What makes an effective, holistic dog and cat population management program?
Due to her expertise on the topic, Dr. Elena Garde was asked to be part of an international team doing research on the free-roaming cat and dog populations in the Middle East. While that project is still in the early phases, Dr. Garde has a great deal of experience implementing a variety of holistic dog population management programs.
She recommends that a holistic, One Health-oriented dog and cat population management program should incorporate as many as possible of the following components:
Baseline data collection: It is important to understand as much as possible about the population before any interventions take place.
TNVR (Trap, Neuter/Spay, Vaccinate* & Release) for free-roaming animals and/or spay/neuter campaigns for owned pets. While this step is critical, sterilizing animals without a clearly-defined plan and method of monitoring will not create a long-term change in the population.
*NOTE: Many programs use a “TNR” approach, but the inclusion of vaccination is very important to Dr. Elena and the One Health philosophy in terms of promoting overall well-being for the animals.Legislation: The goal here is to change the law to protect animals and encourage a cultural shift toward increased human responsibility for pets.
Enforcement: Any law is only as good as its enforcement. Our hope would be that enforcement of legislation is consistent, fair, and convincing enough to encourage a long-term change in behavior.
Identification and registration: The more we know about an animal population, the better we can do to keep them healthy and under control!
Education: To create a lasting change in the way animals are cared for at the cultural level and address the issue at its roots, education is a critical aspect of any dog or cat population management plan.
Other site-specific strategies, depending on the specific needs of the community and geographic location
Monitoring and evaluation: We don’t just want to know how many animals were neutered or how many kids were taught, rather we want to know what the impact is on the population and if the kids learned something that could translate into behavior change. This is why having a baseline prior to implementing a program is so important- so we can monitor for success!
At The GAAP, our overarching goal is always to create long-lasting, sustainable solutions that consider the health of all three aspects of the One Health triad - animals, people, and the environment.
To learn more about the current status of dog population management in Chile, you can also check out the research paper Dr. Garde published in 2022 (full citation below). For further reading on this topic in general, you can visit ICAM.
Some experts estimate that Chile has the largest ratio of dogs to people in the world, with a recent study estimating that over 4 million dogs and cats live on the streets without supervision.
Citation: Garde, E.; Marín-Vial, P.; Pérez, G.E.; Sandvig, E.M. A Review and Analysis of the National Dog Population Management Program in Chile. Animals 2022, 12, 228. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12030228