August 14, 2007

World News: Chile

" National menace": street dogs in Santiago attack a pedestrian after cornering him against the security barricades in front of La Moneda [the building that houses the offices of the president of Chile].

[Note: linked websites are in Spanish.*] From Santiago de Chile: just a week after the government was asked to carry out a massive extermination of street dogs, a woman from the Santiago suburb of Puente Alto was attacked and killed by a pack of dogs on her way to work. The dogs that attacked her were not homeless pariah-dogs like the ones seen here --- they included at least three "police dogs," a Rottweiler and a mixed breed. A district attorney has begun an investigation.

On Tuesday [Aug. 14] the mayor of Puente Alto began the process of filing a complaint of homicide against those responsible for the death of Eduvina Ramírez Fierro, 50, and spoke out against those who train dogs to kill. He also voiced local concern over a growing trend among young people to raise dogs of fighting breeds.

Tuesday afternoon the Lower House of the Chilean government voted to approve a bill that would regulate the ownership of dangerous dogs. Among other things, the bill would require a list of "breeds considered highly dangerous" to be prepared by the government each year, and owners of these breeds would be required to pass a psychiatric examination.

Where did all these news links come from? From the Chilean blog Perros, where you'll find everything from announcements about free neutering to postings about dogs available for adoption. And news stories, of course. It's sort of a Chilean, animal-rights Itchmo. [Itchmo is in English, needless to say].

*
If you don't speak Spanish and would like to read Perros in English, first highlight and copy the web address of the page you need translated. Then go to Google, click on Language Tools, paste the address in the Translate a web page box and click on your preference in the drop-down menu. Hit Translate, and walla!, as we Californians say ;~) You'll have a quick, comprehensible translation.

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