Dogs in public spaces of Buenos Aires, Argentina: exploring patterns of the abundance of dogs, the canine faecal contamination, the behaviour of people with dogs, and its relationships with demographic/economic variables

AE CARBAJO; RUBEL DIANA

PREVENTIVE VETERINARY MEDICINE

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2019 vol. 170

0167-5877

The level of faecal contamination in urban public spaces depends on the behaviour of dog?s owners as well as on dog abundance. The aims of the present study were to model the relative abundance of dogs, the canine faecal contamination, the behaviour of owners and dog walkers towards their pets, and their relationship with human demographic/economic variables in Buenos Aires city. The randomly selected sampling sites were 67 street corners. All dogs sighted between 7 and 11 am from September through November 2013 in both corner ́s sidewalks were registered once. Data about dogs and people were obtained by observation and survey. In order to conduct a faeces census, some sidewalks were selected, registering its characteristics (i.e. number of shops, trees). The GIS was loaded with the city ́s cartography and the values for nine variables used as demographic/economic indicators were obtained disaggregated by demographic units (National Census). The variables ?number of dogs sighted per sampling site? and ?number of feces per sidewalk? were used as response variables in generalized linear models (GLM). Variables regarding dog?s owners and dog walkers behaviour were compared. A total of 1193 dog?s owners, 234 dog walkers and 2835 dogs were sighted. The number of observed pets and that of people sighted with dogs showed a positive relationship with the economic level and the human density. The stool number per sidewalk increased with the higher number of tree pits per meter of sidewalk and the lower number of shops on it. Our results indicate that dog walkers compared to owners showed different behavioural patterns towards the pets (bag to remove dog?s fouling, leash use, etc). The sidewalks showed a lower number of copros in the sites where 40% or more of the dog  ownerscarried a bag to pick up their pet´s faeces.