Potcakes
The term potcake sounds like a stress relieving pastry one
might have with one’s tea, but it’s the name for stray dogs found on the Caicos
and Turks Islands Bahamas . The actual origin of the name has to do with
the crust of rice and pea mixture that forms at the bottom of the cooking pot
when preparing that meal. People in the Bahamas
would feed these wandering dogs the mixture and the name became so associated
with them that it stuck. Officially the
dogs are called the Royal Bahamian Potcake.
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| There's a magnet for that. |
Potcakes are about 45-50 pounds when in good health, have
floppy ears and a pronounced snout like a shepherd. They make great companions when adopted but
may have a tendency to wander. They come
in many colors, with short hair.
In New Providence in the Bahamas ,
there are about 11,000 strays. According
to Wikipedia, 1% of tourists visiting there said they were “turned off” by the
dogs. There’s always that one jerk,
isn’t there? At the time of this
writing, the potcake dogs declined to comment on whether the tourist’s pasty
body in a Hawaiian print shirt was a turn off.
Efforts to reduce the potcake population have included such extreme measures as having police
shoot and poison the stray dogs.
Rescue groups have developed to tackle the issue, including Potcake
Place http://www.potcakeplace.com/home
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| A little Sato family stayed close to us as we camped on the beach in Puerto Rico. |
Satos
I spent some time on the beach in Puerto Rico
with a little tribe of stray dogs. They
were of various sizes and shapes. They
were friendly and affectionate, but they all seemed rather washed out as if
bleached by the sun, making their sad, dark eyes stand out like polished
onyx. Their coats were dry and brittle
and flecked with dandruff.
It is estimated there could be a million strays in Puerto
Rico and there are accompanying rescue groups trying to mitigate
the problem. All Sato Rescue http://allsatorescue.org is one. On their site they have some action items the
public can take on to help, including making complaints to the tourism department, a valuable aspect of the Puerto Rican economy, for a humane
solution to the problem. In these
overwhelmed communities, though, I shudder to think of the options.
Another issue is the shipping of strays from other
territories and countries directly to the United
States .
A dog breeder critic of mine who was unhappy with what Who Rescued Who?® stands for (simply the adoption of homeless
animals with the philosophy that when one rescues an animal it often rescues
you right back), pointed out that he does “not support the ‘throwaway’ society
that promotes and glamorizes the ‘saving of poor unloved dogs’ that
irresponsible breeding and importation of foreign dogs to US shelters produce.”
Does he have a point? I mean, no doubt
he’s kind of a tool, but is shipping dogs here a bit like putting a used
bandage on someone else’s wound? We are
not a kill free country so there must be a better answer and it boggles great
minds.
In her blog entry, Dr. Barbara J. King, Chancellor Professor
of Anthropology at the College
of William Puerto Rico .
She describes them as “cross-species interactions.” The men and dogs gather together by
night. The men protect the dogs from
removal sweeps by authorities. By day
they go their own ways, but each night gather again into these protective
huddles to sleep or at least spend time until daybreak.
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| Little Sato at sunset. |
There are spay and neuter voucher programs in Puerto
Rico , but the need is so great they are simply overwhelmed. And if people cannot afford to put food on
the table, how could they entertain the feeding and vet bills of a dog? Dr. King’s blog addresses the problems of
humans and animals as interlaced, calling for compassionate solutions to these
issues with all beings in mind.
Soi Dog (Street Dog)
In Bangkok , Thailand
Prior to major events in the community, great roundups occur
in which they gather up dogs by the thousands and send them to shelters, or
animal quarantine centers out of sight and mind. Efforts by the government to solve the
problem by way of requiring pet owners to register and microchip their dogs and fining owners if their animals are found wandering, backfired miserably. These punitive methods cause non-compliance
because in order to avoid fines, people under stress simply abandon their
animals.
Historically, attaching fees or penalties to dog ownership
increases the stray problem in that area.
A rescue organization trying to help is Soi Dog Rescue: https://www.soidog.org
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| Tammie Stevens, (The Lazarus Fund, Billy Fish Books) providing solace and rescue to dogs in Bundi, India. |
Pariah Dogs
Initially this was a generic term for a wandering,
scavenging dog. However, the Indian
Pariah Dog refers to a rust colored, dingo-like dog prominent in South
Asia . This dog has risen in
status and is accepted as an increasingly desirable breed, with its sharp,
intelligent eyes and pointy ears.
Addressing the human/animal cohabitation
issue, Arpan Sharma, chief executive of the
Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations told New Delhi
Journal reporter Gardiner Harris, “The first
thing you need to start doing to reduce the stray population is manage your
garbage better.”
Hindus oppose the killing of
many animals, removing the euthanasia option for much of the population. Proponents of euthanasia point to the fact
that people should be able to walk the streets without fear of attack and
death.
It’s a quandary, and a
universal one.
Dogs
Conversely, in Holland
In a detailed paper on the
subject (link below), Isabelle Sternheim reveals how Holland
Like India Holland Holland
Soon, however, Holland Holland
Adherence to the culture’s respect of “personal liberties
rather than universalism” instilled in the Dutch people a strong acceptance of
individual differences among people.
They were, after all, as the author explains, “a small country that had
to get by through interaction with other cultures.” She says that the “empathy and observation”
practiced by people of the Netherlands
was a survival mechanism that soon became rooted in their collective
psyche. This empathy included a concern
for the well being of animals.
Interestingly, Sternheim calls these practices “feminine” elements of
their society, and says they are highly valued along with “caring,
collectiveness, and separation of work and private life.”
Isabelle Sternheim makes a case for CNVR: Collect, Neuter,
Vaccinate and Return. She argues that
even impoverished societies can manage this strategy if used alongside
education and registration campaigns.
American Strays
And here in the US we have our collections of problems as well, some of which seem so trivial when held against the global backdrop of the Stray Dog as it relates to humankind, but some that are shared down to the finest detail. We do our best to encourage our brothers and sisters around the world not to eat dogs, to be kind to animals, but have no solution for starvation and poverty and are often woefully unkind to one another. We so often fall short of practicing what many of us sometimes arrogantly preach. But there are slivers of light along the way. Aren't we all just strays anyway, seeking a sense of belonging and security? Critics attack those bleeding heart dog rescuers as ignoring the human problem, but each grain of sadness is directly connected to the other. There are enough problems for us to battle together, each using our own special strengths and passions to chip away slowly at the things that plague us.
-Kiki Nusbaumer
Links in order:
http://www.billyfishbooks.com/Tammie-Stevens-bio.htmlhttp://straydogscampaign.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/DR_Dutch-Straydogs.pdf
