Study of the breeding practices of dogs adopted by community on Dois Vizinhos campus- UTFPR

Abstract

Dogs from the beginning of their domestication serve man as a tool for hunting, herding, guard, company and currently for psychological therapies, fact that denotes its importance and multifunctionality in modern societies. Despite animal protection laws have been recently updated, defining mistreat as crimes, an awareness of the owner is still necessary because the lack of information produces population without control, in which the animals are sacrificed or abandoned on the streets by it’s owners, increasing the risk of zoonoses and generating urban social problems. The ignorance or fraud of the laws and the lack of awareness brings the possibility for dogs being exploited as a commodity and discarded as objects. In front of the issue exposed, this study aims to identify the quality of life of the dogs and its ultimate fate within the academic community of the campus UTFPR – Dois Vizinhos, using the survey research methodology, through interviews with the following questions: prophylactic management of dogs (vaccination); nutritional management (supplied food, frequency, and type of feed costs); reproductive management (methods to prevent pupies and its destinations); animal phenotypical characteristics (breed and size of the animals), purpose (pet, guard dogs , etc. ..) and in which situations are the animals abandoned or discarded (diseases, lack of space, change of adress, etc...). This present study revealed that a significant proportion of the animals raised by the community interviewed has access to a balanced diet, are vaccinated and raised mostly in a humanely form. However, great part of that same community seems to show little interest in the birth control of the dogs.

Keywords

• animal welfare, nutritional management, reproductive management