“The Cabrero” goat guardian in the arid Chaco

Abstract

Livestock guardian dogs have become recently important because of their potential use to reduce conflicts between producers and wildlife. In this study, we aim to document the practices and knowledge related to livestock guardian dogs in the arid Chaco of north of Cordoba. Also, we want to know, from local producers’ narratives, the place that livestock guardians’ dogs take in their live form. The collaborators provided, in great detail, the usefulness, characteristics, forms of breeding, and agency of guardian’s dogs. In the sociability of “la costa”, guardian dogs could be considered intermediaries, a kind of mediator between humans and non-human animals. This place defines them as key entities that help to mitigate the conflicts associated with the encountering of human and non-human interests in the territory. The understanding and knowledge around these practices that promote the coexistence of different in a particular territory, is in our opinion, fundamental to conserve it, and to avoid reducing it to parts and fractions that do not interact with each other. Local practices that promote the coexistence of different beings in the territory are fundamental to conserve them, without reducing them to parts or fractions that do not interact with each other.