Last Thursday, five dogs were captured in the tourist resort known as Montañita (St. Helena), three have already been claimed, but two more await their owners at the premises of the Municipal Sanitation Company (Emasa), explained his manager, Andres Aguilar.
The alleged control of sanitation caused a stir in the social network Twitter after several people uploaded photos of the captured dogs on a network, while being removed from the beach. Animal rights groups and activists denounced an alleged slaughter of dogs in the streets of the resort, measure taken to keep the streets ‘clean’ in the tourist town during the next World Cup of Surfing, on April 6.
Aguilar denied that the dogs were killed and said it was a joint operation between the Police and Ministry of Health, by an order of the president of the commune, Javier Gonzalez, to catch stray dogs wandering on the beach.
Last Thursday was when they took two dogs that were considered a strategic site in Santa Elena, but immediately, Aguilar said, they were returned.
Gonzalez said the animals were abandoned in a dumpster called Devil’s Nose, located near the commune Palmar, while Aguilar reiterated that the dogs were not taken to dumpster but rather to the Emasa facility, Santa Elena and two of wait to be claimed by their owners or a foundation.
The controversy arose in the social networks, mainly Twitter for a photo of stray dogs being captured, who came to the founding members of Animal Rescue.
Meanwhile Alexi Guevara, Ecuador Animal Protection Coordinator, rejected the way the operation was conducted “We were told (the dogs) were abandoned in the Devil’s Nose, but they were not there, this is a terrible mystery, we do not know where they actually are,” said the activist.
