Evolution of Stray Dogs

Visiting India when I was only 8 years old, I was heartbroken by how many stray dogs there were. My sad little wannabe veterinarian heart just wanted to adopt them all. I even told my family that when I was an adult, I would come back and help vaccinate them all and give them good homes. Coming to Cusco, I had a similar first impression. All around Cusco, there are dogs. Some are just running around, others are taking naps under benches, on the sidewalk, or even in the middle of the street. At first I felt sympathy, concerned for them being out all night in the cold. But as I looked a bit closer, I noticed many of them had collars or sweaters, and realized many of them had owners. Instead of being simple stray dogs, these dogs had integrated themselves into their society.

When I returned to India 5 years after that first time, I still saw so many stray dogs. However, like Cusco, I saw that some of them now had owners. Even my family in India, who had scoffed at the idea of owning dogs 5 years before, now owned a dog. Now it was quite a different relationship than how we have dogs in the U.S.. The dog may have lived in the house, but it did not receive the sort of affection we regularly give our dogs in the U.S.. But it still did live in their house, and was cared for by my cousins. If I had to guess, I would think Cusco is following the same progression as India. If I visited Cusco 10 years ago, I bet the dogs wouldn’t be owned at that time, but just roaming and living on the streets. Along that same line of thought, if I visit the city in the future, I hope and think that dogs will continue to earn their place in society. I hope the dogs live even more in their houses than on the street, and that they are all clean, vaccinated, and taken care of by a vet (there are currently very few vets in Cusco as they are not used often). The integration of dogs into the civilian home to me seems like a sign of modernity; as places like Cusco and India get more modern, dogs become more like pets than pests. In the future, I would love to visit these places, along with others, to see if my theory is true.