small dog breed rescue

- [female speaker] onecore trait in every dog is its ever-forgiving nature. that's probably the mostvaluable thing in a dog and it's also its biggest pitfall because we have dogs here who'vebeen horribly hurt by human beings and yet all they want to do is find somebody else to love. (upbeat music) - [narrator] aroundthe world strays, mutts

and street dogs are victims of stigma. in costa rica, lya battle istrying to change that story. she runs the territorio de zaguates it's a lush haven forstray dogs to either be adopted or live outthe rest of their days. - territorio de zaguatesstands for land of the mutts. my name's lya battle, betterknown as crazy dog lady, i guess. i started territorio dezaguates partly because

i've always loved animals, all animals. but it wasn't in my plans,it wasn't like i set out to do this. the need for this, i thinkall over the world is because there's a huge stigma around a dog that doesn't have a breed. they'll let mutts wander on the streets or they'll actuallytoss them on the streets because they're not breed dogs.

the solution isn't euthanizing a dog. the solution is make sure it'snot born in the first place. once it's here, do something good for it. find a home or if not atleast offer him a place where he can be in peace and happy. - [narrator] keepingterritorio up and running is no easy feat. they eat $500 a day in food alone. lya has to work a full timejob to keep all the dogs

fed and healthy. - territorio stays aboutpartly through miracles, i think. keeping this afloat is a huge task. it's a labor of love. you can't pay someone tocare for an animal, truly, to remember their names,to be gentle to them. - [narrator] while this placeis a dog heaven, nothing beats getting adopted by a loving family.

- [lya] i say it's likekids at kindergarten. they love their friends at school, but oh, they all want to go home to mom and dad. (upbeat music)(barking)