LA VICTORIA, Venezuela — Every day on her way to work, Angela Exposito sees more abandoned dogs along the road, discarded by owners who can no longer afford to take care of them.
Exposito, who heads Fundanimalia, a non-profit animal rescue organization, said abandoned pets have skyrocketed over the last three months as the country’s economy descends into ever-worsening chaos. Until recently, most stray dogs she saw were mutts or mixed breeds. Now she sees more purebreds, such as golden retrievers, left to forage for garbage along the Pan American Highway that passes by this industrial city of 150,000, about 50 miles west of the capital, Caracas.
Household pets are the latest casualty in a country where food and other essential goods are becoming ever scarce, inflation is rampant, looting is escalating and electric blackouts occur regularly.
The food shortage is so bad that the government on Sunday opened its border with neighboring Colombia for 12 hours, and thousands of Venezuelans quickly crossed into the city of Cucuta to buy rice, cornmeal, pasta and other basic items. Venezuela has had the border closed since August as part of a crackdown on crime.
"If people themselves don’t have enough to eat, what are they going to do with their pets?” Exposito said. “People feel they have no choice but to abandon their animals.”
Many pets starve to death or are hit by passing vehicles. Others may end up in cooking pots. Ramon Muchacho, mayor of the Caracas suburb of Chacao, warned in May that hungry Venezuelans were hunting stray dogs and cats to eat.
The country’s animal rescue organizations say they are swamped with rescued animals. Many no longer accept animals from owners who can't feed them.
Other pet owners use social media to find new homes for their animals with warnings that they may put them to sleep unless someone offers to take them.
“A woman came in today with her poodle puppy and started to cry when she saw how expensive pet food was,” said Luisa Alcantra who works at a pet food store here. “She begged me to take her puppy as she couldn’t take care of it.” At Alcantra’s feet lay a sleeping, 6-week-old apricot toy poodle.
Pet food is one of the staples in short supply in a country that imports about 70% of its food. Venezuela's economy depends on oil exports, and the drop in prices prompted the government to restrict dollars that leave the country to pay for imported goods. The government wants to save its dwindling dollar reserves to service its foreign debts and avoid a default, but that means fewer goods from importers who want to be paid in dollars.
Import shortages include basic pet food components such as wheat, corn, fish meal and sorghum, as well as minerals and vitamins. As a result, at least four domestic pet food producers have shut down.
“Before, there used to be a large variety of dog and cat foods,” said Ester Parra, a Caracas veterinarian. “Now, only the most expensive brands are available."
Parra said a 40-pound bag of Purina Dog Chow now costs 41,000 bolivares, or nearly three times the country’s monthly minimum wage. A 6-pound sack of cat food costs 15,000 bolivars, which equals the monthly minimum wage.
The high prices mean many can give their animals only table scraps, vegetable peelings, rice shards or cooked bananas. Like their human owners, many pets are noticeably underweight. “I’m seeing all sorts of diseases breaking out because pets aren’t being properly fed,” Parra said.
Another problem is that Venezuela, which has a critical shortage of medicine for its 30 million inhabitants, isn’t importing medicines and vaccines for dogs and cats. “That means puppies are often contracting distemper and dying," Parra said. "Cats are coming down with liver problems. People often given them dog food, as it’s much cheaper but not good for them.”
Non-profit groups such as Mi Segunda Oportunidad (My Second Chance) say they are hamstrung because donations have fallen dramatically as the country’s economy worsens.
“We used to post appeals for help on our Facebook page and people would send us whatever we asked for,” said Glendy Merlo, who helps run the group. “Now, no one is offering to help because of the crisis.”
The plight of house pets comes just a few years after President Nicolas Maduro, who faces a possible recall this year, created a government program, Mission Nevado, to encourage people to take in abandoned pets.
Mission Nevado’s only prerequisite for pet ownership was that people “love the country,” said Maduro, who set an example by adopting a brown-and-white cat during a televised broadcast.
Mission Nevado initially provided sterilizations and low-cost vaccinations. Now, those benefits are being cut back as the government scrambles to finance higher-priority social programs. “Mission Nevada has been having fewer and fewer activities,’’ said Merlo.
Exposito, who is often greeted by abandoned dogs outside her refuge when she arrives, laments that “there’s only so much we can do. This is a tragedy, just like the one hitting all Venezuelans.”
