Spend any time on the streets of Mexico, and you will eventually see them. Mexico’s hairless brown or red-skinned dogs — the Xoloitzcuintle (pronounced sholo-squint-lay).

Love them or hate them, they’ve played a long-term part in Mexico’s history, according to Gabriel Mestre, who is a small-scale Xoloitzcuintle breeder and author of a number of books on the subject. He says this breed of dog can be traced back at least 2,800 years in Mexico, and that some Mexicans believed that the animals had curative powers.

Not all Xoloitzcuintle dogs are bald, and litters yield hairy and hairless pups. But it’s the hairless dogs that tend to attract more attention, Mestre says.

He sells most of his dogs and puppies to other breeders in Europe, and says the reactions he gets when he takes his dogs out onto the streets here in Mexico City are mixed. Some people compliment him, others shy away. Mestre’s client base does suggest that the unusual looking animals are an acquired taste and are more popular with foreign than domestic breeders.

But that doesn’t stop him from showing them off, and he’s a regular at national and international dog shows around the world. We went along with him and one of his dogs, 8-month-old Aztlan, to a recent show here in Mexico City.

Watch the video for more.

– Deborah Bonello in Mexico City for the Los Angeles Times

Video: Mexico’s hairless Xoloitzcuintle in competition. Credit: Deborah Bonello

Young animal rights activists took to the streets in central Mexico City on Sunday, chanting “Corridas de toros — vergüenza nacional (bullfights — a national shame).” They were protesting the hundreds of bullfights that take place here in Mexico.

The march was attended by about 800 people, most of them in their late teens or early 20s. It began at the Hundido Park on Avenida Insurgentes at midday, a few blocks from the Plaza de Toros Mexico, the biggest bullfighting venue in the country and one of the largest in the world with capacity to seat 48,000 people.

The protesters walked just a few blocks north, taking up a lane of traffic. Many of the motorists driving by honked in support.

Mariana Hernandez, a 20-year-old biology student clutching a sign that said “Ya Basta! (Enough, already)” said, “The bulls that they kill are living things. They shouldn’t kill them for fun.”

“The more of us that are here, the better,” said Manual Hernandez, 19, another protester. “This is the second year that I’ve come here and there are more of us every time.”

Many of the activists that we spoke to mentioned 11-year-old apprentice matador Michel “Michelito” Lagravere, who in January killed six calves in the bullring in Merida, southern Mexico.

“It’s such a cruel act and that a child of this age is promoting this type of activity and being treated like a hero is really bad. He killed six calves — in reality, that’s six children,” said 28-year-old Israel Arriola, another activist taking part in the march.

The protest was organized to coincide with the 63rd anniversary of the Plaza this week. Bullfighting was brought to Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s and nowhere is it more popular outside of Spain than in Mexico.

Claudia Ortega, 25, a coordinator at Animanaturalis.org, one of the organizations behind the march, said a survey conducted by the nonprofit group found that 75% of Mexicans are against bullfighting, but that very few act on their views.

“Each year, 250,000 bulls or horses die in bullfighting or related activities” worldwide, she said. Ortega expressed hope that protests such as Sunday’s might encourage more Mexicans to speak out.

Click here for more bullfighting coverage from 2008.

– This post was created for La Plaza.

See photos here on Flickr.

Still on the doggy theme of last week, a documentary screening in Mexico City over the weekend focused on how Mexico deals with the thousands of stray dogs roaming its streets. And no, it did not paint a pretty picture.

La Cineteca Nacional, the city’s most important venue for art and international cinema, played host to the Saturday-night screening of “Companions to None (Companeros de Nadie),” the first full-length documentary from Dallas-based director Bill Buchanan.

The hourlong film is an unflinching commentary on the overpopulation of stray dogs in Mexico, who even outnumber us humans in some regions. Macho culture, argues Buchanan, goes some way to explaining why Mexicans are so reluctant to sterilize their male dogs. There is a common belief in Mexico, according to his narrative, that sterilizing a male dog will make the dog “gay.”

Without a doubt, the most impressive thing about the film, shot on digital video, is the access Buchanan gets for his lens. In a series of gruesome shots that even the most hardhearted will find difficult to watch, Buchanan’s camera captures the method used to rid the streets of the thousands of unwanted stray dogs in Mexico -– electrocution.

“That took a year to get permission for,” he said in a telephone interview this week.

He also documents a training class in which vets are instructed on how to carry out a more “humane” form of euthanasia via injection, the footage of which is simply heartbreaking.

Although “Companions to None” leaves little doubt about the brutality to which stray dogs are exposed  on the rough streets of Mexico, Buchanan is realistic in his approach to the issue in a country where poverty and human suffering are rife. He wisely tackles the theme as one that affects, as well as reflects on, Mexicans, arguing that control over the dog population in Mexico is a public health issue, as well as a moral one — an argument that is very compelling.

But problems securing a wide distribution for the film may obstruct the diffusion of what is an important message. Buchanan said American networks such as Animal Planet, Discovery and HBO passed on broadcasting the documentary and that a deal with TV Azteca –- one of Mexico’s two main commercial broadcasters –- fell through.

Appearance on the other main TV network, Televisa, is possible, but it would depend on Buchanan and his team finding a sponsor first, which they haven’t yet. They have, however, signed a deal with LAPTV (Latin American Pay TV), a network that is a joint venture by Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures,  20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and DreamWorks.

Such caution from the commercial TV world is understandable. “Companions to None” makes for some hard watching, and it isn’t exactly “entertaining” programming. Likewise, the majority of cinemagoers are often seeking escapism, not a cold, hard slap in the face, so interest from commercial cinema networks in Mexico is likely to be low.

The film has, as least, been made and is easily accessible to those who want to see it. The worthwhile activism that these sorts of documentaries represent often amount to preaching to the converted. But whereas it may not provoke the “fundamental shift in attitudes” of Mexicans toward stray dogs that the filmmakers are hoping for, it does at least bring into the spotlight a sorry tale of suffering and abuse that is impossible to forget.

You can watch the trailer for the documentary at the website http://www.companionstonone.com.

This post was written for La Plaza.

Photo: Dr Meredith Silverstein holds a puppy that had just been euthanized via injection in Monterrey, Mexico. The animal quickly falls asleep, and then its internal organs fail. Credit: http://www.companionstonone.com.