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By Bradley Rehak - Guest Blogger studying in Quito, Ecuador
Animals have a much larger role here in Ecuador, especially in the cities, than they do in the States (their primary role in the States being to taste delicious and go well with steak and other forms of sauce). In Quito, for example, goats ride around in the back of pickup trucks. I'm not sure at all what purpose this serves. But in my rather upper middle class neighborhood, I've seen it twice (the trucks were packed!). I'm still waiting to ask where they are going. My only guess is to the goat races, of whose existence I have little reason to believe in. But seeing as there are donkey races (which I unfortunately showed up too late for; a picture of the burro campeon had to suffice), I see no reason for there not to be a high-stakes goat-racing circuit as well.
Horses are also important in Quito; they serve primarily to deter soccer fans (hinchas) from rioting before, during, or after the games. The first time I saw them was at a game between a team from Quito, Liga, and a team from Guayaquil, Barcelona. As I was getting out of the cab I noticed two policewomen on horseback chasing around an obviously drunk man who was swinging his team's jersey at the horses. I'm pretty sure that the jersey wasn't even for one of the teams playing.
Dogs are a deterrent to crime as well. Soccer games feature a line of ten or twenty huge German Shepherds that hang out in front of the stadiums. Also, any family that can't afford a guard for their house will either buy or find on the street a dog to do the job. Usually they are situated on the roof, which strikes me as rather humorous, having never seen a dog on a roof in the States. But here, when I hear barking, I instinctively look up, and am almost always right.
Dogs also serve to wake me up on my way to school, as I always pass a huge-sounding dog that is kept in a garage that always notices me before I remember about it, and thus commences barking in a menacingly heavy voice and slamming itself against the inside of the metal garage door, thus causing it to ring as if it were ready to fall off of its hinges. Just as the dogs, animals are nearly everywhere here, and one must take care to avoid being frightened, attacked, or run over.
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