At the gates of the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, a network of volunteers from the NGO Mundo Patitas has been rescuing 'pilgrim dogs' abandoned in poor conditions for eighteen years during the festivities for the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The scene repeats year after year: millions of pilgrims flock to the Basilica of Guadalupe every December 12th to honor the patroness of the Mexican capital, while dozens of dogs that accompanied the pilgrimage are left behind – nearly 300 last year, according to several reports – in the vicinity of the religious temple. To give them a second chance, Mundo Patitas volunteers, under the watchful eye of the 'Brown Virgin', patrol the streets in search of these canines that 'need to be urgently removed from there', many of them in a 'worrying' physical condition, even with episodes of dehydration, Norma Huerta, director of the animalist NGO, told EFE. 'We try to help as many as we can (…) to try to sterilize them, vaccinate them, and find them a home,' she summarized. Just last year, they rescued about 170 specimens, several of which ended up in their shelter in Huehuetoca, in the central State of Mexico, awaiting a permanent place to start a new and better life. According to Huerta, most of them arrive 'exhausted, are asleep all the time, and it is only at night when it is quieter that we can take them'. They have even seen cases where the animal 'could not even move', so they have a kind of cart that serves as an ambulance for the most extreme cases. 'All animals deserve a dignified life' One of the dogs rescued this year has found refuge in the home of Mexican Rebeca Moreno, who decided to take it in to give it a 'dignified life' after seeing it lying abandoned on the cold floor of the Basilica of Guadalupe. Before taking it home, Moreno told EFE that all animals 'deserve to have a new life', so she encouraged the public to, as much as possible, provide help and assistance to these pilgrim dogs. 'We must be the voice for those who do not have one, because they cannot speak to ask for help (…) I would like all people who see a stray animal, even if they cannot take it in, to give it something to eat,' she affirmed. Mundo Patitas volunteers fear that without their work, the fate awaiting these animals is 'sacrifice', a circumstance in which they denounce a 'lack of transparency' on the part of the authorities. Even so, its director applauded that this year the Mexican authorities have 'involved' themselves in their cause, and in the capital's mayor's office where the temple is located, Gustavo A. Madero, 'something is being done' with the animals that are stranded there. According to data from the Congress of the Mexican capital, around 500,000 animals are abandoned each year, while in the entire country the figure rises to 30 million specimens.
