0:02 So, free roaming dogs and cats are a 0:05 worldwide phenomenon. In America, they 0:08 estimate that there are 60 million to a 0:11 hundred million free roaming cats, which 0:15 is pretty amazing, and in Brazil, I don't 0:18 have a-- there's not an estimate for how 0:20 many are in Brazil, but they say that 0:22 Brazil has the world's second largest 0:24 population of dogs at 31 million and of 0:28 cats at 21 million. So, estimates of those 0:33 that are free roaming is quite large, 0:35 although no one actually knows how many. 0:37 In Rio de Janeiro alone, there are 0:39 150,000 street dogs and cats. Municipal 0:44 shelters in Brazil, as I'm sure you all 0:47 well know, do their best, but there have 0:49 been a lot of accusations of inhumane 0:51 treatment of the animals, and basically, 0:54 there are too many animals for the 0:56 resources that are in the shelters. 0:58 Private shelters in Brazil have done a 1:02 lot of very innovative type of work as 1:05 far as coming up with some very creative 1:07 ideas of improving the welfare of the 1:10 animals, and we're going to talk about 1:12 that later on. The central idea of this talk 1:14 is that the emphasis of animal welfare 1:18 and human welfare is related, and this is 1:22 a quote from one of my heroes, Marian 1:24 Stamp Dawkins, she is a professor of 1:27 animal behavior at Oxford University, in 1:31 the United Kingdom, and she has done 1:34 quite a lot as far as advancing the 1:36 field of animal welfare and making it 1:39 into a scientific discipline. So, her view, 1:42 which I thought was relevant to the talk 1:44 tonight, is that emphasizing the human 1:47 benefits of good animal welfare does not 1:49 detract from seeing animal welfare as a 1:52 good in itself. 1:53 By adding more reasons for people to 1:57 value animal welfare, we'll also 2:00 benefit the animals. She is one of the 2:02 founders of the scientific approach to 2:04 studying animal welfare. The numbers are 2:07 increasing all over the world, 2:08 unfortunately, and... So, street animals can 2:12 be classified based on their level of 2:14 independence from humans, the levels of 2:17 street animals, which you'd find in any 2:19 town, city or village are: number one, 2:23 owned pets, who are out for fun. This is 2:26 the dog or the cat that escapes from 2:28 their owner's house or yard, and has a good 2:32 time for the day, running around; then 2:35 there are owned pets who are free to roam, 2:37 but have a home to come back to; there are vetsaber.com.br https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3id5l-mrcrc&feature=youtu.be 1/9
2:42 formerly owned pet who are habituated to 2:46 close human contact, but are now 2:48 living as street animals, and then village 2:52 dogs... I don't know if this is a common 2:55 occurrence here in Brazil, but when we 2:57 were in Indonesia last summer, there was-- 3:00 they called them Bali dogs, but they were the 3:02 dogs that lived in the village and 3:04 everybody sort of knew who they belonged 3:07 to, but they really just ran around in a 3:09 pack of dogs. 3:12 And then there are also collectively owned 3:14 cats, who are similarly legally unowned, 3:17 but are semi-tamed, in the sense that they 3:19 like contact with people. I've met a lot 3:22 of those since I've been in Brazil the 3:23 last two weeks, because a lot of the 3:25 street cats are quite friendly, I'm 3:27 pleased to say. And lastly, there are 3:30 feral dogs and cats, who are the wild 3:33 animals that live pretty much on the 3:36 perimeter of human life, and many of the 3:39 feral cats are never seen by 3:41 humans because they really live as wild 3:43 animals. The feral dogs are the ones that 3:46 can sometimes be intimidating to humans, 3:48 in the sense that they may growl or they 3:51 may exhibit aggressive behavior. And then 3:56 the tricky part, of course, with these 3:58 free roaming animals, is that sometimes, 4:01 the presumed owners, even though everyone 4:04 knows who the owner is, the presumed 4:06 owners deny ownership because-- mainly for 4:10 financial reasons, I think. Alright, so 4:12 the first question we have to ask, which 4:14 is the heart - one of the hearts - of 4:16 this talk, is what is a decent life for 4:18 street animals? And that's where the 4:21 science of animal welfare comes in. So, 4:24 what is a decent life for street animals? 4:26 Would it be different for dogs and cats? 4:28 Would it be different for the five 4:30 categories of free roaming animals that 4:33 we just mentioned here? This question, of 4:36 what's a good life for these animals, 4:38 lies at the heart of the study of animal 4:40 welfare. Animal welfare scientists 4:43 have attempted to answer the question of 4:46 what makes a life worth living, or what 4:48 makes a good life. Welfare scientists 4:51 begin with what's called the five 4:53 freedoms, 4:55 or the five principles of animal welfare, 4:57 and that's what I have seen up on the 5:00 screen there. This is from the Farm 5:02 Animal Welfare Commission, which was 5:04 a commission from the United 5:06 Kingdom back in the 50s and 60s, when the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3id5l-mrcrc&feature=youtu.be 2/9
