Dataset Information

"They Reckon They're Man's Best Friend and I Believe That." Understanding Relationships with Dogs in Australian Aboriginal Communities to Inform Effective Dog Population Management.

ABSTRACT: Dogs are important companions to people in many societies; however, dogs can also be associated with risks to public health and safety. Dog population management is therefore an important consideration globally. This study aimed to better understand the role of dogs in Aboriginal communities and the barriers to accessing veterinary services. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 85 dog owners from nine Aboriginal communities across New South Wales, Australia. Many positive aspects of dog ownership were identified and few negatives. Dogs are considered an important part of family and community life and many dogs are allowed indoors (63.4%), even sharing beds with their owners. Most dogs were kept for companionship (84.7%) and/or as guard dogs (45.9%) and all respondents considered their dog part of their family. However, respondents had low levels of engagement with mainstream veterinary services, and many respondents identified significant barriers to accessing veterinary services, especially cost and transport. This study demonstrates the important and positive role of dogs in Aboriginal families and communities but also highlights a significant veterinary service gap. Our findings demonstrate that different perspectives on the role of dogs necessitates a different, culturally inclusive approach to dog management interventions.

SUBMITTER: Ma GC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7278576 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

"They Reckon They're Man's Best Friend and I Believe That." Understanding Relationships with Dogs in Australian Aboriginal Communities to Inform Effective Dog Population Management.

Ma Gemma C GC Ford Jason J Lucas Lillian L Norris Jacqueline M JM Spencer Jessica J Withers Ann-Margret AM Ward Michael P MP

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20200507 5

Dogs are important companions to people in many societies; however, dogs can also be associated with risks to public health and safety. Dog population management is therefore an important consideration globally. This study aimed to better understand the role of dogs in Aboriginal communities and the barriers to accessing veterinary services. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 85 dog owners from nine Aboriginal communities across New South Wales, Australia. Many positive aspects of do ...[more]

PMID: 32392871

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Project description:Australia is underprepared for a rabies incursion due to a lack of information about how a rabies outbreak would spread within the susceptible canine populations and which control strategies would be best to control it. The aim of this study was to collect information to parameterize a recently developed dog rabies spread model as well as use this information to gauge how the community would accept potential control strategies. Such information-together with model outputs-would be used to inform decision makers on the best control strategies and improve Australia's preparedness against a canine rabies incursion. The parameters this study focussed on were detection time, vaccination rates and dog-culling and dog movement restriction compliance. A cross-sectional survey of 31 dog-owners, using a questionnaire, was undertaken in the five communities of the Northern Peninsular Area (NPA) in northern Australia regarding community dog movements, veterinary visits, reporting systems, perceptions of sick dogs and potential human behaviours during hypothetical rabies outbreaks. It highlighted the significant shortfalls in veterinary care that would need to be vastly improved during an outbreak, who educational programs should be targeted towards and which dog movements should be restricted. The results indicate that men were significantly more likely than women to allow their dogs to roam and to move their dogs. The current low vaccination rate of 12% highlighted the limited veterinary services that would need to be substantially increased to achieve effective rabies control. Participation in mass vaccination was accepted by 100% of the respondents. There was lower acceptance for other possible rabies control strategies with 10-20% of the respondents stating a resistance to both a mass culling program and a ban on dog movements. Consequently, movement bans and mass dog culling would have limited effectiveness as a control strategy in the NPA community. More than half of the respondents said that they would report their sick dogs within a week. This would lead to a much more optimistic rabies detection time than observed in other regions with recent dog rabies outbreaks. Findings from this study can be used to parameterize a recently developed dog rabies spread model as well as to develop informed policies for managing a future rabies incursion, thus improving Australia's preparedness against a canine rabies incursion.

Dataset Information

"They Reckon They're Man's Best Friend and I Believe That." Understanding Relationships with Dogs in Australian Aboriginal Communities to Inform Effective Dog Population Management.

Publications

"They Reckon They're Man's Best Friend and I Believe That." Understanding Relationships with Dogs in Australian Aboriginal Communities to Inform Effective Dog Population Management.

Similar Datasets

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