This is not a scene from a horror movie, but a simple description of what happens every day in the corner of Bernardina Fragoso de Rivera and Francisco Bauzá, not only at midnight but also at seven in the morning, the only two moments in the day that the dogs are out on the street.

María, “the dog woman” has been collecting street dogs for over five years and has put them all in that 70m2 house with an indoor patio which seems a little small for such a big population. Some neighbors claim that she sleeps in the same house; others say that she lives nearby and only opens the door for the dogs twice a day for that walk that has now become a danger for the rest of the neighborhood.

Natalia, who works as a waitress in the bar located in that same corner, claims that she can’t recall a night that was free of incidents related to these animals. 
María doesn’t seem to mind the problems she’s causing her neighbors, even though they’ve confronted her on various occasions.

The lack of regulations regarding the issue of “animal wellbeing laws” added to the inexistence of places where these animals can be taken and, according to neighbours, the indifference of the local authorities, nothing has been done about the issue, even though police reports have been filed for the past five years.
"the dogs are hungry, they have no vaccines, they’re howling all day long, alone, they bite each other, and they eat the newly born kittens  that are hanging around” one of the neighbours told Montevideo portal.

Beatriz Matto, director of health regulations of the Municipality of Montevideo, told Montevideo portal that she knows all about the case but can do very little “ I have a search warrant for that house, but I can’t do anything about it because I have no place to take the dogs” she claimed.

“Animal protection associations don’t have the obligation to take them because they’re privately owned and they pay for things out of their own money. We don’t have a dog pound and even if we did, it’s not a good option” she added “I can’t leave them on the street and I refuse to put them down”