5:09 public began to notice that farm animals 5:11 were badly treated. So, a bunch of 5:14 scientists from Cambridge and Oxford got 5:16 together and studied this, and these are 5:20 the five freedoms that they feel are 5:23 relevant, not just for farm animals, but 5:25 for all animals. So, we have to think 5:28 about those five freedoms in terms of 5:31 the street animals. Now, many scientists 5:33 feel that the five freedoms raises more 5:36 questions than it answers, for example, 5:39 how do you weight the five freedoms? Which 5:42 is the most important of those in any 5:45 given situation? For example, the dogs in 5:48 this photo here clearly have the freedom 5:51 to express natural behavior, that's one 5:56 of the five freedoms - the freedom to 5:58 express normal behavior, meaning they can 6:00 live as dogs, doing doggy things like 6:03 running around, sniffing garbage, all this 6:05 kind of thing. So the dogs in the photo 6:08 clearly have the freedom to express 6:10 normal behavior, and they can probably 6:13 find shelter from temperature extremes, 6:15 but do they receive adequate nutrition? 6:18 What about the freedom from pain, injury, 6:21 or disease? That was one of the 6:23 five freedoms as well. An American 6:26 veterinarian, Dr. Jessup, has stated that 6:30 freeroaming animals also have the 6:33 freedom to live short brutal lives and 6:36 experience 6:37 painful death as they experience little or no 6:40 medical care throughout their lives. 6:42 Jessup says feral cats do not die of old 6:47 age, they are poisoned, shot, tortured, 6:50 attacked by other animals, hit by cars, or 6:53 die of exposure, starvation, or disease. So, 6:56 there've been various veterinarians, and I 6:58 don't want to insult your intelligence, 6:59 since you're all either vets or soon to 7:01 be vets, but many vets have studied the 7:04 free-roaming animals and, naturally, there 7:06 is-- these are some of the many medical 7:09 concerns. For example, kittens have 7:12 a 15 to 75% mortality rate, 7:15 which means that any given year, 50 to 7:19 75% of the kittens who were born 7:21 don't survive. They also have parasites, 7:27 viral diseases, traumatic injuries, and 7:30 rabies. Now, we're going to discuss rabies 7:32 in Brazil, because that's kind of a complicated 7:34 factor, but just for now, worldwide, most 7:37 free-roaming animals live in developing 7:39 countries, and are found in largest 7:42 numbers in those areas of each country 7:44 with the most poverty. So another 7:46 question that's relevant is how do we https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3id5l-mrcrc&feature=youtu.be 3/9
7:50 assess the welfare of animals when in 7:53 some cases the humans in a given 7:54 community do not themselves have the five 7:57 freedoms? Does the welfare of humans 8:00 trump the welfare of the animals? How can 8:04 you ask a community of people who may be 8:07 financially not well off to care about 8:10 the welfare of the animals when some of 8:12 those humans lack basic nutrition, 8:14 protection from temperature extremes, 8:17 nutrition, or medical care? 8:22 So how do we move beyond the five 8:24 freedoms to include the community's 8:26 interactions with the animals, i.e., the 8:29 cares of the community who-- cares of 8:33 community animals, who experience 8:35 themselves hunger and fear regularly, or 8:38 there may not be any veterinary care in 8:40 the area... Humans and animals both benefit 8:43 from contact with each other. The main 8:45 danger to humans seems to be dog bites, 8:48 some of which lead to rabies, others 8:50 become infected. This can set off a chain 8:53 reaction of people becoming more afraid 8:56 of the street dogs and the dogs being 8:58 more and more cut off from human contact. 9:01 We will now discuss some topics 9:04 concerning the fear of rabies and some 9:06 programs to reduce this problem. In 9:09 1973, the Brazilian Ministry of Health 9:12 began a large-scale program to prevent 9:15 human rabies. Numbers have decreased 9:17 since this program, but in Brazil, there 9:20 were still 163 documented human rabies 9:23 cases between 2000 and 2009. 9:25 45% were 9:29 transmitted by bats, but dogs and cats 9:32 were responsible for many of the others. 