For many North Americans who are used to spoiling their pets rotten and, in fact, treating them as their children (ahem, guilty as charged!), moving to a country like Panama can be a real eye-opener. Here, many parts of the culture have a rather different take on pet ownership; in fact, dogs are often kept for security purposes only and are treated in a manner that would not meet the approval of many folks back home. It can be difficult to understand, and heartbreaking, to see a half-starved dog chained up outside a house or packs of skeletal dogs roaming the streets and rooting through the garbage. But who are we to judge, coming from a country in which shocking stories of animal cruelty seem to be on the news every other day? (Side note: one thing you DON’T see down here are homeless people living on the streets. Panamanian families are…