I’m not sure if this is true, but it’s an interesting story.
STRAY dogs are commuting to and from a city center on underground trains in search of food scraps.
The clever canines board the Tube each morning. After a hard day scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night.
Experts studying the dogs say they even work together to make sure they get off at the right stop after learning to judge the length of time they need to spend on the train.
The dogs choose the quietest carriages at the front and back of the train. They have also developed tactics to hustle humans into giving them more food on the streets of Moscow.
Scientists believe the phenomenon began after the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, and Russia’s new capitalists moved industrial complexes from the city center to the suburbs. Dr. Andrei Poiarkov, of the Moscow Ecology and Evolution Institute, said: These complexes were used by homeless dogs as shelters, so the dogs had to move together with their houses.
Because the best scavenging for food is in the city center, the dogs had to learn how to travel on the subway to get to the center in the morning, then back home in the evening, just like people.
Dr. Poiarkov told how the dogs like to play during their daily commute. He said: They jump on the train seconds before the doors shut, risking their tails getting jammed. They do it for fun. And sometimes they fall asleep and get off at the wrong stop.
The dogs have learned to use traffic lights to cross the road safely, said Dr. Poiarkov. And they use cunning tactics to obtain tasty morsels of shawarma, a kebab-like snack popular in Moscow. They sneak up behind people eating shawarmas then bark loudly to shock them into dropping their food.
With children, the dogs play cute by putting their heads on youngsters’ knees and staring pleadingly into their eyes to win sympathy and scraps. Dr. Poiarkov added: Dogs are surprisingly good psychologists.
The Moscow mutts are not the first animals to use public transport. In 2006 a Jack Russell in Dunnington, North Yorks, began taking the bus to his local pub in search of sausages. And two years ago, passengers in Wolverhampton were stunned when a cat called Macavity started catching the 331 bus to a fish and chip shop.
Thanks Gene
Incredible, just goes to show how intelligent they really are, but these last few lines sound like something out of Monty Python…
The Moscow mutts are not the first animals to use public transport. In 2006 a Jack Russell in Dunnington, North Yorks, began taking the bus to his local pub in search of sausages. And two years ago, passengers in Wolverhampton were stunned when a cat called Macavity started catching the 331 bus to a fish and chip shop.
It doesn’t say how they PAID THEIR FARE.
I would believe it:
When I went to Maine to visit a friend, we took ferries to go island hopping. On intial embarkation, a dog came aboard, sans owner. I thought it was a joke, but the captain said the dog boards the same time everyday and gets off at the second island. He usually returns between 3 and 5 (ferries are on the hour), and heads home. I asked what he does on the island and the captain shrugged and said “none of my business”