Santiago’s metropolitan park in Chile is one of the largest in the world, covering some 722 hectares. It incorporates a cable car, pools, a children’s park, a botanical garden, a funicular railway and a national zoo that has thousands of animals representing 158 species.
An attraction this size will need an efficient, low cost refuse collection system that not only does the job efficiently but has that special quality that is required to educate the public.
Well, this park has a rather unique refuse collector. His name is Sam, and he enjoys working unpaid with his best friend Gonzalo. They regularly collect the garbage left behind by visitors to the park. To give an idea of the scale of the problem, in April 2022 alone, the pair of them collected 585 bottles, 602 masks and 304 cans, in addition to hats, clothing, food wrappers and assorted rubbish left behind by the thoughtless visitors. Just in case there is any confusion, Sam is the border collie, and Gonzalo is his owner!!
The park officials were so impressed by Sam’s commitment that they decided to use his image to educate visitors about the “Park Care Campaign.” This entailed an illustrator called Catalina Aravena creating a comic-style character. We have heard of superheroes like Superman, Batman, and even Aquaman, and how many of you are old enough to remember Plastic Man? (I’m not sure we missed much!)
Well, these illustrious Superheroes are now joined by:
Sam: The Parquemet Superhero.
The job of the superhero is to direct people to the 40 recycling points across the park.
Admittedly, Sam doesn’t rescue damsels in distress or save the world from villainess desperado, but his contribution to saving the environment surely has to be on a par with the exploits of previous superheroes.
The unexpected result was that schools and social media caught up in giving publicity to the campaign.
And it all began because a man with a social conscience and his dog collected rubbish.
Whilst we are in Chile, how about this for repairing damage to the environment caused by fire? Following devastating fires that ravaged many of the forests, a very unusual way was found to help regenerate these wooded areas. Í Summer and Olivia are border collies used by their owner, Francisca Torres, and her sister Constanza, to regenerate the forests.
The idea, whilst not revolutionary, is certainly quite novel and makes use of the border collie’s boundless energy. The dogs are fitted with a backpack containing native seeds. The dogs wander, run, and play through the devastated terrain, dropping seeds as they go. The hairy hounds typically cover about 18 miles a day, distributing some 20 lbs of seeds.
The results are phenomenal: fauna and floral return rapidly, and three border collies get plenty of exercise. I suppose that one has to ask why nobody thought of this before; it’s so simple and positively genius.
The term hero is a much-misused word. A footballer who converts a penalty is called a hero. Compare this to the actions of this man.
Sebastian Arias, a homeless Columbian man, is walking through La Victoria, Lima when he sees that a fire that started in a recycling plant has spread to a building that was a stray dog shelter. Most of the animals had been rescued, but some were out of reach and were in imminent danger of being burnt alive. Without hesitation, Sebastian Arias overcame his fear of heights, climbed up the facade of the building, cheered on by the watching crowd, broke windows and rescued the remaining dogs.
If that was not enough, a pup was stranded on the roof. Determined that the pup should not suffer a hideous fate, Sebastian climbed onto the roof where he was able to grab the puppy, getting bitten in the process by the terrified animal, and managed to drop it down to the crowd below who were waiting with a mattress thus ensuring a soft landing The puppy already had minor burns and was rescued in the nick of time. The lady who ran the shelter was out shopping at the time and appealed for homes for the pups.
At least one of the dogs, a pup named Lulu, was adopted by Ruben Cano, the local Mayor. It was later reported that Sebastian Arias was not only homeless at the time but was searching for his missing wife, who had recently attempted suicide. Sadly I have been unable to discover if Sebastian found his wife or found a permanent home but if anyone deserved a break it was Sebastian Arias.
“Dogs are as necessary for the welfare of the country as Wall Street and the railroads.”
Harry S Truman.
President of the United States of America.
1945-1953
With subtitle or not?