Feria de Plaza Italia y Perritos!

Sunday, I went to the Feria in Plaza Italia with another FSD intern. It is supposedly the best feria in the city so, obviously, we had to check it out pronto.

There were all of the typical stands of mate cups, jewelry, and leather products as well as some live folk music and dancing.

what a sweet couple! they were dancing in their own world

My program director had told me that people sell puppies and kittens at the feria, so my friend and I went on the hunt for puppies! We didn't have to go too far...

line of people selling puppies and kittens
(same thing on the other side of the sidewalk)i'm in love!what a face!
(sorry, no pictures of kittens, they just don't do it for me)

I was very tempted to play with all of the puppies, but then my friend and I started thinking about where the puppies come from. One lady had a sign saying that her puppy had gotten its shots and vaccinations. Only 1 out of maybe 25! There are no animal shelters in Argentina - they simply do not exist. That leaves two options for the puppies: from a breeder or from the street.

In La Plata, there are muchissimo stray dogs. You will find a stray dog on almost every street in the city. On my street, there are 3 or 4 stray dogs that I see everyday. One of the dogs seems to live on the street, but I have seen him run into my neighbor's house. Some of the poorer families adopt dogs right off the street without taking them to a vet. Here's a picture of a dog (stray? owned? I don't know) in my neighborhood:

can you see him?

now?