Changing Attitudes and Animal Welfare in Small Island Developing States: Dogs on New Providence, The Bahamas.

This article compares results from a study in 2014 with a similar study from 1998 (Fielding, 1999 ) to examine changes in the care of dogs in New Providence, The Bahamas. The results from a survey of 379 residents indicated a general lack of improvement in matters associated with the care of dogs during the past 16 years. For example, in 1998, it was estimated that 35% of caregivers had at least 1 dog sterilized, and in 2014, the corresponding figure was 37%. In 1998, 14% of households with dogs allowed their dogs to roam compared with 41.7% in 2014. These observations do not indicate inactivity on behalf of nonhuman animal welfare groups or archaic animal welfare legislation, as free spay/neuter campaigns have occurred and stricter laws have been passed since 1998. Rather, it is conjectured that these findings may reflect not only insufficiently sustained and coordinated initiatives in education, access to welfare interventions, and law enforcement, but also as-yet-unknown inadequacies in the approaches used in this cultural setting.