The Mass Killing of "Stray Dogs": Urban Violence and Public Hygiene in the Nineteenth Century

This research investigates the persecution, capture, and killing of dogs classified as "stray" in Rio de Janeiro and other global cities during the nineteenth century, from an interdisciplinary perspective situated between history and archaeology. Drawing on documents, images, artifacts, urban spaces, and material practices, the study traces the development of public health policies, street regulation, and the governance of everyday life. The extermination of these animals reveals how the construction of the modern city relied on techniques of capture, poisoning, coerced labor, and everyday forms of resistance. By examining the relationships between humans and animals, this research explores a material history of urban sanitation, coercion, and violence.