The Latin American Rougher Treatment of Animals

Last night, I decided to go outside to get some food.

There's some restaurant that is about a 10 minute walk away all the way down the main street near me that offers some of the better Mexican food in the area.

They have better red salsa, make better huaraches, pan arabe and alambre, etc.

Not to mention the pretty generous prices they have for agua de horchata.

Anyway, as I am walking over there, I'm not quite sure what I should get.

Stuck between getting the pan arabe or the huarache.

But, as I arrived, I took a look at the menu and ultimately decided on a huarache.

Right before I made a decision though, immediately a bunch of noise was happening across the street.

Everyone at the restaurant, including the waiters, all stopped to watch.

As well as every random bystander behind me (some mother and her kids).

Where, whenever the mother yelled out "mateo!!" it caught my attention because it's not uncommon for some Latin Americans to call me "Mateo."

Anyway, some noise was happening across the street as I said.

There was a bigger black dog attacking viciously a smaller light brown haired dog.

And the cries the smaller dog was making would make you feel sorry for it.

Almost motivated me to run up there and stop the black dog from murdering it (sure sounded like it was trying!).

At any rate, there were three four men across the street holding what looked like beer and watching it unfold.

One of them even laughing at the sight.

But, as the smaller dog's cries got louder and scarier, one of the skinnier looking men jumped into action less than a minute after it all started.

He immediately tried kicking the black dog and even began shouting what I can only assume was its name: "Pecas."

But the fight continued.

And the smaller dog kept trying to flee and, whenever it took some odd steps but couldn't keep running, would turn around and try to bite the bigger dog on the face or neck area while crying even more. 

Eventually, the skinny man stopped trying to kick the black dog "Pecas" and tried to grab it.

All the while a few of his friends -- a fat man in particular -- was laughing along at the scene.

At any rate, the skinny man -- who I can only assume was the owner -- managed to get "Pecas" away from the smaller dog.

And the smaller dog began running away while still making some crying noises.

As for "Pecas?"

Immediately, the owner began kicking his dog and hitting it with his fists right in front of me at this restaurant only a few feet away.

Not simple slaps either.

But straight up doing a little bit of punching and kicking.

To which "Pecas" began letting out his own song of whimpering and all.

Before then grabbing "Pecas" by the leash and walking him back to the group of friends across the street.

Then the incident was over.

Everyone at the restaurant all went back to work or eating.

The mother behind me continued on playing with her kids while occasionally yelling out "Mateo!!"

And I made my order -- huarache with agua de horchata.

Still, in the moment, it left a sour taste in my mouth.

While anyone could see that "Pecas" needed to learn not to attack other dogs, I think anyone who saw what I did would agree that the "punishment" was just straight up abuse for "Pecas."

And, as a side point, makes you wonder if that treatment is normal for the dog and maybe that's how it learned to be more violent?

At any rate, I have a softer spot for animals than I do people.

And, over the years down here, I've met or seen plenty of oddball incidents of Latin Americans treating their animals like shit.

Or at least being absolute shit owners.

Which, to be fair, the US has its fair share of shit and abusive owners also.

And, at the same time, plenty of Latin Americans know how to treat their pets normally also.

In my opinion, it boils down to education and socioeconomic status.

Generally speaking, you see more fucked up shit among Latin Americans who come across as retarded and/or who live in shit neighborhoods.

Which, even in said neighborhoods, you still have plenty of people who know how to treat a pet normally but I think that's where you'll see "more problematic" treatment of pets.

Above all, you just don't see as much "odd" treatment by owners up in the US than you do in Latin America in my experience.

Let's get into a few examples.

Marcela's Backpack Problem

Over two years ago or more, an ex of mine messaged me out of the blue.

Her name was Marcela and she was from Colombia.

She occasionally reaches out to me for whatever reason (sometimes to catch up, sometimes to flirt) and that's all.

Though, ever since I made a "Pablo Escobar" joke to her, she hasn't been very eager to start conversations with me anymore oddly enough.

Still, before that joke, I remember her sending me a video on Whatsapp of her lecturing a dog she had at her parent's place.

So this might've been more than a few years as she's been in Mexico now but, at any rate, the video was her lecturing a dog she had that pissed on her backpack.

To which she starts the video by giving the usual "look at me, look at me."

And then begins saying to the dog that she's "going to hit him."

And, as you can guess, she began hitting the little guy.

Grabbed him by the neck and starting slapping him in the face.

For some reason, she wanted to show me her "punishing" her dog.

Also, when we stick to her family's pets, I always found that the rest of her family was pretty normal in how they treated the dogs.

The only odd thing though was how they were fine letting the dog run around outside all by itself.

