Demographic aspects of owned-dog population from Boyeros municipality, Cuba

Abstract

In order to study the demographic characteristics of the dog population whose owners live in Boyeros municipality, Havana, 430 home interviews were carried out in the seven different districts of the municipality. In order to determine the population of dogs with owners, a man/dog relationship was established taking into account the total number of people and dogs included in the interview. The proportions of dogs per house, sex and different age groups were processed in the statistical software STATGRAPHICS plus (version 5.1). It was estimated that the proportion of houses having dogs in Boyeros was of 63% (95% CI, 52.77 - 72.44), and it was verified that most houses (40%) had a single dog, which represented more than half of the homes having these kinds of pet (66%). It was evidenced that there was one dog per 3.25 inhabitants and per each house, reason why a population of 57992 dogs with owners was esteemed. The districts Armada and Altahabana were those of smaller territorial extent and dog population; however, they showed a higher dog density/km2. The female/male relationship of the municipality was 0.96: 1 and there were no significant differences (p≥0.05) between both sexes according to their racial composition. It was considered a young population, with an average age of 4.4 years.

Key words: dog population, territorial extension, districts, dog density.