I’ve been visiting Colombia for more than twenty years. I don’t ever remember seeing so many dogs as there are here today, particularly on the coast. They’re everywhere. Probably because huge numbers of Colombians bought dogs during the pandemic. Mostly pedigree, that unfortunate and apparently bred to be asthmatic French Bulldog ubiquitous. Really? A dog whose puppies can only be delivered by C-section because they have a head the size of a watermelon? There. See? I’ve already offended someone.
Colombian dogs come in two races. Street and pet. I’ve spent a lot of time on the coast and, there, I reckon there may be as many street dogs as there are pets. The street dogs are by far the more interesting, perhaps because they don’t have owners – or visible owners. The pets? Well generally they say more about their owners than about themselves.
I worked in Mumbai for a spell and those streets are filled with ownerless dogs and cats. The dogs are extraordinarily brave, aware and intelligent. How else could they cross four lanes of chaotic traffic to bask on the central reservation? In fact, they’re so smart that there’s an adoption program whose premise is exactly that: the smartest dogs in the world.
I doubt, however, that they’re any smarter than a Colombian costeño street dog who has to deal with hordes of crazy motorcyclists, impatient buses and pushy motorists. They’re also exceptionally beautiful, many of them, in ways that only a mongrel can be. You’ll see common stock in different areas, presumably descended from a key pair and refined over the generations.
I wondered about an adoption program here but the dogs would look at me with are you crazy in their eyes. Like many Colombians they’re too independent-minded to submit to leash and ‘sit?’
Which bring us to the pets, many pedigreed and mostly ill-behaved; watched by indulgent owners as they cause chaos whenever they’re off-leash; leaving deposits everywhere which those owners ignore. Or observe proudly. And that’s strange because Colombians are both environmentally conscious and usually courteous. Perhaps they’re simply not interested in recycling shit. Most likely, as they’re gradually abandoned, the pets will become street dogs.
A big step up the ladder, if you ask me.