gh The present-day subway: a business trip for a four-footed passenger

Those, who travel by subway regularly, may very often see the four-footed passengers there. They are not the pocket dogs, which their masters and mistresses hide thoroughly in bags, but the ordinary non-pedigree dogs, which travel by subway quite independently. Moscow psychologists got interested in the reasons for such behaviour. Students at the laboratory of Zoopsychology under the supervision of Natalia Meshckova have followed the routs of more than a hundred dogs and tried to find out their purpose.

In what a way do the animals get into subway? Dogs get there along with the stream of people, slipping through the crowd or clinging close to the leg of the human, who opens the entering door. Some passengers hold the door on purpose, inviting them in. The duty station- masters let the dogs in, making their way to the escalators. But the animals may, on the other hand, pass through the opposite metal barriers. They cope with it much easier than the two-legged stowaways do. The dogs use stairs, but even escalators do not frighten them still.

What do the animals do there? First of all, they rest and warm themselves, especially in winter. It is also rather warm near the ventilation grilles in the entrance-halls, but the majority of the four-footed passengers prefer taking a rest under benches or even right in the centre of the station hall. Sometimes dogs move through the subway station hall from one entrance to the other instead of walking in the street above. Once the psychologists observed a dog confinement in subway. It is interesting that dogs are not afraid of the thundering trains and even enter the cars. Usually they arrange themselves on the flour of the car, but sometimes they even make themselves comfortable in the seats. In warmth and comfort, life seems to be the bed of roses! And above that, dogs may even find food in cars. Some dogs master the tricks of professional beggars. They move slowly through the car, then stop and sit near a passenger. Sometimes they even put their head on the knees of the human and gaze at him or her fixedly. Practically none can stand such a moving gaze. During the experiment the observed dog made its way from one station to another (the distance constituting eight stations) there and back repeatedly. During its way the dog got food from several passengers.

And still, are dogs travelling by subway on their own business or are they doing it purposelessly? It looks surprising, when a dog, comfortably lying in the car, rises and gets out at a station. The observations of the psychologists show that such trips have certain purpose. For example, one dog first travelled by subway through several subway stations, then got out into the street and passed its way along a certain lane to the cafe, where the dog was warmly excepted and fed. Another dog travelled by subway then went up the staircase in the centre of the station hall and up the escalator. Getting out into the street the dog led its way to a butcher's stall and barked after a while. A shop assistant of the next stall saw the dog and said: " Now wait, Ann will come around soon." When the very Ann came back, she fed the animal and told the observers that the dog appeared regularly near the butcher's stall for about six months.

Sometimes dogs attached to a certain territory in subway may behave aggressively towards strange homeless or house dogs. They are rather peaceful with humans, but do not like military men, drunks and homeless beggars. Sometimes dogs even start guarding some of the subway assistants.

How do people treat these four-footed stowaways? Most of the time people let dogs in, feed and cure them and even make sleeping-places out of boxes. Still policemen and cleaners turn them out of the station halls.

Destitute dogs do not have houses of their own. But they have their own city and, whether we like it or not, they live with us in this city. They even got used to such a thing as subway and learned to use it. At present we are not capable of solving the problem of homeless dogs and so we should help them to survive.

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