THE SOCIETY’S PERCEPTION OF THE LIFE QUALITY AND POPULATION CONTROL OF STRAY DOGS

Abstract

In most Brazilian municipalities there is an overpopulation of stray dogs, which causes problems tothe urban order, the environment and the public health, in addition to mistreatment to these dogs.In such context we foresee the need of developing actions targeting the population control of theseanimals. This essay aims at knowing the perception of social actors, such as managers of entitiesresponsible for control actions, managers of NGOs working with animal protection and population ingeneral with respect to the life quality and population control of stray dogs. Questionnaires were usedon samples of individuals of these three groups and the data thereof were analyzed with descriptivestatistics techniques and frequency comparison. The results allowed us to conclude that the society’sperception of population control and life quality of these animals bear important differences under theviewpoint of the three evaluated groups; however, they also bear significant similarities, especiallywith respect to the perception of the responsibility for the development of population control actions,the acceptance of using public funds intended to public health in control actions, the classification of such population density as large and the poor life quality of these animals.

Keywords: population control; social perception; stray dog.