Research findings and outputs
A big thank you to everyone involved in this project, including all the volunteer field assistants and the many many survey participants for your important contribution to this project!
Free-roaming dog populations continue to present important challenges to public health, the economy, and the conservation of other animal species. The free-roaming dogs themselves can also face important problems relating to their health and welfare. For these reasons, dog population management is conducted in many countries across the globe, and we need to determine what methods are successful in reducing free-roaming dog numbers. This project took on that aim, determining the impact of population management methods on free-roaming dog population dynamics health and welfare. We did this by extensively searching the existing literature and knowledge on free-roaming dog population management, finding that while most methods were successful in reducing dog numbers and risks to the public and dog welfare, methods that involved fertility control were reported most often to be successful. We then carried out our own study in they field, collecting data on the dog populations in parts of Pescara, Italy and Lviv, Ukraine. We estimated how quickly the populations were growing and how much births/movement/deaths were occurring within these populations. We found that these rates were different for males versus female dogs, with female dogs more likely to remain locally within an area. We suspect this might be linked to male dogs dispersing to find resources, such as females for mating. We also highlight the importance of survey conditions on the ability to detect dogs in the area, finding that on weekends and when there were market events occurring, we were much more likely to see dogs. Possibly due to the availability of food at these market events!
We followed up our data collection with a survey on public attitudes and dog ownership practices in Bulgaria, Italy and Ukraine, finding that there were significant associations between attitudes and ownership practices with gender, religious beliefs, age, education level, owning dogs for practical reasons, and country of residence. Using the data that we collected, we created a systems dynamics model - a mathematical modelling approach to assess the potential future impact of different types of dog population management interventions. The results of this indicated that combining fertility control with responsible ownership interventions may have the greatest potential to reduce free-roaming dog numbers, whilst being cost-effective and improving overall welfare. The results of this project highlight the importance of incorporating public behaviour in dog ownership interventions.
Using our research findings, we have been able to create an interactive web-application for estimating the size of dog populations and assessing the potential impact of dog population management using population-specific parameters. Take a look at our web application here!
For more details of our research, please take a look at the project publications section of this website!
Free-roaming dog populations continue to present important challenges to public health, the economy, and the conservation of other animal species. The free-roaming dogs themselves can also face important problems relating to their health and welfare. For these reasons, dog population management is conducted in many countries across the globe, and we need to determine what methods are successful in reducing free-roaming dog numbers. This project took on that aim, determining the impact of population management methods on free-roaming dog population dynamics health and welfare. We did this by extensively searching the existing literature and knowledge on free-roaming dog population management, finding that while most methods were successful in reducing dog numbers and risks to the public and dog welfare, methods that involved fertility control were reported most often to be successful. We then carried out our own study in they field, collecting data on the dog populations in parts of Pescara, Italy and Lviv, Ukraine. We estimated how quickly the populations were growing and how much births/movement/deaths were occurring within these populations. We found that these rates were different for males versus female dogs, with female dogs more likely to remain locally within an area. We suspect this might be linked to male dogs dispersing to find resources, such as females for mating. We also highlight the importance of survey conditions on the ability to detect dogs in the area, finding that on weekends and when there were market events occurring, we were much more likely to see dogs. Possibly due to the availability of food at these market events!
We followed up our data collection with a survey on public attitudes and dog ownership practices in Bulgaria, Italy and Ukraine, finding that there were significant associations between attitudes and ownership practices with gender, religious beliefs, age, education level, owning dogs for practical reasons, and country of residence. Using the data that we collected, we created a systems dynamics model - a mathematical modelling approach to assess the potential future impact of different types of dog population management interventions. The results of this indicated that combining fertility control with responsible ownership interventions may have the greatest potential to reduce free-roaming dog numbers, whilst being cost-effective and improving overall welfare. The results of this project highlight the importance of incorporating public behaviour in dog ownership interventions.
Using our research findings, we have been able to create an interactive web-application for estimating the size of dog populations and assessing the potential impact of dog population management using population-specific parameters. Take a look at our web application here!
For more details of our research, please take a look at the project publications section of this website!