In Moscow, it is not uncommon to find a stray dog riding your subway train, and even taking up a seat or two.
It is actually so common that people don’t even find it strange anymore.
Moscow is home to approximately 35,000 stray dogs and they can be found everywhere from markets and construction sites looking for food and trying to survive. They have adapted to city life and they commute like regular people knowing exactly which stations to get in and out.
It’s pretty heartbreaking that this is what the strays need to do to survive, but at least they are being proactive. Dr. Andrei Poyarkov is a Biologist in Moscow and has been studying stray dogs there for the past 30 years. He says:
“There are all sorts of stray dogs, but no stupid dogs. The street is tough and it’s survival of the fittest. These clever dogs know people much better than people know them.”
Usually, the dogs will know the best spots in the train station where people will feed them food, and packs have even learned to send out the smaller, cuter dogs to beg for food because they’ve figured out bigger and less attractive dogs aren’t as successful.
Zoologist Alexei Vereshchagin, who is Dr. Poyarkov’s graduate student says Moscow’s strays have also been observed obeying traffic lights and doing the bark-and-grab. The bark-and-grab is when a dog will jump up behind a person in an attempt to scare them so they can drop their food on the ground.
The amount of strays in Moscow is an ever-growing problem however, and Vereshchagin continues, “It’s not really easy to completely move the dogs out of the streets,” he says. “I guess we just have to… learn how to live with them.”
Below is an incredible video of ABC’s news coverage of the subway dogs in Moscow. Please watch it and SHARE it with your friends and family on Facebook!
[Featured Image Credit: englishrussia.com]