Half of all Birth were not planned

Half of all dogs in Greece born to OWNED female dogs, were unwanted and accidental, begging for legislation changes to make neutering mandatory by law.

The municipality of Aegina in collaboration with Zero Stray Pawject has collected behavioral data on the 800 dog owners who have registered their 1,100 dogs in Aegina municipal dog registry over the past 3 years.

We recently added a question to ask if a female dog had births in the past, and whether these births were the result of intentional breeding or unplanned pregnancies against the intentions of the owners.

62% of births were accidental! WHICH MEANS THAT THEIR OWNERS HAD NOT PLANNED FOR THEIR DOGS TO HAVE PUPPIES. The majority of these female dogs have since been neutered, as the owners realized that they cannot prevent a male from impregnating their unneutered female 100% of the time no matter what other measures they take. We heard many stories of owners who thought their female dog would not get pregnant because it lived in a fenced garden. Seems male dogs attracted to a female in heat can surprise with their ability to overcome physical obstacles!

Since the municipality of Aegina and Zero Stray Pawject are offering subsidized neutering since Jan 2020 in Aegina where owners can neuter their dog for almost free, cost is NOT the main driver for not neutering in Aegina anymore. The majority of owners who are unsure or don’t want to neuter believe that their dog lives in a controlled environment where it cannot get pregnant or impregnate another dog. However, sadly this is false. A female intact dog in heat or a male dog smelling a female dog in heat can escape and produce unwanted puppies.

In a country of 10 million inhabitants, with an estimated 1 million stray dogs, there is a massive overpopulation of dogs, of which sadly many end up on the street. Our study results confirm that with half of all births being accidental and given the massive overpopulation of dogs and strays roaming, that the best solution to bring down the number of strays is by spay and neutering owned dogs. While legislative measures to mandate neutering for pet owners may proof difficult, certainly the collection of pet DNA and storage in a centralized database that allows to trace back unwanted, abandoned puppies and kitten to the owner and apply fines to those owners abandoning unwanted litter can proof successfully if implemented. Zero Stray Pawject discussed the need for DNA collection of owned pets for the first time on businessinsider.gr in 2018 and we are happy that the new legislation included a DNA database. Promoting neutering of owned dogs and preventative measures for dogs to produce unwanted litter can more than half the stray dog population in Greece.

In Aegina almost free neutering continueed until Q1 2022.