Care of Dogs and Attitudes of Dog Owners in Port-au-Prince, the Republic of Haiti
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2012 |
Authors: |
William J. Fielding, Melanie Gall, Dick Green, Warren S. Eller |
Publication/Journal: |
Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science |
Publisher: |
Routledge |
Keywords: |
animal care, dog owners, dogs, haiti |
ISBN: |
1088-8705 |
Abstract:
This article reports the first known study on dogs in Port-au-Prince. Interviews with 1,290 residents provided information on 1,804 dogs. More than 57.7% of homes kept dogs. Not all the dogs received vaccinations for rabies (41.6%), even though 28.2% of households had had a household member bitten by a dog. Although the ?owned? dog population had decreased as a result of the earthquake in January 2010, the number of roaming dogs appeared to have been uninfluenced by the disaster. Given that 64.8% of dogs probably had access to the street and only 6.0% of the females were spayed, to humanely contain the dog population will require both confinement and neutering. Although roaming dogs were considered a nuisance by 63.3% of respondents, 42.6% of households fed dogs they did not own.