Abstract
Abstract The aim of the study was to analyse the demographic characteristics of lost and found dogs in Belgrade, Serbia. The demographic data concerning the 246 lost and 81 found dogs in the period of 5 consecutive years (January, 2009 to January 2014) was sampled and analysed from the data bases of four organizations for animal protection in Belgrade. The recovery rate of lost dogs and the chance to be reunited again with their owners was 33%. The highest recovery rate was estimated in the category of lost dogs with visible marks such as tags or collars (30%).The chi-square test disclosed that besides dogs with special visible marks, significantly more females, light colour coated, friendly/sociable and neutered dogs were reunited with their owners (P<0.0001).
Highlights
People have many reasons for owning dogs
The Chi-square test disclosed that special visible marks (χ2=99.973), sex status (χ2=83.710), coat color (χ2=51.425), behaviour (χ2=33.151) and gender (χ2=18.328) could be consider as extremely significant (P
Our results suggest that individuals in Belgrade who found lost dogs tended to interact with these categories of dogs, so that they were more likely to be found than mixed bred, mature to geriatric, large or fearful/aggressive dogs
Summary
People have many reasons for owning dogs. For some owners dogs are companions, friends, family members or even children [1,2,3,4,5]. For others dogs are toys, status symbols, and brands [6]. There are many emotional, mental, physical, therapeutic and social benefits of dog ownership [4, 7, 8]. For some owners, the behaviour of their pets may be problematic and consequences of such behaviour may be stressful for both of them. Examples of this may be disobedience, escaping, chasing, running away or dog roaming [9, 10].
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