Category: UY

Why do people do this?

abandoned-dog

My routine now includes afternoon walks with my goofy dog and Syd and his five dogs in who-know-who-owns-it 170 hectares/500 acres of scrub in Villa Argentina north.

Yesterday, we heard barking in the middle of it. Where barking shouldn’t be. We changed our return path to pass by again, but heard no more barking.

Today, we heard the barking again, and bushwhacked to find a scared, barking dog, chained to a tree. But with a little plastic bag of dog food. But also with a large bowl, presumably for water, overturned.

With six dogs in tow, we made little progress in connecting. Syd returned to leave it water.

Being Easter week, probably best if it stays there: our favorite vet in the campo is fully booked with pets until Monday.

Previously, Syd discovered the remains of a dog similarly chained, and left to die (it could have chewed through a rope). But there’s evidence of some care here. But still a chain. I’m not racing to judgment.

We’ll do what we can.

Yesterday this was a house

burnt-house

A bit before 10:00 last night, at the corner where Syd and I unleash dogs before wandering 170 hectares of scrub land, thee was a roaring fire, and explosion, and the end of a small, neat wooden house.

garafa

The explosion would have been the garafa, or 13-kg “supergas” tank. Interesting that it shows just this small tear.

Anyway, no one was home, and perhaps — some people here speak in a very garbled manner, and the neighbor is one of them — someone untied the Boxer dog in the yard before the explosion, though that’s a little hard to imagine. And he said that two guys on motorcycles had essentially firebombed the house.

The bomberos arrived in a fire truck 50 minutes later.

I think I know how I’ll decline to donate to them when they next come around begging for donations.

 

Disgusting

There is a reported case of Dengue Fever in Pocitos, one of the most upscale and populous regions of Montevideo. And a couple dozen more suspected cases.

So, what’s a government to do?

Why, the obvious: freak out and poison every living thing in the vicinity, assuredly killing every bee, butterfly, and ladybug, and probably severely impacting the health of small pets and children as well. Oh, yeah, and I guess it kind of wipes out any songbirds too

poksmok4
poksmok3

But you can be sure it’s perfectly safe, and that the HAZMAT suits are just a fashion statement. Some politico went on TV to say that rather than shut themselves inside, residents should open all their windows to allow the lovely curative chemical vapors to permeate everything in their living space.

Reminiscent of the USA in the 1950s: running behind the DDT truck…

Just another day in Yesterguay.

Pocitos photos courtesy of Lee Nelson. DDT photo shamelessly kited from somewhere.

The “dog” project morphs

Fourteen volunteers showed up yesterday to continue the “dog” cleanup project. Uruguayan, Canadian, American, South African, and Cuban. Sweating profusely, we filled two volquetes to overflowing, including

  • five refrigerators
  • three televisions
  • one stove

reefers
Less than half the crap we dragged out of the yard and “house.”

volquete
In order to fix the front fence, I had brought fence wire, which proved handy when the driver said we needed to tie down the load.

We did “meet” the dogs. Apparently the all-but-immobile husband, closed in the house with the dogs on a hot day, decided he’d had enough. He had already insisted that no one touch a pile of old tires (even though there is no vehicle even close to functioning — the volquete driver will remove the four rusty hulks at no cost, presumably for their scrap value). Husband opened the door. Dogs poured out, barking, making a couple of people understandably nervous. The vet Mariana and I fanned out and helped drive them back inside. They were no problem; obviously loved.

It appeared there were about 25 dogs, not 44. And it seems that ASH (Animales sin Hogar, Animals without Homes), the private animal rescue agency, announced some time ago that they had received 50 or so dogs from an individual. So our speculation is that somehow someone rescued them from Telma, who OBTW is now Marlena (?).

We disassembled the roof that had blown off, and consolidated sheet metal, so the lot is somewhat organized and the dogs have more usable ground. Next phase would be construction, but the person in charge of that is sidelined with a sinus infection.

Meanwhile, the lot-clearing and construction project mission-creeps into a open-ended social work project for low-functioning hoarders. For which others are better suited than I.

Volunteering

Our Canadian neighbors, who put on a wonderful Christmas day get-together, also use the occasion to collect dog food for an impoverished woman in Montevideo who has 44 dogs. Sound like a lot? Last year it was 77.

Delivering the donated food  — 260 kilos of it — they were appalled by what they saw. So they organized. Friday morning we arrived, I and another guy with our weed-eaters with brush blades, others with clippers, all with work gloves and most with Wellies. In a few hours, we had changed the overgrown property dramatically.

Tomorrow, we go to fill a dumpster (volquete; I did boring posts about them here and here) with various trashed appliances, and to continue clearing a path for one of four abandoned vehicles to be dragged away. I will use a “found” concrete column to straighten the leaning fence in front.

Next: repair the roof that blew off because the beams had been eaten by termites, make the house a little livable, install a fence to segregate dogs. At present, when we arrive, she has to put them inside. And what does inside look like?

Glad you asked.

telma-01
Someone’s sleeping quarters since the roof blew off.

telma-02
We don’t in fact know what they do for bathroom needs

telma-03
“We never had children, so our dogs are our children,” says Telma. OK, but 44 — ?

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It’s not clear that her husband is physically able to do much more. I didn’t take the photo; I don’t know.

Some money is needed for materials. Though no organized appeal has been made, one person (also referenced in one of the boring volquete posts) has made a very generous donation.

Telma expressed her gratitude for our effort: I feel that I’m cared for; that I’m not alone.

Finding volunteer opportunities in Uruguay can be a challenge (everything, it seems, is covered by a low-paid government job), so I’m grateful to our neighbors for organizing this.

Our estimate for repairs is US$ 3,500.

¡Adelante!