Open AccessAnimal welfare assessment in nine dog shelters of southern Brazil
Author(s) -
Luciana do Amaral Gurgel Galeb,
Tâmara Duarte Borges,
Camila Jardim dos Santos,
Cecília Pedernera,
Antonio Velarde,
Amanda Anater,
Alexander Welker Biondo,
Cláudia Turra Pimpão
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista brasileira de ciências ambientais
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2176-9478
pISSN - 1808-4524
DOI - 10.5327/z217694781197
Subject(s) - animal welfare , welfare , lameness , animal assisted therapy , environmental health , curitiba , veterinary medicine , medicine , zoology , socioeconomics , geography , toxicology , demography , biology , pet therapy , ecology , surgery , philosophy , sociology , political science , humanities , law
The present study has tested the Shelter-Quality Protocol (SQ) and its applicability in nine long-term dog shelters in the Curitiba metropolitan area, State of Paraná, southern Brazil. Welfare indicators were scored on three different levels including shelter, pen and dogs. Data were qualitatively analyzed, presenting an average of 66.67 (±27.63) allocated dogs per shelter, receiving only dry food, with meal frequencies varying from once (44.4%), twice a day (33.3%), and ad libitum (22.2%). Water was available ad libitum in 98.5% of pens and was clean in (89.5%) of shelters. Most of the shelters grouped the dogs by size. Animals were kept indoors (41.0%) or entirely outdoors with only close movable shelters (41.3%), from which 78.5% had materials that could hurt the animals. None of the dogs were panting, crowding, or had any stereotypy behavior. No cough, swelling, and ectoparasites were observed. Animals were in satisfactory body-score condition and clean; no lameness was observed. In the human-animal relationship test, 15.3% of animals showed fearful and aggressive reactions. Hence, the level of shelter-quality was feasible and provided relevant information about the Brazilian dog shelter welfare. However, it is important in future studies to include and adopt additional indicators to gather other relevant aspects of dogs' welfare, such as health management, environmental enrichment, dogs' socialization, people involved in the chain, rate of adoption, and turnover of dogs.