Well it certainly is a dog's paradise here in Corrientes. There are dozens of wild and freely roaming dogs around here. Some of them do not get fed at home. Some of them do not have a home.
What this means, is that these dogs go hunting for food and the best place that they have found it is hidden inside the bags of rubbish that we throw out each day.
Restoring order after the chaos.
A Known Solution
This is a known problem throughout most of Argentina from what I have observed, and so to stop the dogs from getting to the rubbish there are special baskets, lifted up off the ground. Some of these baskets are more effective than others. Some of them are also much better constructed. Some also are new.
Broken Stronghold
Our basket is none of the above. An old wooden structure with tin wrapped around the side of it provides no true deterrent to the hungry dogs. It surely does not prevent their access.
We have two baskets actually. One is located inside our premises, while the other is out by the road. Neither are very effective. It is to this one by the road that we carry all of the rubbish every morning just before the pickup time.
Why Me
Every week the duty for rubbish changes. Three different people look after the base and buildings each weekend, and they then cart out the rubbish for the weekdays that follow. This week it was my turn. Shared with two others of course.
Search and Destroy
Now I have not known any of my rubbish shifts where the dogs have not won the fight. These hungry fellows come in and climb the basket enough to pull out a bag or two. Then they tear into the bag and unleash its contents in search of something edible. If left uninterrupted they can destroy every bag in the pile in this fashion.
Once food is found, or if interrupted in their process, these dogs nonchalantly stride away from their newly created chaos and begin their search for another easily accessible basket.
Open Invitation
I suspect our basket has gained quite a reputation around the neighbourhood now, as the nightly raids are becoming more frequent. We really need to put a new basket system into place soon, or we may end up becoming the feed lot for all of the local dogs.
For now though, we just clean it all up by hand each time. And for now, it is a dog's paradise.