Although they are not usually mentioned in history books, animals were also protagonists of the Civil War. Throughout the conflict, many dogs lost their masters and ended up gathering in feral packs in search of food. It was not an innocuous behavior, because those dogs, in their desperation, could unearth human corpses.
Given the magnitude of the problem, decisive measures had to be taken. At that time, it was strictly forbidden for a private individual to pick them up and take care of them. Authorities on both sides wanted to prevent them from transmitting rabies and other diseases. If someone found one of them at the front, it was his obligation to shoot without hesitation.
Harold Cardozo, a correspondent for the Daily Mail, showed a special sensitivity towards the dogs that swarmed around Madrid: “There were two little dogs there. One was black, very small, old and scared, coming out of her hiding place for some food. The other, a clumsy-legged yellow puppy, was a victim of war, as a fragment of a projectile had hit her head, leaving her blind in one eye. Both animals were confined in the basement, where they were given water and food so that they could survive when the owners were not at home.
Dogs suffered, just like human beings, from scarcity. But perhaps the biggest shock for them was emotional, to be separated from their masters. The Crónica magazine, in an article dated February 7, 1937, referred to the sadness of those poor creatures: “There are those who believe that now the dogs are starving; but the truth is that they are dying of grief”.
At the beginning of that same year, the mayor of Gijón informed the anarchist press of the work that had been carried out to control rabies. The danger, according to him, hardly existed, but even so he continued working for the eradication of the disease. The municipal agents had collected a total of 197 dogs. They had all been put to death “by the modern system of electrocution.”
In Menorca, at that time, the problem was the damage that abandoned dogs caused to flocks of sheep. To solve the matter, the special delegate of the Government of the Republic established that all those who were on the loose, day or night, through the countryside or the city, without a muzzle to guarantee that they did not constitute any threat, would be executed.
If its owners were found, they would have to pay, in forty-eight hours, a fine of two hundred pesetas, an amount that at that time was not a small amount of money. If it was found that the animals had caused any harm to the sheep, compensation should also be paid to their owners.
Circumstances were even worse in Torrelavega, near Santander, where the dogs had bitten people and it was suspected that they might have infected them with rabies. For this reason, the mayor’s office ordered that everyone be properly tied up in the homes of their masters. To be allowed in a public place, they had to wear a muzzle and be accompanied by their owners. If one of them was alone, he would be considered ipso facto abandoned and he would be sacrificed.
Meanwhile, on the Franco side, the situation was exactly the same. In August 1937, the mayor of Mallorca warned the residents that he would unceremoniously tackle this threat to public health. According to a story published in a provincial newspaper: “The Mayor, in view of the fact that despite his energetic campaign against abandoned dogs, they continue to swarm the streets without proper conditions, to the painful point that there are currently four children subjected to to treatment for having been bitten by these animals, warns that he is willing for this state of affairs to cease, having given severe orders.
The journalistic text informs us of some important things. The Mallorcan municipality took measures, but the people paid little attention. Hence, we had to insist on the same thing. On the other hand, the mayor’s office was willing to be rigorous with offenders. A high fine would fall on these: five hundred pesetas.
On other occasions, stray dogs, instead of being a nuisance or a danger, provided help. In Sant Adrià de Besòs (Barcelona) there was one that responded to the name of Trotsky, after the Soviet revolutionary who was at odds with Stalin. The mutt wore a red and black scarf, the symbol of the CNT, the anarchist union. Every time the Italian planes approached, the animal began to bark and run around. People knew then that they had to go to the shelter without delay and get to safety.
In 1938, a Madrid woman from Cuatro Caminos, Patricia Álvarez Diéguez, was sentenced for selling dog meat as if it were lamb. Her case shows that animals were also victims of the war and she used them as a last resort at a time when survival was the highest priority. However, the history of this facet of the Civil War is yet to be written.
