Dogs were a very important and in fact virtually the only domesticated animal in pre-Columbian Mexico. They were characteristically present in farming communities after 3000 B.C. (Flannery 1967). San Lorenzo is no exception, as dogs constitute 10 percent of the total vertebrate remains. We can only guess for what purposes dogs were kept. At San Lorenzo, we have remains of only a few game animals, suggesting that even in an agricultural community dogs were probably not used for hunting, as they often are today. They could have been used for protection of home or garden, but we have no evidence to prove or disprove this. Substantial evidence from other parts of Mexico indicates that dogs were used for food (Flannery 1967; Wolf 1959). No butchering scars are seen on any of the San Lorenzo dog remain but, since they are associated with presumed food remains, the most reasonable conclusion may be that they were consumed. Assuming they were eaten, our calculations indicate that dogs were the single most important source of meat.

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Dogs are probably as abundantly kept now as in the past; however, their role has changed. The idea of eating dogs is abhorrent to the peasants today—instead, they use them as guards and hunters.