Thread by @gauravsabnis

Throwback to the day we visited the most instagrammed game of thrones arrowhead mountain upthread but the highlight of the day were these extremely friendly and hardy dogs playing fetch with some pretty hardcore stuff! They reminded us of Andre the Giant in Princess Bride. 😍😍

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1145867917483003913

It was so cutely bizarre. Extremely friendly, while keeping their distance. Calmly bringing rocks to play fetch with instead of a ball and spiky logs like they are twigs. 😂😂

Alright, let's make this a "dogs from our travels" thread.

Colombia dogs are unlike any I've ever seen. They are everywhere. But not feral or territorial, because locals & govts take care of them. That's true all over South America though.

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1200940254972334080?t=S8_JeUJ9heKUmy6nr-RNMQ&s=19

But Colombian ones are especially..... well-mannered? They just show up like to say "howdy, stranger? Walking? I'll join you for a bit", and for a while tag along like they are your pets. Never invading personal space. And then after a while, go away. 😍

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1200940622808526849?t=S8_JeUJ9heKUmy6nr-RNMQ&s=19

Also on the same continent, Chile "strays". Much like Colombian culture is very affectionate while Chilean culture is more aloof, so are their dogs. Chileno dogs don't really socialize with you. They chill.

South America is THE best dog place imo.

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1109527661876006912?t=S8_JeUJ9heKUmy6nr-RNMQ&s=19

I don't think I ever saw a dog on a leash in any of the South American countries I visited. Nor did I ever hear a dog bark except in a casual perfunctory way. Cos Sudamericans take care of dogs like we once used to in India. They think of dogs like they think of trees.

Ah here is the tree analogy.

Dude also said one thing that shocks South Americans when they visit other places is how badly dogs are treated, be it compulsorily muzzled and leashed like in US/Europe or then starving feral packs in parts of Asia.

https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1285316238793748483?t=IigzDDS1ZWGqXikvfvsAvg&s=19

There parallel one chileno guide gave me (and it's his parallel, and he's a Mapuche) was "imagine you go to a country and see slavery is still legal and people are being led around in chains and leashes. How I felt in US looking at all these dogs on leashes."

He also thought of taking a dog for a walk as a bizarre concept.

"Dogs walk in Chile when they want, nap when they want, pee poop when they want. Being only given designated walks, isn't that like prison?"

And rupal and my minds were being blown.

Because the only dog cultures we've seen, leashing and walking them is a good thing, right?

But at least the places we visited in S.A. were such that the dogs were just co-habitants. Not property. Not nuisance. I see what the other guy meant by "dogs are like trees".

So I asked "what about dog poop?"

And he laughed and said, "dogs that have grown up without leash or confinement take care of it themselves. It doesn't affect us too much. And if there is some and you step in it, so what? We have water supply to wash it off. It's just poop!"

I told him India has like 25,000 deaths from rabies every year and he was stunned. He took out his phone, searched, and told me the last case of human rabies in Chile was before he was born, in the mid 80s.

"Why are your Indians making dogs bite them? Dogs don't bite humans!"

Even in Colombia. DEA, druglord, revolutionary, right winger, not really rich Colombia, rabies is so rare that 4 deaths in 2 years in a district was considered an "outbreak".

India has roughly 300 rabies deaths a day!! That's not on stray dogs. That's on humans.

We were both just coming from such different perspectives and realities. Dog bites and rabies injections in the stomach were common in my childhood. My best friend and my closest cousin both got bitten by stray dogs in Pune and had to get the whole course of injections.

He could not comprehend how a "big and rich and technologically advanced country like India" has feral dogs and rabies and such.

I could not comprehend how Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Peru have street dogs everywhere but rabies is practically extinct.

Just a reminder that these are not rich and peaceful countries. They have inequality, political violence, poverty, and a lot of serious real shit happening, just like India. So your "ohh rich countries, rich people" deflections won't work here.

Ooh, cute side story for this pic, taken on San Cristobal in Santiago. The vendor next to them saw me take a pic and said "those are the oldest so they know which areas stay shaded even at high noon. Other dogs nap nearby and are woken up by the moving sun. These two, never 🤭"

If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I wanna be a dog in South America in my next life.