Dogs take over town as authorities bid to wipe out 4,500 pack after attacks

14 January 2024 , 07:19

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Daniela Gamboa was killed by a pack of dogs

A woman has been killed in a series of attacks by feral dogs in a city with authorities bidding to cull 4,500 of the animals.

The municipality of San Pedro de Atacama, in Chile, is seeking permission from the courts to cull dogs that are found without owners or anyone looking after them with the animals said to have taken over the city.

Tourist guide Daniela Gamboa, 28, was found dead from dog bites after last being seen cycling and talking to her mother on her phone, while a three-year-old boy had his ear badly bitten. And a Brazilian tourist is currently in hospital after being severely injured in an attack last week.

The municipality claims that there are around 4,500 dogs roaming freely without an owner in the city of 5,000 people and with people allegedly living in fear, they are trying to get permission for a cull.

“This proposal was presented to the regional body of the ministry of health because it is the one who has the capabilities to euthanise these animals,” reportedly said Alejandra Tereucan, a local official. “I want it to be known that the regional body has always followed the needs and demands of this municipality which is appreciated but for the animals to be put down certain conditions have to be met and among them the animals have to be affected by rabies.”

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There are around 4,500 stray dogs in the city

And the regional body of the ministry of health has said that it is not within their powers to put down abandoned dogs. A spokeswoman Fabiola Rivas said: “We don’t have in our powers to control stray dogs, we are only able to deal with dogs that have rabies and show symptoms.”

There were four dogs that were put down on January 5 but they were not related to the attack on the Brazilian tourist and this was because all had been found to have rabies symptoms, reported infobae.com.

A bid is to kill the stray dogs following Daniela's death

Ms Gamboa was a tourist guide who died last October with her father Pedro Alamiro Gamboa first reporting her missing. He said that she had been talking on the phone for around 30 minutes before she started to scream because she was being attacked by dogs, and then the line went dead.

He wrote at the time on Facebook: “My daughter Daniela Gamboa is lost in San Pedro de Atacama. Yesterday at 8pm she talked with my wife on the phone while she left her house in San Pedro to go shopping and they talked for 30 minutes. Then she suddenly starts screaming and says she's being attacked by dogs, calls for help and hangs up. Since then we haven't heard anything about her, we contacted her friends from St Pedro who are searching non-stop along with the police.” Tragically he later wrote: "Update. Thanks for your help and support. They found our Dani dead, I don't have any words."

Tim Hanlon