Attitudes towards dog ownership on St. Kitts, West Indies.

ABSTRACT

A structured face-to- face interview was held with 64 arbitrarily selected local people attending a vegetable market in the capital of St. Kitts on a Saturday morning. Most (67%) respondents liked dogs and many (57%) owned one (41%) or two (29%) for protection (67%) and as a pet (65%). The main reason people disliked dogs were because they feared them (56%) and because they created a mess (50%). Generally people had purebred (40%) male (56%) dogs which were always outside (50%), in fenced yards (43%), on chains (34%) or running free (22%). All owners fed their dogs, mainly on table scraps (44%) or commercial dog food (39%). Only 16% of animals were neutered and many had puppies (range 3-11) and there was a high mortality rate (>2 puppies in 73% of litters). Only 24% of the dogs were over 4 years. Relatively few owners (55%) took their dogs to the veterinarian, principally for vaccination and checkups (85%) but when their animal was ill (24%). Most people (54%) used insecticides for external parasites on their dogs and some (44%) dewormed their animals. Many people (24%) had been bitten by a dog but 64% did not believe people could acquire diseases from dogs. Only 6% of respondents thought there were too many dogs on the island.