The Problem of Homeless Cats and Dogs Deserves Our Attention

By Zhou Xianxian and Yan Biyu

Dr. Sarah Platto is an Italian veterinarian expert on an imal behavior and welfare,serving as an assistant professor of animal behavior and welfare at Jianghan University. She came to China in 2007 and has been engaged in animal research ever since.

She loves being with animals and has developed an acute sense of what is going on in the minds of animals through their expressions and gestures. She believes that animals have a certain unique language and that humans share DNA with all other animals, so they are closely related to us. For the last two years on World Rabies Day, she has organized campaigns in Wuhan in response to the call of “Global Alliance for Rabies Control.” The campaign this year provided 150 rabies vaccines for free with the help of a pharmaceutical company called Boehringer Ingelheim Shanghai.

At present, as homeless cats and dogs are becoming a serious urban problem, we’ve had an interview with Dr. Sarah Platto, an Italian veterinarian behaviorist,in order to gain more insights from a professional perspective.

Why do we see so many homeless cats and dogs in cities?Over-breeding is the main reason. A female cat, for example,can give birth to anywhere from six tofifteen kittens a year,and a new kitten can mature and begin to reproduce within a year. In order to control them, the internationally recognized approach is to trap, neuter, and release them (TNR), which can control the number of stray cats and dogs, and create a relatively stable environment for them—to avoid fl eeing andfighting.

Another reason is that humans abandon pets. For this reason, Dr.Platto said that there should be comprehensive management measures to help mitigate this.In Italy, for example, every pet has a microchip implanted under their skin between their shoulder blades, which records the owner’s name and contact information. Abandoning pets is against the law in Italy and has legal liabilities.

As for the diseases stray animals carry, Dr. Platto said that rabies is the only infectious disease that can bring danger to human life, while other diseases do not cause serious harm to living creatures. The infection can spread from animals to humans, killing about 60,000 people worldwide each year.

She said that killing animals is definitely not an effective way to control rabies. In 2008, during a major outbreak of rabies on the island of Bali, the government killed nearly 200,000 dogs, but the local epidemic became more serious. Dr. Platto explained that a territory can only support a certain number of animals and the animals inside the territory form a well-controlled and managed group which doesn’t allow other animals to come in. Once some of the animals in the area are killed, other animals will come to compete for food. Such flows can lead tofights between animals, and thus rabies is more likely to spread.

The most effective way to control rabies is to give animals a rabies vaccine. People who have been bitten by cats and dogs need five more shots, even if they have been vaccinated. However, dogs and cats need to be vaccinated only once a year even if they get bit by an infected animal. In Italy, for example, between the 1960s and 1970s, the government used to organize vaccination campaigns every six months, which offered free vaccines for every pet owner and threw baits containing oral rabies vaccine to the streets or the wild for stray and wild animals.This has led to the extinction of rabies in Italy since the 1970s.

Generally speaking, cats and dogs do not attack humans for no reason. Although animals cannot express themselves in language, human beings can understand them by learning about and observing their behavior. “We should learn to identify their emotions: Under what circumstances can we be close to each other and under what circumstances it is best to keep our distance.”

Dr. Platto believes that cats and dogs have lived on earth as humans’ partners for thousands of years, and it is our duty to create an environment where humans can live in harmony with these animals.

薩拉，江漢大學生命科學學院教授，意大利動物行為與福利學專家。2007年來到中國，在中國從事動物研究已有十一年之久。

她喜歡和動物相處，能夠從動物的神情動作中看懂它們的心思。她認為，動物有語言，人類和所有動物都共享著或多或少的DNA，因此人類和動物是緊密聯系在一起的。為響應“全球狂犬病控制聯盟”的號召，近兩年的世界狂犬病日，她都在武漢舉辦了推廣活動，免費提供上百支狂犬病疫苗，希望為控制狂犬病做一些貢獻。

目前，在流浪貓狗成為嚴肅的城市問題之時，我們采訪了意大利動物行為學專家莎拉·普拉托。

為什么我們能在城市里看到那么多的流浪貓狗呢？過度繁殖是主要原因。以貓為例，一只母貓一年就能生下6到15只小貓，新生的小貓一年內就可以發育成熟開始生育。對此，國際上公認的辦法是對流浪動物進行捉捕、絕育、放歸，這樣不僅可以控制流浪貓狗的數目，也可以為它們創造一個相對穩定的環境——避免流動和爭斗。

另外一個原因是人類對寵物的遺棄。為此莎拉說，對寵物應該有完備的管理措施。薩拉以意大利為例：每一個寵物會在后頸部皮下植入芯片，記錄著主人的姓名和聯系方式，遺棄寵物會被追究法律責任。

對于流浪動物帶來的疾病問題，莎拉表示狂犬病是唯一會給人類帶來生命危險的傳染病，其他疾病對人類并無嚴重傷害。這種傳染病可以從動物傳染到人類，導致每年全球大約有六萬人死亡。

她說，殺死動物絕對不是控制狂犬病的有效辦法。在2008年，巴厘島狂犬病爆發，政府殺死了近20萬只狗，當地的疫情反而更嚴重了。莎拉解釋到，流浪動物會在一定的區域內組成團體，團體的數量由該區域的食物資源而決定。一旦該區域的動物被殺掉一部分，就會有其他地方的動物過來爭奪食物。這樣的流動會帶來動物團體之間的爭斗，狂犬病更容易擴散。

控制狂犬病最有效的辦法是給動物們注射狂犬病疫苗，即從源頭上解決問題。被貓狗咬傷的人，即便曾有疫苗的注射經歷，仍需再次注射五只疫苗。不過，給貓狗注射的疫苗可以擁有更長的有效期。仍以意大利為例：上世紀60至70年代之間，政府每半年為貓狗們注射一次疫苗，并投擲裝有可食用疫苗的食物在街頭。這使得狂犬病病例逐漸在意大利銷聲匿跡。

通常來說，貓狗們不會隨便攻擊人類。動物不會用人的語言來表達自己，而人卻可以通過學習相關的知識去理解它們。“我們應該學會辨認它們的情緒：什么情況下可以親近，什么情況下最好保持距離。”

莎拉認為，貓狗們作為人類的伙伴共同生存了上千年，我們有責任創造一個人和貓狗能夠和諧共處的環境。