Political Animals: Why Some Stray Dogs Have Joined the Greek Riots

    • Gold Top Dog

    Political Animals: Why Some Stray Dogs Have Joined the Greek Riots

    This is an interesting phenomenon: some of Athens' stray dogs have been showing up at the demonstrations and riots, seemingly taking sides with the protesters. Why do they do this?

    Political Animals: Why Some Stray Dogs Have Joined the Greek Riots

    LCK


    • Gold Top Dog

     Are you serious? As far as I know dogs don't choose sides. Its probably unintentional.

    • Gold Top Dog

    I live in an area where there are a lot of Greek people, and I'm told that dogs are not treated very well in Greece, especially the stray dogs.  Possibly, the people who are protesting are not inclined to be nasty to the dogs, and have body language that communicates that, hence the dogs' affiliative behavior with them.  Another possibility is that the dogs have learned to recognize certain uniforms, or body postures, from others that suggest a threat.  They might, under those circumstances, respond protectively toward people or other animals that they feel are part of their social circle from those perceived threats, or use distance increasing signals to put space between their group and the perceived threat.  Food for thought anyway.

    • Moderators
    • Gold Top Dog

     They are probably just feeding off the excitement.

    • Gold Top Dog

     When I was in Mexico there was a rabies outbreak. These rabid foxes kept turning up at remote camps. They'd hang around for a few days, then go off and die. Aside from the fact that rabies messes an animal up pretty bad and they are acting extremely weirdly, why did they keep turning up at the camps when most of the time you wouldn't see one? Seemed like it was more than just chance. Something about human activity attracted rabid foxes. Perhaps the noise and activity of riots attracts street dogs the same way?