9:34 It is still considered a serious public 9:38 health problem, although the numbers have 9:40 decreased in many states. Now, as a 9:44 newcomer to Brazil, this was very 9:46 puzzling, because I read through 9:48 dozens of studies about rabies in Brazil, 9:50 and one author concludes 9:54 there's no problem, another author says 9:56 in this state there's a big problem, so 9:59 my conclusion that I came to was that, 10:02 because it's such a diverse country, that 10:05 in some states the problem is mostly 10:07 eliminated, but not in other states. 10:10 However a Brit-- a Brazilian scientist, 10:15 or veterinarian, Cordero concluded that 10:18 dogs are still considered the 10:20 main reservoir of the rabies virus in 10:23 Brazil. Now, as a recent study from 2014, 10:28 I believe - if anybody wants that citation, 10:30 you can get to me later and I'll give it to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3id5l-mrcrc&feature=youtu.be 4/9
10:32 you. Studies in other countries show that 10:36 66% of the victims were 10:38 male, of dog bites which led to rabies, 10:42 and 44% were under age 20. 10:46 Bites were 33% on hand 10:49 and 39% on legs and feet. 10:52 As you can see in this photo here, which 10:55 is from the world animal protection, it's 10:58 oftentimes the young kids in the 11:00 neighborhood, in the villages, or in the 11:02 town that was bit-- associated with the 11:04 dog. Nineteen percent of rabies vaccine-- 11:07 rabies bites have been caused by cat 11:10 bites, in general studies from around the 11:13 world. So, it's clear that children are 11:16 the most at risk group. 11:17 Another important finding, and this is a 11:20 worldwide study of developing countries, 11:23 was that only 17% of the 11:25 animals had been vaccinated against 11:27 rabies. So many authors and/or 11:32 international organizations, suggested 11:34 a rabies prevention strategy should 11:36 involve education for young people and 11:38 adults, as well as vaccinations, and 11:41 hopefully reducing the dog population. 11:43 Many programs focus on educating young 11:46 people for several reasons, and when I 11:49 talk about these programs, these are 11:50 programs that are actually in existence 11:53 in different parts of the world, usually 11:54 from international animal welfare 11:56 organizations. So they are working on 12:00 educating young people for several 12:02 reasons. Not only are they the most 12:04 likely to interact with the street 12:06 animals, they are also the most likely to 12:08 be bit. So I've sort of composed-- come 12:12 up with a hypothetical three-point plan, 12:15 or actually, five-point plan that could 12:17 be implemented in a hypothetical village 12:20 somewhere. So there will be-- some 12:23 components to that include community 12:26 education, vaccination program, hopefully 12:29 with neutering, and adequate guardianship 12:33 program. The adequate guardianship was 12:36 initially designed by the International 12:38 Fund for Animal Welfare, otherwise known 12:41 as IFAW, I-F-A-W. The education program 12:46 for children and adults will focus on 12:48 bite prevention and emergency treatment 12:51 for bite wounds. 12:52 We want-- These organizations then talk 12:56 about providing the five welfare needs 12:58 for street animals through the 13:00 responsible guardianship program. 13:05 Now, many of these-- because literacy 13:08 levels vary considerably sometimes from
13:11 area to area, these will be done in a way 13:14 that does not involve a lot of reading. 13:16 Much of our education program that would 13:19 be used in these programs is based on 13:22 photographs and presentations with 13:24 minimal words, minimal written words 13:26 anyway. Many regions, such as São Paulo 13:29 State, have recently passed laws which 13:31 dramatically increase the penalties for 13:33 animal neglect and cruelty, so I think 13:37 that's another very favorable thing. 13:40 That slide looks really dark, it's a 13:42 bunch of street cats that eating 13:43 hand out from a crazy cat lady, who was 13:46 actually me, I have to say, but anyway... 