Along with the summer holidays in France come news stories about abandoned dogs. Of course, this is not a purely French phenomenon, but it seems to have a certain ampleur in France because of the French adoration for dogs, which are allowed almost everywhere, and for their vacations, which are far longer than, say, American ones. It is quite normal for a French worker to have 55 vacation days a year, not counting weekends.
When the inconvenient dog meets the irresistible long vacation away from home, the owner's solution is all too often to abandon the dog somewhere in a forest or at a rest stop by the side of the road. The dog is "forgotten" or "lost" or it "wandered away." Sometimes people can really no longer afford to feed it, because of the economic crisis. July is a dangerous month to be an unwanted dog in France.
Last summer, 60,000 pets were abandoned in France. This year, the shelters are overflowing again.
