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Comment by forgotusername6 | Hacker News Reader

It's worth noting that unlike other countries, you won't find stray dogs in the UK.

It's worth noting that unlike other countries, you won't find stray dogs in the UK.

I have lived in 5 different countries, and I have not noticed significant numbers of stray dogs in any of them (I am sure the number is technically non-zero, but I never saw them). I have visited many more countries, and I have only ever really seen stray dogs in Costa Rica. YMMV.

Stray dogs are a pretty common sight in Greek streets. Although what's truly wild is the number of stray cats, especially in the suburbs!

In Istanbul, uniquely for a Muslim country, stray dogs are tolerated and are “regulated” by the city government. One day I saw a huge pack stampeding down the road en mass. Turks seemingly have a penchant for owning giant dogs, too.

Turks breed kagals. Hearding dogs big enough to keep bears and wolves away.

Those are scary big dogs.

I thought this was universal (in Greece) until I moved in the city center of Athens. I now only see stray dogs as an exception, e.g. in tourist-heavy, central places. I genuinely have no idea if it's the state's responsibility.

Cats of course, are still everywhere.

> what's truly wild is the number of stray cats, especially in the suburbs!

The smell of a cat colony has to be smelt to be believed. It’s up there with the worst smells I’ve experienced.

That's an interesting triple entendre sentence build around "smelt", which is a past tense (archaic maybe?) of smell, often written smelled, and a smelt is a little silver fish, so quite stinky, and smelt is liquid metal.

That's a rare sentence that pretty much works all three ways.

Yikes. It was 3am and I was sleepless. Smelt rather than smelled… poor.

In Brooklyn a couple of decades ago (1990s/2000s), I saw a very large pack of dogs roaming one of its business districts (I cannot remember where…)

It was 3:00 AM so there was no human activity, and seeing 20+ dogs 5 to 6 blocks running around even while in a car was unnerving.

around that time I was chased out of the gownus area while looking at buildings by stray dogs. I lived next to the Wiliiamsburg bridge and there were strays in that neighborhood. I think they liked the industrial area lots space not many people.

Central and South America had a ton of stray dogs when I was there, and I hear they are very common in India too - they are probably common in much of the developing world. Like you, I don't recall seeing many of them in Europe at all. Lots of stray cats in Turkey and Greece, as I recall.

On the other hand we have a ton of foxes in and around London. Gorgeous creatures but quite a nuisance at times, like when they get into bins or making ungodly* noises at all all hours of the night.

* I originally misspelled this "undogly", which also works, I guess.

Now here is a person who can answer that timeless koan: "What does the fox say?"

I’ve never seen stray dogs in the US while living here and I haven’t seen stray dogs in the 6-7 Western and Southern European countries I’ve traveled to.

I don’t think there’s anything remarkable about no stray dogs in the UK. Further, since dogs don’t breed as rapidly as other stray animals (especially cats) and also have far shorter lifespans, there are far easier and far more humane ways and of eliminating stray dogs without mass killing them.

There's definitely stray dogs in the US. It probably varies a bit by location though. I've not seen any in an urban area but plenty of rural areas have them running around, sometimes in packs.

We also came across them from time to time in Afghanistan.

Are they actually stray, or just allowed to run loose?

Friends of mine have a farm in central VA. There is a pack of dogs that crosses their property, but they aren't truly stray - one of the neighbors "owns" them (I use "owns" loosely, as they aren't kept as house pets in the normal suburban sense of the word).

There are most definitely stray dogs in the US. But the US is very big and varied in climate, terrain, and population density.

I'm in the suburbs and a stray dog would be caught and taken to a shelter. There are some coyotes, though.

I have memory of the definition of a stray dog being one unaccompanied by its owner, at least in the UK, in the legislation that introduced dog licenses.

That requirement for a licence but not the actual legislation was withdrawn meaning that definition of a stray I just gave will be the law if I recall correctly.

After the passing of a amendment to remove the mandatory dog licence then began this present era of human killing violent and uncontrollable breeds that kills innocents in the UK on a daily basis.

I want to see this definition enforced to control professional untrained and incapable in any case dog walkers who parade with entirely patently pack behaviour animated hounds around our streets and parks.

Besides fouling our byways and recreation grounds on a industrial scale concomitant with the damage to human health that entails, this is unlawful menacing of the public and private unlicensed enterprise founded on the breach of the law and hence must be eradicated.

To my horror I'm recently seeing pirate dog walkers inside the old City of London aka the square mile our beautiful and peaceful financial district where you will stay for weeks without ever seeing a law enforcement officer because we don't need them to intervene in anything because civilian life carries on peacefully regardless just as I well remember it always did almost everywhere just a few decades ago.

I can't remember seeing stray dogs in France. People usually call animal control pretty fast if a dog looks lost.

> I can't remember seeing stray dogs in France

There are barely even any pet dogs in France

Then who is leaving all the faeces on the streets of Paris?

Americans.

Unfortunately, this is not an unreasonable determination.

Additionally, the public restroom procedure in Paris is hyper-alien to anyone from a major US city. I imagine there are a lot of very ignorant 20-something US kids dropping nuggets at night in shrubs out of sheer necessity.

Imagine a normal, closeted US kid, doing a weekend or Semester abroad in France. They go to a friendly looking Irish expat pub, put down a pint or two, head to the loo, and just see A HOLE IN THE FLOOR.

If I was that sheltered child, I'd poop in the shrubs too.

There are about 7 million dogs in France, about 1 dog every 10 humans.

https://fr.statista.com/statistiques/1014881/population-chie...

What a weird idea! Can I ask where you got it from ?

How is such a miracle achieved? Dogs never escape or are abandoned in the countryside?

They are abandoned, judging by the “a dog is not just for Christmas” ads. I think it’s the well funded charities like Battersea Cats and Dogs Home, who can collect them, and a reasonably strong culture for looking for a dog at these shelters before a breeder.

Another effective method is high rates of neutering for pets. There are geographically segregated areas in the UK that can somewhat confidently say they have no strays.

It can take a while to catch a stray, plenty long enough for them to successfully breed, which just multiplies the problem!

People neuter/spay pets

People will NOT feed strays

People will adopt strays

Local councils (municipalities) collect them and there are a lot of shelters

(there is zero rabies here which helps a lot as strays are not inherently dangerous)

There’s no rabies in any animal that’s likely to run up and bite you. A variant of rabies is still present in bats in the UK.

Such dogs almost always die. I think the frequency of strays may be related to how easy it is for a former pet to survive, and it's presumably harder in colder countries.

It's not a miracle. It's just that they are pretty much immediately reported and captured by the likes of the RSCPA or local councils.

I am sure in the 20th century and before you would

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