A more efficient strategy to control stray dog populations
Our core strategy centers on the catch, sterilization, and release of a single sex – female dogs. This approach offers substantial advantages:
Reduced Costs and Time: By targeting only one sex, we effectively halve the number of surgeries required (even less than half with females), leading to significant reductions in time and financial expenditure.
Enhanced Efficiency: Since reproduction necessitates the involvement of both sexes, sterilizing one sex significantly cripples the stray dog population's ability to reproduce.
The rationale behind the decision to focus on female sterilization is as follows:
During our research, we sought support for our chosen strategy by reviewing relevant articles. We also contacted other dog sterilization groups to inquire about which sex had the most significant impact on the future stray dog population. The overall consensus was that stray females had the greatest impact.
Considering this, we posed a crucial question: Would neutering the males in a community prevent female dogs from becoming pregnant? The answer is no. Unneutered males would proceed to impregnate stray females upon entering heat, making this strategy largely ineffective. Spaying females is the most direct method of preventing future births. This approach is also logistically advantageous, as female populations are often smaller, resulting in fewer needed surgeries.
Furthermore, we sought advice from veterinarians and trappers, along with our own observations, to determine which sex – male or female – had the most challenging life on the streets. We concluded that female dogs endured greater hardship. This is primarily due to their reproductive cycle, with two litters per year. Additionally, alpha male dogs frequently guard readily available food sources, making it significantly more difficult for females to feed themselves and their offspring.
Many spay/neuter groups address stray populations in local communities through sterilization campaigns. However, we believe a more efficient and impactful approach exists. Rather than focusing on isolated areas, we recommend a broader strategy that leverages existing resources and maximizes impact.
This can be achieved by recognizing and empowering a crucial network already in place: Independent trappers and participating veterinary clinics. Throughout these countries grappling with the stray dog crisis, these individuals & clinics are already actively making a difference in their communities. Trappers are dedicating their time and resources to capturing strays, while compassionate veterinary clinics are offering reduced sterilization fees to make these efforts more accessible.
We believe that the key to making progress in the stray dog pandemic lies in empowering these existing networks by:
Implementing a targeted funding approach. Donations are utilized and sent as prepaid sterilization surgeries to trusted & experienced veterinary clinics. Eligibility for these donated surgeries is limited to stray female dogs in their reproductive prime and in good health.
The clinic and our outreach professionals then inform independent trappers in the region about the availability of these free sterilizations and the eligibility criteria.
Recognizing that trapping requires specialized equipment, we also share our video tutorials on constructing cost-effective and efficient traps, enabling trappers to collaborate with local carpenters for affordable trap construction. Our channel also provides additional tactics that may be useful in the trapping process.
Giving communities and trappers direction and, most importantly, hope that we have a chance at solving this overwhelming problem.
We believe this approach effectively tackles the core issues hindering efforts to reduce stray dog populations in these countries. These issues are:
Limited geographic coverage
Inefficient resource allocation
Insufficient funds
Subpar trapping efficiency/tactics.
In conclusion, we do not need volunteers in the traditional sense; What we need is funding to help pay for surgeries and more individuals or groups to become trappers, adopting our strategy, in their free time. Even a single Saturday morning dedicated to trapping a local stray female dog can make a significant impact if many individuals did the same. We believe that if trappers and veterinarians adopted this method, in the not too distant future, a stray dog could become a rare sight.
We use our free time, and our own finances, attempting to improve the stray dog problem. The fact that it's not our country is not important. The real issue is the enormous amount of suffering within stray dog populations, a problem we humans created and we should fix, regardless of which country the stray dogs reside in.
If you’d like to read more about why we chose to focus on stray female dogs, click the link below.