Growing Number of Businesses Sell Pets

Growing Number of Businesses Sell Pets / Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada
Translator: Unstated, Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada

Aumentan los Negocios para la Venta de Animales Afectivos (1)Aumentan
los Negocios para la Venta de Animales Afectivos (2)Aumentan los
Negocios para la Venta de Animales Afectivos (3)Aumentan los Negocios
para la Venta de Animales Afectivos (4)Selling pets is one of the
businesses that has been growing over the last months in Havana, the
capital city.

Countless people walk around with mutts in hand along the streets and
avenues, looking for purchasers for their merchandise. Others put ads in
on their doors or attach signs to bus stops or crowded places, some use
the well-known digital page Revolico to let people know their news.
Those who go into business selling these animals, according to those in
the know, do it legally.

Someone told me that lately in Havana's Chinatown, and in Obispbo
Street, this type of trading is undertaken by the self-employed. The
pictures were taken this Sunday and they attest to the fact that these
private businesses, according to their owners, are profitable.

One of the dealers told me that prices vary greatly in the case of dogs
and birds, and that the animals marketed are pedigree and in the case of
the birds that is supported by the association. When asked about the
most sold breeds he told me, "Listen, here we sell a lot of Chihuahuas,
Pekingese, Labradors, Dalmatians, and dogs for protection."

The dealer didn't state his name but explained that in Cuba is not only
the sale of dogs and birds that is going very well, but guinea pigs, lab
mice, and one of the most requested birds is the parrot, but that's not
the market that can be commercialized, he said.

One of the people observing near the animals' cages, on hearing me ask
the seller, said, "It's good that the animals are traded, but look, the
same traders don't treat these little animals well, they don't have
water," she said, referring to the fact that they had no water at that
moment, "and that's nothing," the lady continued. "Many of the people
who buy them don't know how to take care of them and in many cases they
over or underfeed them, and in the worst of cases they throw them out in
the street where later you find these little pets with fleas and ticks,"
she concluded.

Havana now exhibits a new business that according to the traders
themselves, even after the boom, is not being exploited as it should be.

October 1 2012

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