The Private and Street Dog Populations of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, July 2018
Abstract
Humane Society International - India (HSI- India), together with the Humane Animal Society (HAS) and a team of volunteers, conducted two dog population surveys (private (pet) dogs and street dogs) in 100 wards of Coimbatore, India (The 2011 census provides a human population of 1,050,7211; An estimate from 2017 projects a human population of 1,890,0002). The survey estimated the street dog population at 46,292 dogs. Based on the 2011 census data this translates to 44.1 dogs per 1,000 people (or, based on the 2017 estimate, to 24.5 street dogs per 1,000 people). There were 8.87 street dogs per km of road in Coimbatore. From the household survey, 20% of households owned at least one dog producing an estimated private dog population of approximately 82,023 private dogs (based on the 2011 census data). In other words, there were approximately twice as many private dogs as street dogs. However, the overlap of street and roaming private dogs could not be estimated. Sterilization rates were low in the private dog population with only 19% of dogs being sterilized. The proportion of private dogs with current rabies vaccinations was reported to be with 75%. The sterilization rates of street dogs varied from zone to zone with 40.4 % sterilized dogs in the West zone-1, 42.1 % sterilized dogs in West Zone-2, 48.6% sterilized dogs in the Centre Zone-1 and 39.8 % sterilized dogs in Centre Zone-2.
