Homeless Dogs

When I first arrived in Costa Rica, one of the toughest culture shocks for me was seeing the abundance of homeless dogs wandering the streets. I felt so bad that they did not have a home, an owner, and someone to look after them. I was sad that they would never get the experience of being pet, or laying by a fire, or sleeping on a comfy bed with their human friends (see my dog below). I have to admit that I would even slip these orphan dogs treats if I thought no one was looking. After a month of living here, however, I surprised myself by realizing that these dogs are not to be pitied, and that they are actually a huge benefit to the Costa Rican community.

        (Above: Muldoon, my dog, enjoying the luxuries of living in a North American home)

During the 5k run for the Clinica Biblica, participants were given little plastic packets of water about halfway through the race that could be grabbed on-the-run. I noticed that the hundreds of participants simply threw these packets onto the street when they had finished with them. I kept hold of mine, however I was baffled to find that throughout the entire 3.1 miles there was not a single garbage can in sight. 

That large-scale community act of nonchalant littering grabbed my attention. The next day, while trudging down an unpaved road in my walk to school, I paused and took in my surroundings. Somehow I hadn't previously given much thought to the fact that there is not a single garbage can, nor have I ever seen or heard a garbage truck. Among my oblivion I also hadn't registered that the streets are absolutely covered and littered in garbage that people simply threw on the ground. Additionally, people throw their household waste in huge piles outside of their houses in an unstructured fashion.

During the tour with my parents this past week, my dad and I saw a few crabs on the beach. He explained to me that crabs are the ultimate scavengers; if something dies, they will eat it until there are no remains, and no one will ever know it was there. They are nature's way of removing waste. I realized that the homeless dogs in Costa Rica are like the crabs on the beach. Without them, the garbage piles would stink and become health hazards. But, with hundreds of dogs roaming around eating much of the waste, these piles are generally odorless and harmless. These dogs are a necessity to the Costa Rican ecosystem.

These dogs are free, and if they can avoid getting hit by cars they seem to actually have pretty good lives. Whereas my host dog, Peter, sits in a dark garage all day attached to a very short chain, the homeless dogs always have a purpose: find food, find shelter, bark at another homeless dog, bark at a person walking by... Their lives are full of stimulation and activity, which is a huge improvement from some family-owned dogs.

(Above: Peter, wishing he was a homeless dog. Lucky for him he got a little light exposure during the time this photo was taken.)

In the USA, we do not need to have homeless dogs because we have developed waste and recycling systems. With the seemingly lack of protocol here, however, these dogs are a great asset to the community, and I believe they frequently enjoy their work as well. What a relief!