Well, I hope I am not verbally attacked for adding my two cents worth, but I do have a comment:
leap of faith writes:
"The health and welfare of people must take precedence over dogs in a country where real poverty remains."
Yes, I agree with this,
if we are talking only about dogs and not about nature/animals/ecology as a whole. Because, ultimately, I believe
the health and welfare of people is interrelated with the land, nature and animals and cannot be separated. ESPECIALLY in a country "where real poverty remains" and people are very much sustaining their lives and families on farming, fishing, and natural resources as in much of Indonesia. The fact is, when those resources are depleted, the people and their families suffer a great deal...there is hunger, malnutrition, preventable illness and death, the basic needs for survival are depleted and so is the chance for quality and sustained life.
Here are just a few examples to illustrate what I mean, all true stories from people I know in Bali:
A young girl is removed from school by her family because they need her to gather food and water for the family cow during the day instead: the trees with leaves the cow can eat are fewer, meaning longer walks away, the spring with potable water is also a long walk outside of the village, and the family needs this cow, being their only economic commodity...so the cow's immediate welfare takes precedence over the child's need for an education. Of course, the family regrets having to make this decision. If they lived where the trees were abundant, the water was clean and accessible, the resoures to sustain the cow would not be a decision-breaker that ultimately affects the rest of the child's life.
My friend Wayan is the first born son. Well, actually no, he wasn't: the first 3 children born to his parents before him all died in infancy from dysentery - a preventable condition caused by bacteria or parasite in the water. Had the family had access to clean, drinkable water, these children probably would have lived. Wayan himself was exceptionally strong as a child, and so was able to survive dysentery and malaria and still be alive, where his siblings were not so lucky.
With increased tourism and access to a different economy, a family sells their rice field to buy a car. The car is transport for tourists and the main source of family income. Now the tourist economy has waned, there is no use for the car, and the family no longer has a rice field. The car sits empty of costly petrol and dormant in their village, where does the family get the money to buy rice now? (answer: anyway/anywhere they can)
I could go on with endless examples of how people's welfare are absolutely intertwined with ecological and animal welfare. The reasons why people poach, cut down rainforest, smuggle rare species, etc. is economic. The sad thing is these solutions are short-term, and ultimately will no longer sustain the family, but would have already done permanent ecological damage.
So, yes, an alternative to a black/white, right/wrong debate in this string is, I think, a conversation about how to combine two subjects - the welfare of people AND the welfare of nature/land/animals/ecology. There are, indeed, alternate solutions that can sustain and be good for the welfare of all.
This is precisely the reason why successful conservation efforts, like those run by FNPF in Borneo and Bali, consider the community, village, and people first. They do not make a separate distinction between all living things.
Sadly, it is a fact that open hearts are sometimes more open (i.e. charitable) to animals and not equally as charitable to people. FNPF approached me for this precise reason: "I can get money for the animals," the director tells me, "But nobody wants to give us money to help the people or the children...what to do?" I said, "Ok, I will work on raising money only for the children. You stick to what you know, and I'll stick to what I know, and together we can have a wholistic approach."
And, I may add, this is not because I want my birkenstock-wearing, wild-rice and lentil eating friends to adore me
but rather, because it is the right thing to do, for everyone.