Horrifying News

Last night, a large number of street dogs were poisoned in San Marcos La Laguna. I am heartbroken and horrified, as are many others. My lovely friend, Selaine, who runs AYUDA Para la Salud de Perros y Gatos, who has worked tirelessly for years to stop this barbaric practice, who had an agreement with the mayor of San Marcos that this would STOP, is hurt and angry and sad and frustrated. She has put so much energy and time and money into trying to educate people about the humane treatment of dogs, proper care of dogs as domesticated animals, and how to manage a street dog population, which, yes, does include sometimes having to make the decision to euthanize a troublesome animal. But throwing poisoned chicken on the streets is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Many Guatemalans own dogs for protection and companionship yet can't afford to properly feed them. They often let their dogs out to roam the streets for food. Those dogs died too. So many dogs died.

Here are some quotes from Facebook:

"Am só sad...lóts of dogs got killed overnight😢😢; bocado 😢😢😢. A neighbour from barrio 1 had 2, neutered dogs, but they both died. Also big dogs from his neighbour, also neutered. He said the muni did not let notice... He saw at least 15 dogs dead"

"Today's walk was very sad. I saw 9 dogs that were obviously killed on my walk this morning. One was near my front door in barrio 3. One by the big church. One by maya clinic and 6 by Kononjel. Children were walking by and staring in disbelief on their way to school. All were prayed for. Please keep your own close to you. I looked and no collars were on the dogs. They could have been removed too. They were not bleeding as you might expect with rat poison. Just very lifeless and stiff."

"I heard so many dogs howling in pain and anguish last night i couldn't sleep."

"both of my workers neighbor dogs are killed - and he witnessed the death fight of one dog on his way up here - it was poison"

"I have a photo of the pickup truck with dead dogs, they were loading another 10 dead bodies on top."

I hope they find out who did this and poison his food and let him die in agony alone on the streets.

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WARNING: Don't scroll down if you don't want to see dead dogs. I'm sharing the picture to make you realize that this actually happened. Words cannot explain it. What would you tell your children if they came home and said, "Mom, Dad, I saw all these dead dogs on the street today"?

Poisoned dogs in San Marcos la Laguna, Guatemala