библиотека кинолога и охотника, литература о природе

автор(ы): KEVIN STAFFORD

There are about 500 million dogs in the world (Macpherson et al., 2000) and only a small percentage of them live as pampered pets of the relatively wealthy, the majority live free-ranging lives in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Indeed an indicator of wealth and national development may be the number of free-ranging dogs. The life of many pet dogs is long and comfortable, but they may live in socially uninteresting environments while free-ranging dogs may live short, possibly brutal but certainly complex lives. The presence of zoonoses, especially rabies, in free-ranging dogs makes their control and perhaps ultimate extinction in many countries necessary. Indeed the control of rabies may have more of an effect on the welfare of such dogs than any desire to improve their welfare per se. The physical requirements of the dog are easily met. They need a warm dry place to sleep. There is a wide variety of sustaining dog foods in many grocery stores and dogs will eat what we eat or don’t eat. However, the social, exercise, and activity requirements of an individual dog is more difficult to define and to meet by busy owners. The presence of animal shelters and local government dog pounds in many towns and cities in the developed world suggests that there are many problems with the welfare of dogs in these societies.

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