According to a survey, stray dogs are more troubling than thefts

Eight thousand people responded to the fourth poll on the perception of the quality of life in the city of the Department of Housing which was considered the main problem in the cities.

According to the survey, 59% said that street dogs are a serious or very serious problem, followed by bad streets, then stolen from homes or on public roads.

The Deputy Secretary of Regional Development reminded municipalities that the Mascota Protegida program has about 6,000 million pesos of competitive funds .

The plan is applicable to one branch. shared sterilization, which aims to control the reproduction of animals, especially those living on the street.

"This specific funding line for sterilization involves the mobilization of the municipality to carry out sterilization operations, receive these public resources to generate an operation, sterilize the abandoned dog and leave it in its own habitat", said the Under-Secretary for Regional Development.

Meanwhile, Patricia Cocas of the NGO Pro Animal, He said that he was not surprised by the results of the investigation and that Most stray dogs have an owner, so the importance of the pet's have a flea, because in this way it will not be so easy to abandon them.

Nevertheless, Cocas criticized the authorities for enforcing and enforcing the law on pet ownership.

"The dogs that are on the street today most have an owner, that's the reality.Only six percent of the animals in the metropolitan area do not have a homeowner," he says. That's why it's so important to register and identify animals, "he said.

"What needs to be done to solve the problem is to focus on the responsible, teach people and then control them firmly," he added.

Cocas pointed out that "the people who are part of civilian organizations, myself, our institution, have worked for years to have a good law that it was promulgated a year and a half ago, but it is still not 100% operational, regulations are poorly enforced, they are poorly enforced ".

Calama is the city with the highest percentage of people who consider street dogs as street dogs. serious or very serious problem, followed by Iquique-Alto Hospicio, Osorno and Copiapó.