Abstract
In Japan, the human population is aging rapidly, and the abandonment of dogs by the elderly people who have died or been hospitalized becomes a problem. It is hypothesized that elderly dogs have difficulty adapting to the novel circumstances when brought to an animal shelter. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess stress levels and demonstrate stress responses of elderly dogs just after admission to an animal shelter. As stress indicators, fecal corticosterone levels and changes in the ethogram of the dogs were investigated during the first week of admittance. Fecal corticosterone levels (mean ± SE) stayed high during the first week of residence, although they fell gently from the day after admittance (16650.1 ± 3769.7 ng/g) to the seventh day (12178.4 ± 2524.4 ng/g) (P < 0.001). The proportions of behavioral expressions changed as the days passed (P < 0.001). In particular, stereotypies decreased from 35.7% on the first day to 2.6% on the sixth day, and time spent sleeping increased from 0.0 to 42.7%. These results indicate that elderly dogs admitted to an animal shelter seem to behaviorally adapt themselves to their novel circumstances but might be stressed even on the seventh day of residence.
Highlights
A central problem in animal welfare of pet dogs is abandonment by their owners
In addition to physiological stress responses, behavioral changes indicate that stress was observed when dogs were kenneled at the shelter
The objective of this study was to assess the stress level and demonstrate stress responses of elderly dogs that were admitted to an animal shelter
Summary
A central problem in animal welfare of pet dogs is abandonment by their owners. Abandoned dogs are commonly brought to animal shelters, and they suffer many kinds of psychogenic stressors there (1). As behavioral indicators that give signs of stress in kenneled dogs, changes in activity levels as well as the expression of stereotypic behaviors and fear that dogs display at the shelter have been reported, as reviewed by Protopopova (3). In Japan, the human population is aging rapidly, and the abandonment of dogs by the elderly persons who have died or been hospitalized has become one of the main reasons. The objective of this study was to assess the stress level and demonstrate stress responses of elderly dogs that were admitted to an animal shelter. Fecal corticosterone monitoring was applied because of its noninvasiveness to subject animals (5)
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