Given that a number of us are from the Philadelphia area, our instructors began our second to last morning at IZSAM with a video embracing the importance of Dr. J (the Basketball Hall of Fame forward that played for the 76ers) before getting on to the more serious topic of stray dog management. There is no law in the EU about how to manage stray dog populations, which is quite opposite to the many EU regulations that exist for food animals. They explained to us that this is because food production is considered a commercial issue for the EU whereas stray dogs are not. So, each of the 28 countries in the EU have found different approaches to manage stray dogs, both at the national and local level, with an emphasis on the cultural beliefs of various regions. It was incredibly interesting to hear the variety of perspectives on this topic, including those about certain countries like Romania that recently had a critical situation with stray dogs compared to countries like Holland and the Netherlands whose stray dog populations are very well under control. Of course, these were all compared to the situation in Italy where they are working hard to reduce the number of stray dogs. We learned how stray dog populations and related legislation is variable in different parts of Italy and about the advancements that have been made towards improvement of stray dog welfare, identification systems and trackers, and public health.
We began by watching a video documenting the situation in Romania in 2013. The country had 20 million people and 2 million stray dogs (which is equivalent to one stray dog per every ten people). There were stray dogs roaming the streets everywhere, causing people to be worried about their children playing on the street or riding bikes around their neighborhoods. In the first 4 months of 2013, the video documented that 6,000 people were bitten by stray dogs. In Bucharest, Romania, the video described a woman who was attacked by a pack of strays and later died in the hospital. It was also clear that many people in Romania were not educated about the stray situation and what the government is doing about it. One woman commented that the mayor of Bucharest said that stray dogs spread cancer and many people weren’t sure what the government funding for the stray population was being used for. This demonstrated the lack of information and confusion that was present in the community. We then discussed ideas for how we would remedy this challenging situation considering the roles of veterinary clinicians, population control staff, scientists and legislators.
We considered a number of approaches, recognizing that there is no one solution to this problem. We discussed that sterilization (spaying and neutering) of strays is essential and that this was not happening in Romania. We thought that it would be important to educate the public about sterilization as a way to reduce the stay dog population in the long-run. We also discussed the importance of vaccination and permanent identification of dogs as well as the possibility of shelters and waste management intervention. Additionally, we recognized that in an urgent crisis situation such as this, there are minimal options for an immediate solution except for euthanasia.
This lead us into a discussion of Italy’s current policies. They have chosen to have a no convenience euthanasia law that they feel stays true to their cultural beliefs even though they recognize that this will make it more difficult the eliminate their stray dogs. The government provides public shelters with 3 to 4 euros per dog per day, but this is not always enough to ensure that the dogs have a good quality of life. Many of the public shelters house up to 600 dogs and in some areas there are no local laws about space requirements or shelter welfare. Because these shelters are so large, they are often far removed from the community in a rural area where they have more space, but this means that the dogs do not get a lot of exposure to be adopted. These shelters are also a business to the people that own them, and they don’t necessarily want to reduce the amount of money that they receive from the government through adoption campaigns. The government also pays people who capture strays, making this a small business opportunity.
This is not to say that some municipalities in Italy have not turned their stray problem around. In one area in southern Italy, the government gave citizens a discount on their annual taxes if they adopted a dog. Not only did that fix the stray dog problem in the area, but it also helped with changing the community’s perception. Many people in Italy don’t see dogs as a part of their family but once these Italian families adopted dogs, many of them couldn’t help but fall in love and begin to pamper them as many families do in the US. Other countries in the EU such as Holland, the Netherlands and Sweden, without stray dog problems, often treat their dogs as family members too. However, when generally discussing the population control of strays in these countries it is important to point out that they have very harsh winters and many stray dogs cannot survive there year round. Countries that are further south have a harder time with strays because of the more friendly climate. With that being said, the success story of the southern municipality in Italy and the growing awareness and population control of strays in many countries left me hopeful that even the worst situations like the one in Romania can improve if the right strategies are implemented!
We also learned a bit about what IZSAM has done at both a national and local level to improve identification of strays and all other dogs living in Italy. Right now there are only local registries, using microchips as the form of identification. By 2018, they will be going live with a new system that will allow a public search of all registered dogs at a national level. As someone who has searched for microchip information in the US which can be tedious, a national online system sounds nice and efficient! They have also come up with a dog tracking system for strays that is easy to use (android compatible and GPS connected) and could be implemented in any location if necessary. Yes, there’s an app for that!
Ciao!
-Rebecca
The second part of today focused on assessing welfare for dogs in shelters. Dog welfare in shelters is at risk due to many factors such as overcrowding, inadequate housing, lack of social interactions, poor health surveillance, and an absence of minimum requirements and regulations for shelters. There are three different levels of assessment: animal based indicators, management based indicators, and resource based indicators. Animal based indicators are validated measures based on certain criteria and grouped into 4 main principles: good feeding, good housing, good health, and appropriate behavior. Criteria include animal health, the human-animal relationship, lameness, etc. During an assessment, animal based indicators are measured at a individual level, evaluating one animal at a time, or measured at the pen level between all the dogs that live together. Management based indicators include feeding, exercise, and group vs. individual housing. The shelter as a whole is evaluated for these measures. Resource based measures include water and food supply, shelter from adverse conditions, space allowance, and bedding. These indicators are measured in each dog pen and are based on how many dogs are together and what is available for them.
The next step in a welfare assessment at a shelter is to perform a qualitative behavioral assessment. This assessment is based on the human observer’s ability to perceive details of animal behavior and its context. It should not be focused on what an animal does, but rather how the animal does it. For example, it assesses whether an animal is relaxed, comfortable, curious, depressed, or nervous. It is also grading the intensity of these emotions. When scoring, the focus should be on where the attention of the animal is and each term should be scored individually. If the animals are in a group, they should be assessed as a whole and not individually.
After learning about these methods to assess welfare in the shelter environment we headed to the Dog Village, a dog shelter outside of Teramo. This shelter is a long-term shelter for dogs and is government funded. The shelter houses dogs in outdoor group housing, and each enclosure has water, food, and a dog house for each dog. Dogs that are aggressive or have other behavioral issues and cannot be housed with other dogs are individually housed. We spent the afternoon putting to use what we learned in the morning and practiced performing a welfare assessment. We began by assessing the resource based measures at the pen level, and looked for information such as the bedding type, whether the cage was dry and clean, and if there were sharp edges in the cage. Next we looked at animal based measures at the pen level, such as signs of diarrhea, coughing, or evidence of pain. Then we looked at animal based measures at the individual level such as fear/aggression, body condition, cleanliness, skin condition, and lameness. After this was completed, we performed an emotional state profile and assessed the entire group in the pen to see if the dogs were relaxed, curious, depressed, fearful, hesitant, aggressive, etc. Overall the Dog Village had very good welfare on the six cases we performed.
Compared to other larger, more-rural shelters, this shelter really stood out because of its unique location and committment to animal welfare. One thing that I was really impressed by was that the shelter really focuses on working with dogs that arrive with behavioral issues or are really scared. The workers try to socialize them with other dogs and people. The shelter is also close to a shopping center which provides a lot of new stimuli for the dogs to help them slowly adjust to leaving the shelter when adopted. This can help reduce problems after adoption and reduce the likelihood of the dogs being returned to the shelter. We had an amazing visit at the Dog Village and can’t believe we only have one more day in Italy!
Ciao!
Hayden
PennVet Explores Europe 