Bernete Perdomo Eva, Araña Padilla Jorge E, Dewitte Siegfried
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Feb 18;11(2):524. doi: 10.3390/ani11020524.
Overpopulation and abandonment of pets are long-standing and burgeoning concerns that involve uncontrolled breeding and selling, illegal trafficking, overpopulation, and pet safety and well-being issues. Abandonment of pets creates numerous negative externalities and multimillion-dollar costs, in addition to severe consequences and problems concerning animal welfare (e.g., starvation, untreated disease, climatic extremes, uncertainty of rescue and adoption), ecological (e.g., invasive species and introduction of novel pathogens), public health and safety (e.g., risks to people from bites, zoonoses, or road hazards), and economic (e.g., financial burdens for governmental and nongovernmental organizations). These interwoven problems persist for several reasons, including the following: (1) lack of an efficient system for the prevention of abandonment and overpopulation, (2) lack of regulatory liability for pet owners, (3) lack of legal alternative to abandonment. This article proposes a novel comprehensive management system for amelioration of overpopulation and abandonment of pets aimed to tackle the current supply and demand dysfunction of the pet market and provide a legal alternative to abandonment.
宠物数量过多和被遗弃是长期存在且不断发展的问题，涉及无节制繁殖与售卖、非法交易、数量过多以及宠物安全与福祉等问题。宠物被遗弃会产生众多负面外部效应和数百万美元的成本，此外还会带来与动物福利（如饥饿、疾病未得到治疗、极端气候、救援和领养的不确定性）、生态（如入侵物种和新病原体的引入）、公共卫生与安全（如咬人、人畜共患病或道路危险对人的风险）以及经济（如政府和非政府组织的财政负担）相关的严重后果和问题。这些相互交织的问题持续存在有几个原因，包括：（1）缺乏预防遗弃和数量过多的有效体系，（2）宠物主人缺乏监管责任，（3）缺乏替代遗弃的合法途径。本文提出了一种新颖的综合管理体系，旨在改善宠物数量过多和被遗弃的状况，以解决当前宠物市场的供需失调问题，并提供替代遗弃的合法途径。
