Animal Shows

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I went to the dog show yesterday. They are still quite rare here. It was put on by Aquas Caliente, the famous dog race track here in Tijuana. It and all the other casinos are owned by Hank Rhon, the mayor of Tijuana. He is an animal lover. His office is filled with animals, parrots and monkeys, dogs, big cats. And at his race track he keeps enough animals to be called a private zoo. Lots of them are gifts and rescues. There are hundreds of sheds and stables and barns. But its not set up like a zoo, its all very casual and you have to explore around to discover all the types. I was noticing how just common chain link fence is used to keep in the lions and tigers, I thought it took more than that. My husband and the worker and I were walking between two rows of cats that seemed to be mostly sleeping. Then half way down we came to a cage where one leaped up and charged the fence and hit it with his paw. Suddenly the next cage four tigers crouched and acted like they were creeping up on my dog, staring at her. All three of us ran back down the narrow dirt path and far from those cats, terrified. But my dog was never scared, I suppose because its in her heritage to hunt jaguars. She got her championship papers this time around, next she will go for grand champion. I have always had strong feelings of revulsion for "beauty contests" and a heavy dislike of dog clubs until I moved to Mexico and learned to see another side of this part of the dog world. Not that I have changed my mind on the American version, I still compare it to Hitler and his master race. The fact is, breeding weaknesses into dogs in order to maintain certain looks is a crime against nature. And of course America has taken this love of dogs and wanting to maintain them and taken it to far, so far that it is a menace more than anything else. But here in Mexico, all this is brand new, this pride in a dog and realizing its worth. I support these shows in every way I can. It is a civilizing factor for a people to learn to respect animals. When a person can care about the suffering of an animal it makes them so much more aware of the suffering of mankind. It develops a side to a person that enables them to look beyond themselves. When I first moved here to this part of Mexico there was no dog food. Most dogs were just fed tortillas and scraps and left to fend for themselves. Now, over 25 years later all the markets sell dog food. Even the little ones in handfuls in a plastic sack. There use to be one vet only, he was very old fashion, now there is a dozen or more really good vets and a vet hospital. It makes a child different growing up being good to animals, instead of immune to their sufferings, or causing it. I think this is a really important thing and that is why I have always worked with people and their animals and am in that field now. Being in touch with animals opens the mind and leads to a better life. It has been very satisfactory seeing these improvements here.