Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Bolshoi in Russia: Stray dogs in Moscow's metro
Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means "Big" in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.
Just as I was wondering why there are so many stray dogs everywhere in Moscow (including the subway), this Wall Street Journal article came to my rescue. Moscow estimates the population of stray dogs at about 26,000.
Apparently, "in Soviet times, dogs were barred from Moscow's metro. Today, however, they are so common there -- curling up on empty seats, nuzzling their neighbors, lounging in stations -- that there is even a Web site devoted to them: www.metrodog.ru." (Couldn't have said it better myself.)
I just got back from subway trip in which there was a dog literally queuing at the train door on the platform, just like everyone else. The weird thing is, these dogs actually look like they know where they're going. They seem to wait for "their" stop to come up. Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but...
According to the article's sources (including a zoologist), the main reason for the exploding dog population is the ease of getting food nowadays. "One of their chief tactics, made possible by their increasing comfort in crowds, is simply to lie in a busy subway passage, where thousands of people pass by, and wait for someone to toss them something." And, just as Muscovites toss (and I mean literally toss) food or money at homeless people (and I mean AT them), they toss some at dogs, as well. Egalitarian society at its best.
From Russia, with love.
Filed under: Europe, Russian Federation
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Artem May 25th 2008 2:28PM
Iva, those dogs- they do know where they're going. There have been several studies conducted in Russia, and the researchers actually found out that the stray dogs in Moscow have evolved dramatically over the past 10 years. They listen to the announcements and/or they count stations, and that's how they know where to get off. They do it to gather food more efficiently - having the entire city before your claws beats one lonely junkyard!
Craig May 23rd 2008 12:09PM
The question isn't whether they know what they're doing, but why. Why did they learned this and where are they going? What are they trying to accomplish?
Do they share certain high-food-density stations as a community by taking shifts? (Too many dogs all at once could prompt a sweeping-up by the authorities.) Do they grind out a 9-5 in one station, then hitch a ride back to the suburbs to relax for the evening at their home station? Are their vacation stations? 100 stations to see before you die?