Owned dog population size and ownership patterns in Costa Rica
Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are one of the most common pets around the world but ownership patterns and human-dog interactions have been changing, particularly in developing nations. We conducted household surveys in Costa Rica to characterize dog ownership, the owned dog population, where dogs we...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9751483 2023-05-15T15:51:22+02:00 Owned dog population size and ownership patterns in Costa Rica Flockhart, D. T. Tyler Rowan, Andrew N. Boone, John D. 2022-12-01 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9751483/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.946603 en eng Frontiers Media S.A. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9751483/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.946603 Copyright © 2022 Flockhart, Rowan and Boone. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. CC-BY Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.946603 2022-12-18T02:18:34Z Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are one of the most common pets around the world but ownership patterns and human-dog interactions have been changing, particularly in developing nations. We conducted household surveys in Costa Rica to characterize dog ownership, the owned dog population, where dogs were confined at night and in the morning, and behaviors regarding selected dog care issues. We also compared these results to similar questionnaires used in Costa Rica over the past 20 years. We found 76% of households in Costa Rica owned at least one dog and on average there were about 1.4 dogs owned per household. These dog ownership rates are higher than previous estimates. The probability of owning a dog was highest on farms and lowest in single family dwellings without a yard, higher among respondents that owned their homes and decreasing with increasing human population density The total number of owned dogs in Costa Rica was estimated to be 2,222,032 (95% confidence intervals: 1,981,497–2,503,751). The sterilization rate for homed dogs in 2020 was approximately 62% (females: 67%, males: 61%) which is higher than the 18% of owned dogs that were sterilized in a 2003 survey. Overall, only 1.2% (95% CI: 0.3–2.5%) of owned dogs slept on the street with a slightly higher proportion on the street at 8 am. The number of owned dogs roaming the streets at night nation-wide was estimated to be 27,208 (95% CI: 7,557–56,619) compared to 43,142 (95% CI: 20,118–73,618) on the street at 8 am. The number of unowned free-roaming dogs in Costa Rica has never been estimated but we can generate some idea of the size of the unowned dog population by determining the proportion of free-roaming dogs on the street wearing collars. There was a negative relationship between human population density and owned dogs being on the street meaning fewer dogs roam the streets in highly populated areas compared to less populated areas. Overall, we identify trends against which future progress can be measured and provide information that are ... Text Canis lupus PubMed Central (PMC) Frontiers in Veterinary Science 9 |
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Veterinary Science |
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Veterinary Science Flockhart, D. T. Tyler Rowan, Andrew N. Boone, John D. Owned dog population size and ownership patterns in Costa Rica |
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Veterinary Science |
description |
Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are one of the most common pets around the world but ownership patterns and human-dog interactions have been changing, particularly in developing nations. We conducted household surveys in Costa Rica to characterize dog ownership, the owned dog population, where dogs were confined at night and in the morning, and behaviors regarding selected dog care issues. We also compared these results to similar questionnaires used in Costa Rica over the past 20 years. We found 76% of households in Costa Rica owned at least one dog and on average there were about 1.4 dogs owned per household. These dog ownership rates are higher than previous estimates. The probability of owning a dog was highest on farms and lowest in single family dwellings without a yard, higher among respondents that owned their homes and decreasing with increasing human population density The total number of owned dogs in Costa Rica was estimated to be 2,222,032 (95% confidence intervals: 1,981,497–2,503,751). The sterilization rate for homed dogs in 2020 was approximately 62% (females: 67%, males: 61%) which is higher than the 18% of owned dogs that were sterilized in a 2003 survey. Overall, only 1.2% (95% CI: 0.3–2.5%) of owned dogs slept on the street with a slightly higher proportion on the street at 8 am. The number of owned dogs roaming the streets at night nation-wide was estimated to be 27,208 (95% CI: 7,557–56,619) compared to 43,142 (95% CI: 20,118–73,618) on the street at 8 am. The number of unowned free-roaming dogs in Costa Rica has never been estimated but we can generate some idea of the size of the unowned dog population by determining the proportion of free-roaming dogs on the street wearing collars. There was a negative relationship between human population density and owned dogs being on the street meaning fewer dogs roam the streets in highly populated areas compared to less populated areas. Overall, we identify trends against which future progress can be measured and provide information that are ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Flockhart, D. T. Tyler Rowan, Andrew N. Boone, John D. |
author_facet |
Flockhart, D. T. Tyler Rowan, Andrew N. Boone, John D. |
author_sort |
Flockhart, D. T. Tyler |
title |
Owned dog population size and ownership patterns in Costa Rica |
title_short |
Owned dog population size and ownership patterns in Costa Rica |
title_full |
Owned dog population size and ownership patterns in Costa Rica |
title_fullStr |
Owned dog population size and ownership patterns in Costa Rica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Owned dog population size and ownership patterns in Costa Rica |
title_sort |
owned dog population size and ownership patterns in costa rica |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9751483/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.946603 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Front Vet Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9751483/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.946603 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2022 Flockhart, Rowan and Boone. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.946603 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Veterinary Science |
container_volume |
9 |
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