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Street Treasures in Chile: Abandoned Animals |
| Section: CULTURE / PATTERNS |
| Author: Doris Hamilton |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/2007 |
| Size: 3,678 Words, 21,009 Characters |
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It’s 1999 in San Francisco, California. I’m having a conversation with Dr. John Aldrich, Chief of Staff of the San Francisco SPCA Hospital. My husband and I are about to re-locate to Chile and we need to know what will be the best thing to do for our pets: leave them in San Francisco in the trustworthy hands of the SPCA Adoption Center or take them with us. Our concern is not for us; we want the pets to go with us. Our main preoccupation is what’s best for our little troop of four-leggeds (three dogs and two cats). Is it fair to submit them to a grueling seventeen-hour door-to-door trip on three separate flights and a total change of living environment? When the question is formulated, Dr. Aldrich unhesitatingly gives his answer in two words: “Take ‘em!”
Now it’s more than six years later and what we have learned about having pets in Chile, as well as animal rights in Chile, has not always been pleasant, but it's definitely been broadening. It's also been completely in contrast with the experience of living in San Francisco, where the SPCA has done a phenomenal job of animal education and care for many decades. In that aspect, arriving in Chile was like traveling backwards in a time machine.
Besides that, our original five pets were soon sharing their yard with others we brought in off the street. Soon after moving here, we became aware that many dogs and cats in Chile had never had a home, or had been dumped on the street by owners who didn’t want them anymore. Who would take them in? Well, we thought we were going to be the ones to take care of them all, but it hasn’t turned out that way, even though many people will probably say we have done more than our share. But, back to the beginning….
We arrived with three animals that had been adopted from the SPCA through the years: a six-year-old female dog, Genesee; Coné, a three-year-old Dobie Shepherd; and a fifteen-year-old male cat, Cassius Clay. In addition, there was Twiggy, a twelve-year-old female cat we had found abandoned in Golden Gate Park years before. And, to top it off, the fifth pet wa...
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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