The land of the forever hungry

Ever since their mother’s milk is over, the stray dogs experience the never ending hunger on the streets. There is never enough food for all of them and their bellies are never full. Sometimes they are so hungry, they would eat just about everything; a plastic bag which smells of food is often their dinner.

I heard people say that stray puppies have a good life on the street, because of their huge bellies. But when given a deworming pill, they transform into the skeletons that they really are. Because they are so innocent and sweet, puppies often play to forget about their hunger; they are not professional beggars and they always welcome you with a wagging tail, not with a begging hand. More than once I have seen puppies so hungry, that they couldn’t find the food given to them, even if it was right there, under their noses; in their desperation, they just didn’t recognize a full bowl just for them to have. That is why most of former stray dogs that are lucky to be adopted are always afraid of going hungry again and spend their lives eating as if there is no tomorrow. For them, each day on the street is a battle won in the survival war. 

Their lifelong burden is to find enough food to survive; day after day, the same drama: never enough, never without a fight, never just handout to them.  A nursing mother will spend all her day looking for food for her puppies. The elements are never as demanding as her screaming puppies. One can easily recognize them, a bag of bones, huge udder, always on the run for food. Bitches can give birth to up to 14 live puppies at

once, twice a year. I wonder if a woman could endure that for long without starting the World War III.

Stray dog in Moreni. We will spay her at the future RAR free spay/neuter campaign, thanks to RAR's generous donors

City dogs are really lucky compared to village dogs, which, again, are the luckiest in the world compared to the ones dumped in desert fields or woods. A city dog can fest with a meatless bone, while a village dog is lucky to have a slice of polenta or, if he prefers a raw vegan diet, raw corn or nuts; a “wild” dog is lucky if he finds a rat once every few days. Maybe that is why “compassionate” people who refuse to spay/neuter their dogs, abandon the unwanted puppies in cities’ markets or central parks; in their mind, they are doing them a favor by increasing their chances of survival. Little do they know or care, the cities have had enough of stray dogs and replaced the pitchforks with poison or dogcatchers. The unwanted is doomed to pay its fault over and over again, until dogs will evolve and start buying condoms at the local pharmacy; humans are never responsible for it, but very inventive when it comes to means of punishment.

I can never eat something while walking on the street; I would rather starve than eat while so many dogs don’t know what a full stomach is. I am ashamed to ever complain about being hungry when they have been hungry all their lives. Seeing walking skeletons wait patiently outside restaurants or meat stores is, for me, one of the most ridiculous things in the world; I see it all the time, but people walk on by, indifferent to their silent hunger. I wonder how they would act if starving for days. They would probably cry and turn their personal drama into a national interest story. But dogs can’t do that; their drama doesn’t sell.

People have always been aggressive to those who feed stray dogs, because they believe we are to blame for everything. If they would have their way, the streets would be covered in agonizing dogs that would just die of hunger. The more “compassionate” ones just believe dogs will go into the woods and mountains and live there as their ancestors did.

The world needs less hungry (dog) bellies. None of us want to see so many of them on the streets, some for more humane reasons than others. Let’s spay or neuter more and sacrifice less innocent animals every year!

Two stray dogs fight over a meatless bone. No words needed.