13:48 So now we're going to talk about 13:50 programs to improve welfare of street 13:52 animals and humans. One of the myths 13:54 which exists in many areas is that dogs 13:57 do not need to be cared for, that they 13:59 can survive on their own without human 14:01 carers. Since 1994, Animals Asia has had 14:05 an innovative program called Professor 14:08 Paws, in which specially trained dogs 14:10 visit primary schools - originally 14:13 in China, but has since spread around the 14:15 world - to help children overcome their 14:18 fear of dogs and learn safety around the 14:21 dogs. In countries like Brazil, where 14:24 there is a long tradition 14:25 of caring for animals, the children are 14:28 not as fearful of dogs as they are in 14:30 China, so the emphasis here could be on 14:34 how to properly care for the dogs, and how 14:37 to read dog body language. This will 14:40 show the children that the dogs have 14:42 feelings 14:44 and that the dogs feel heat, thirst, 14:46 hunger, cold, and fatigue, and fear in the 14:50 same way that they do. By the end of the 14:53 lessons, the children will have learned 14:55 how to feed, water, and safely interact 14:57 with the dogs. So the idea is that these 15:00 dogs go into communities and work with 15:03 the children in the primary schools and 15:05 they learn all these things from them. 15:07 Another goal of these sessions is at the 15:10 bottom here, the Adequate Guardianship 15:13 program, which was originally designed by 15:16 IFAW, as I said earlier. This uses-- 15:20 using mentors in the community. These 15:23 mentors in the community are local 15:25 people, so that is the guardianship program, 15:28 then it-- works with local people 15:31 who are kind-hearted towards the animals 15:33 and basically teaches them about the 15:36 five freedoms and how best to care for 15:38 them. So this, the third program, is an
15:40 exciting tool for reading dog body 15:43 language called Be a Tree, in which 15:45 children learn how to act safely 15:48 around dogs. Because I'm running out of 15:50 time, I'm just going to go through this. 15:52 The idea is, it's teaching children to be 15:55 safe around dogs - remembering now that 15:57 children get bit on their hands, feet, and 15:59 face, because they're leaning over 16:01 towards the dog. So if the dog is acting 16:03 aggressively - which the kids are going to 16:05 learn how to identify an aggressive dog - 16:08 the answer is be a tree. Stand still, 16:12 be quiet, and avoid eye contact with the animals, 16:16 because eye contact with any animal is 16:19 oftentimes perceived as a threat. So, the 16:22 children have to practice then - like that. 16:25 And the idea is that they role play with each other 16:29 and have a good time with it. Alright, 16:31 this is the next idea, this is using fun 16:34 techniques, such as coloring sheets and 16:36 things like that for kids, to reinforce 16:40 the same message about how to act around 16:43 your dog. Nineteen percent of rabies 16:46 bites typically come from cats. 16:48 We're going to add-- there may be some fun 16:51 activities can be added in about cats, 16:53 about reading cat body language, and 16:55 how to act around cats etc etc. Now, I 16:58 think I'm going to skip over this 17:00 vaccination scheme, this basically has to 17:03 do with the international animal 17:05 welfare organizations feel that if you 17:08 can vaccinate 70% of the 17:10 street dogs in any given area, that that 17:12 is considered to be a safe level of 17:15 support and protection 17:17 against rabies, but we're not going to go 17:19 into that due to running out of time, and 17:21 I want to get to the part about Brazil. 17:22 It's extremely important, because rabies 17:25 is a huge problem for life and creates a 17:28 lot of bad welfare for dogs. The World 17:30 Animal Protection, which is-- this is their 17:32 slide and their program here - they have 17:34 many very creative solutions about mass 17:37 vaccinations, and they have groups, huge 17:42 groups, of volunteers basically, a lot of 17:45 people I know from the UK take part 17:48 in these programs. And they send a team 17:52 into a village or into an area and just do 17:54 mass vaccinations of the street dogs and 17:57 cats, with them vaccinating hundreds of animals 18:00 in a day. And the World Animal 18:04 Protection has this program called 18:05 Collars not Cruelty, so that what the 18:09 dogs that are vaccinated are then given 18:11 a red collar. This is-- therefore, then the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3id5l-mrcrc&feature=youtu.be 7/9
18:15 people in the village or in the town 18:16 know that that's a dog that's safe and 18:18 isn't going to carry rabies. They also are 18:21 vaccinated for other diseases too, while 18:23 they're there. The idea is that since the 18:25 animals are no longer a threat, people's 18:28 perception of the animals will be 18:30 changing and their welfare improves 18:33 along the way. So now I'm going to talk 18:36 about some innovative programs that are 18:38 already happening in Brazil. The first 18:40 one on the right there: Campo Largo, in 18:43 southern Brazil, has implemented since 18:46 2012 a community dog program, where local 18:49 dog lovers assume basic responsibility 18:52 for caring for unowned street dog. 18:54 This is