Horror in Jucanya

Jucanya, Panajachel– Two days ago, I (Selaine) was working at our little rehab house in Jucanya when Ezzie arrived frantic. She told me that I needed to go with her right away to see a situation involving several dogs. She had tears in her eyes; I knew it was going to be bad. How bad, I never could have imagined.

As we wound our way through the narrow alleyways of the neighborhood my mind raced trying to calmly collect the right words. We arrived outside of the little typico home and I peered down the small lane that separated two homes. What I saw first were two dogs, a female and a puppy tied to the fence in a way that forced them to lay down all the time. The female was actually attached with wire wrapped around her neck and then twisted onto the fencing. There was no water in sight and the female was emaciated and very ill with what I suspected to be distemper. The puppy was skin and bones, too, and her little eyes were beginning to shut with goo.

Ezzie knocked on the door. A older woman appeared and graciously let us in. We then saw the OTHER dogs. They were all tied so they could only stand. Again, no water, no signs of food. We asked her how long they had been without food and her reply was about a week or two. Very nonchalant. She stated that the female had given birth to a litter and that the puppies were all stolen except for the one tied near dying mom. We later discovered from a neighbor that in actuality the puppies had all died. We left her with a bag of puppy chow and told her we would return with the vet that afternoon.  We told her to change the way all the remaining dogs were tied and we would be returning to check in.

Dr. Miguel, Ezzie and I returned within a couple of hours to assess and decide what needed to be done. It’s difficult to force people to surrender animals here and there is no real legal recourse so we knew we’d have to work with the family rather than get angry and demanding. While Dr. Miguel euthansized the mother dog and her puppy, I sat quietly with the woman and explained the problems with her dogs. I also invited her to bring all of her animals to the clinic scheduled for March 31 for sterilization, vaccinations and worming. It was explained that by complying with this request, she would be eligible to buy dog food at a vastly reduced price — I told her I’d be willing to provide food through our program for the remaining four dogs for as little as Q3 per week — $0.39. To those of you who have never visited Guatemala, the average weekly salary for many indigenous is somewhere around $10.

I don’t like sharing pictures that depict torture, but this time, I feel it’s necessary to relate the true horror of this scene. I apologize for the quality, but all we had on us at the time was a cell phone with a camera.

The people are willing to listen, some will change, but it is the children who will eventually make the difference.

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