On my first trip to Chile, one of the things that stood out most to me was the number of stray dogs roaming the streets. In 2009, they were everywhere. Every city and town I went to, their presence was undeniable. 

Most locals seemed to ignore them entirely. Some would feed them and leave scraps outside their homes. But overall they seemed to be invisible to most locals. I found this fascinating. 

They could be found around every corner.  Sleeping in front of buildings, walking through parks, begging at the markets and outside restaurants, and even riding the bus. 

I began asking as many people as I could about the dogs and found that their story was pretty complicated. It was riddled with issues, from health and safety to political. 

The term Kiltro means mutt, but is often used to refer to the stray dogs.

On and off for over a decade I photographed dogs all over the country for this ongoing project documenting Chile’s second class citizens.

In the past 12 years things have changed. Their population seems to have dwindled due to a variety of initiatives done by the government and locals. But, they are still there and it will probably be some time before the problem completely goes away, if it ever does.