in effect the same program that I 18:56 mentioned earlier, called adequate 18:59 guardianship. So then, they call them maintainers, 19:03 and the maintainers agree to provide 19:06 food, water, shelter, and basic veterinary 19:09 care. Now, I don't understand the funding 19:11 of this, but somehow it's in conjunction 19:14 with the local government, so somehow the 19:18 government or some international animal 19:21 welfare organization gives funding for 19:23 this to happen. So, the photo on the right 19:27 shows food and water that was laid out 19:30 in Rio de Janeiro by some local 19:32 guardians - we were there just last week. 19:35 There were several cats in the area who 19:38 appeared to be well-fed and healthy and 19:40 were quite friendly and receptive 19:42 to meeting people - even me. It was good fun. 19:45 Also around Rio, I found 19:48 some of these very encouraging signs. 19:50 This was a sign that was in a car park 19:52 near the Botanical Garden urging people 19:55 to be careful for cats that might 19:58 be hiding in the shade under the car. 20:01 Then, on the left, there is also another 20:03 street sign that was in the same area, 20:06 again, urging motorists just to be 20:08 careful for street animals. I thought that was 20:10 great. One of the most exciting trends in 20:13 Brazil, that I've been excited to find 20:16 out about, and I again apologize if you all 20:18 already know this stuff, but I thought it 20:20 was really cool. So, they've come up with 20:22 some really clever ideas, as far as 20:24 increasing public awareness of the fact 20:27 that not all street dogs are horrible, 20:30 scary creatures, that a lot are actually 20:33 quite clever and quite trainable. So, this 20:37 is an example: at the Brazilian open 20:39 tennis tournament [they] used four shelter dogs, 20:41 trained to serve as bat dogs - or ball 20:44 dogs, sorry - so these dogs were trained to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3id5l-mrcrc&feature=youtu.be 8/9
20:47 run around the perimeter of the tennis 20:49 court retrieving the balls. Well, this got 20:53 a huge amount of publicity, and then, of 20:55 course, the people that did the training 20:57 made a big point of saying 'well, these 20:59 are ex-street dogs that are in the shelter 21:01 and aren't they wonderful...' I just thought that 21:03 was great, because that was like, a 21:05 picture's worth a thousand words, you know? 21:08 So, this also leads then to a change of how 21:11 people view street dogs in their own 21:12 community, because then maybe someone goes 21:14 out their front door and sees a dog and thinks 'well...' 21:16 I love this, and you guys may 21:18 already know this, but when I heard about it, I 21:20 was just-- I was actually in tears, and I'm 21:22 going to get in tears again. So, this was 21:25 so amazing. This 21:28 animal shelter in Rio, which I'm not 21:30 going to butcher the Portuguese, but that's 21:33 the name of it [Associação Quatro Patinhas], had what I consider 21:35 the best idea of all. So, they went to a 21:39 local pet shop that was in a very 21:41 expensive neighborhood and took-- filled 21:44 all the cages with dogs and cats from 21:47 their shelter. So these kind of posh 21:50 people came in to buy expensive dogs, you 21:53 know, Shih-tzus or whatever fancy breed 21:55 they were looking for, and found all these 21:58 shelter dogs, but they didn't know they 22:00 were shelter dogs and so they said "Oh, that 22:02 one is too cute... Oh, look how handsome 22:04 that one is" and how much was it. Well, this 22:07 is all on youtube if you want to look it 22:09 up, it was just amazing. And so the 22:12 owner of the pet shop and the shelter 22:14 workers then said "oh, that one's free, or 22:17 that one is a ten dollar 22:20 donation to such and such. And so these-- all 22:24 these animals got rehomed and I thought 22:26 that was just brilliant, you know? So, 22:29 especially in an area, I guess, in Brazil 22:31 here a lot of people buy pets from pet 22:33 stores, so I just thought that was just so 22:36 clever. And if you're interested, look it 22:38 up, it's on youtube, and you'll be in tears, believe me. 22:39 And there's a great interview 22:42 with the person that runs the shelter. So, 22:46 in conclusion, there are so many 22:48 creative projects that are improving the 22:50 welfare of all, both people and street 22:53 animals, many of them happening right 22:55 here in Brazil. So, I've described only a 22:58 few of the ways people are working 22:59 together for the benefit of the 23:01 community and for the animals. So, thank you 23:03 very much for your time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3id5l-mrcrc&feature=youtu.be 9/9