You see that in Latin America -- especially the poorer an area is -- where folks just let their dogs run free outside.

Generally speaking -- at least here in Mexico City and some other nicer cities -- you find more "educated" locals who won't let the dog outside unless they have a backyard or if they are walking the dog.

But, in poorer areas of Latin America (and even middle class ones to be fair), dogs running free on their own is a common sight.

No owners nearby.

Then, to their surprise, the dogs get lost and they end up posting on Facebook asking help to find "Aquiles" or "Mila" or whatever the dogs name is.

It's just a bunch of low IQ thinking, isn't it?

Of course the dog is going to get lost someday!

Perhaps it gets murdered by a bigger dog (like the one I saw tonight).

And, with Marcela's dogs, they were always very small ones that could easily get attacked by bigger ones.

Or, as I see on Facebook, sometimes a random person in the neighborhood might steal your dog.

Perhaps they did it on purpose not caring it could be the dog of someone else or they are a concerned resident that wants to find help for a dog they see as being homeless (even though it technically has a home to go to).

And, above all, the dog might get hit by a vehicle.

To which, over the years here, you'd think these street dogs would learn how to avoid vehicles.

Truth be told, they probably are more aware of vehicles and more adapt to avoiding them than dogs who stay inside all the time outside of the daily walk.

Still, there's no shortage of dogs let out on their own who get run over.

Going back to Marcela, I remember one small dog they had that I knew for most of our relationship that I quite liked.

He barked at me a lot at first but warmed up to me.

Unfortunately, he got ran over one day when let out on his own and, quite frankly, it seemed like the family didn't give a shit.

Not a tear shed.

No fucks given.

"Time to get a new dog."

Genuinely, I can't imagine having this "no fucks given" attitude if you own a dog you raise and love to then finding it run over and killed.

And this "lack of fucks" attitude given is similar to another incident I saw not too long ago.

"We Will Kill Our Dog if You All Don't Adopt it"

Finally, there's another incident that was kinda weird that happened not too long ago.

Basically, there was a woman on Facebook who posted something about how basically "she knows an older couple who can't take care of their dog anymore and will kill it if they can't find someone to adopt it."

Literally.

I ended up helping out by spreading images of the dog all over the internet in hopes someone would adopt it.

Ended up getting recommendations for two quality animal shelters and I had about 5 or 6 people reaching out (both foreigners and locals) hoping to adopt it.

So hopefully it gets adopted!

But, to be fair to Latin Americans, a few locals found it fucked up also.

One dude even saying to me in a Facebook comment about "how about we save the dog and kill you instead."

Among others bitching at me thinking I was the one planning on killing this dog or, at the very least, complaining about those who would kill it like you can see here.

Still, I can understand their frustration.

It is pretty fucked up for a random couple to say "if nobody adopts it, we're killing it."

Honestly, neutering it and letting it have a chance in this world on the streets alone would be a better outcome than killing it.

Well, that's not a very ideal outcome either but it's better than murder, right?

Here's a picture of the dog anyhow.

Hopefully it gets a new home that isn't the backyard with a shovel being smashed on its head (or however the older couple would get rid of it in such a moment).

At any rate, let's wrap this up.

Final Thoughts

Above all, I don't want to make it seem like most Latin Americans are this shitty with their pets.

Far from it!

In fact, while I don't have any studies on this, I'm sure a vast majority treat their pets normally like those in any country.

Regardless, all I can say is that a life in Latin America does expose you to more "abusive" or "questionable" treatment of animals.

But, like I said, that wildly depends on what neighborhoods and cities you are spending your time in.

If I was to go to an area like Roma Norte or El Centro Historico, the only bad person I would see maybe being mean to a street dog would be some homeless person having a schizophrenic episode.

But, outside of select areas of Latin America, you generally find this region to be "less forgiving" of animals than back home in my personal experience only.

Be it more folks abandoning their pets than folks back home.

Or those straight up abusing their pets right in the eyes of everyone and nobody else giving a fuck.

Perhaps even having a good laugh at that!

Letting your pets roam the streets to only be run over (with no fucks given) or to attack others.

So on and so on.

Still, like I said, you got shit people back home also.

For example, I remember many years ago some dogs from a random dude tried to attack my dad one time while he was outside.

He didn't get hurt but, if I remember right, the dogs were abused by the other dude and were an aggressive threat in the area or something.

I think they ended up taking the dogs away.

So, as I can only speak from my personal experience to life back home, I'll again emphasize that Latin America -- broadly speaking -- isn't as favorable to pets down here.

But you got shit people everywhere.

Anyway, that's all I got to say.

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Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt