Hungry Venezuelans Feed on Stray Dogs and Cats: “Pets May End Up in Cooking Pots”
Mac Slavo
July 11th, 2016
SHTFplan.com
How far would you go to eat?
The economic crisis in Venezuela, which has made food scarce, has become so sharp that many people are now being forced to turn on their pets in order survive.
The mounting cost of imported staple foods used to make dog and cat foods has proven to be prohibitive for many pet owners, who have trouble enough feeding themselves and their children and have been forced to release their pets to fend for themselves.
As a consequence, there has been a sharp increase in stray animals on roadsides and city areas, and along with them, people desperate enough to turn to these once-beloved companions as a source of food.
According to USA Today:
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.
Pet food is one of the staples in short supply in a country that imports about 70% of its food. … 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.
[…]
“If people themselves don’t have enough to eat, what are they going to do with their pets?” [Angela Exposito, who heads Fundanimalia, a non-profit animal rescue organization] 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.
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