Moscow Subway Is a K9 Kingdom

Stray dogs grow ever more comfortable with life in the capital
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted May 20, 2008 12:47 PM CDT
Moscow Subway Is a K9 Kingdom
Commuters walk through Moscow's newest downtown metro station, Strogino, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008.   (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)

It's not only humans who get around the Russian capital by subway these days. Stray dogs are now a common sight on the Moscow metro, and, as the Wall Street Journal reports, their lives are pretty cushy. Muscovites are accustomed to seeing them lounging in stations, waiting for someone to toss a scrap, boarding trains, and curling up on an empty seat. 

In Soviet times dogs were banned from the subway, but now they're welcome, and they're so well fed by passengers they've lost that that "lean and hungry look," a stray expert tells the Journal. And it's only one example of how successfully a bigger-than-ever stray population has adapted to increasing prosperity in the city. "The dogs know Muscovites better than Muscovites know the dogs," he notes. (More Moscow stories.)

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