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Representations of Free-Living and Unrestrained Dogs as an Emerging Public Health Issue in Australian Newspapers

That dogs can live and breed as free-living animals contributes to public health risks including zoonotic transmission, dog bites, and compromising people’s sense of safety in public spaces. In Australia, free-living dog populations are comprised of domestic dogs, dingoes, and dog–dingo hybrids, and...

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Autores principales: Degeling, Chris, Hall, Julie, van Eeden, Lily M., Finlay, Summer M., Gurung, Suk Maya, Brookes, Victoria J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8198982/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34071420
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115807
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author Degeling, Chris
Hall, Julie
van Eeden, Lily M.
Finlay, Summer M.
Gurung, Suk Maya
Brookes, Victoria J.
author_facet Degeling, Chris
Hall, Julie
van Eeden, Lily M.
Finlay, Summer M.
Gurung, Suk Maya
Brookes, Victoria J.
author_sort Degeling, Chris
collection PubMed
description That dogs can live and breed as free-living animals contributes to public health risks including zoonotic transmission, dog bites, and compromising people’s sense of safety in public spaces. In Australia, free-living dog populations are comprised of domestic dogs, dingoes, and dog–dingo hybrids, and are described using various terms (for example, stray or community), depending on social or geographic context. Urban expansion and regional migration mean that risks associated with contact between humans and free-living dogs are increasing. Public health authorities, local governments, and community organisations have called for transdisciplinary partnerships to address dog-related health risks with a sustainable long-term approach. Values pluralism and a lack of sustained community engagement in affected areas have meant that the outcome of such efforts to date has been mixed. To identify ideas in public circulation about the impact of unrestrained and free-living dogs on human health and well-being, and understand the framework through which these animals are problematised and solutions are proposed in public discourse, we systematically examined coverage of these issues in print media. Our analyses indicate that reporting in Australian newspapers tends to frame the public health impacts of free-living dogs as problems of public order requiring direct government action to re-establish control. The public health impacts of free-living dog populations in Australia have complex causes that intersect at the nexus between human and canine behaviour, agricultural and land management practices, local bylaws, and efforts to conserve ecological systems. Placing responsibility on governments limits opportunities for greater community involvement in developing integrated One Health approaches. Better-quality evidence of the impacts of dog populations on community health and well-being, and broad community support are needed to reshape public debates on animal control, which, ultimately, will promote more effective approaches to mitigate dog-related public health risks at the human–animal–environment interface.
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spelling pubmed-81989822021-06-14 Representations of Free-Living and Unrestrained Dogs as an Emerging Public Health Issue in Australian Newspapers Degeling, Chris Hall, Julie van Eeden, Lily M. Finlay, Summer M. Gurung, Suk Maya Brookes, Victoria J. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article That dogs can live and breed as free-living animals contributes to public health risks including zoonotic transmission, dog bites, and compromising people’s sense of safety in public spaces. In Australia, free-living dog populations are comprised of domestic dogs, dingoes, and dog–dingo hybrids, and are described using various terms (for example, stray or community), depending on social or geographic context. Urban expansion and regional migration mean that risks associated with contact between humans and free-living dogs are increasing. Public health authorities, local governments, and community organisations have called for transdisciplinary partnerships to address dog-related health risks with a sustainable long-term approach. Values pluralism and a lack of sustained community engagement in affected areas have meant that the outcome of such efforts to date has been mixed. To identify ideas in public circulation about the impact of unrestrained and free-living dogs on human health and well-being, and understand the framework through which these animals are problematised and solutions are proposed in public discourse, we systematically examined coverage of these issues in print media. Our analyses indicate that reporting in Australian newspapers tends to frame the public health impacts of free-living dogs as problems of public order requiring direct government action to re-establish control. The public health impacts of free-living dog populations in Australia have complex causes that intersect at the nexus between human and canine behaviour, agricultural and land management practices, local bylaws, and efforts to conserve ecological systems. Placing responsibility on governments limits opportunities for greater community involvement in developing integrated One Health approaches. Better-quality evidence of the impacts of dog populations on community health and well-being, and broad community support are needed to reshape public debates on animal control, which, ultimately, will promote more effective approaches to mitigate dog-related public health risks at the human–animal–environment interface. MDPI 2021-05-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8198982/ /pubmed/34071420 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115807 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Degeling, Chris
Hall, Julie
van Eeden, Lily M.
Finlay, Summer M.
Gurung, Suk Maya
Brookes, Victoria J.
Representations of Free-Living and Unrestrained Dogs as an Emerging Public Health Issue in Australian Newspapers
title Representations of Free-Living and Unrestrained Dogs as an Emerging Public Health Issue in Australian Newspapers
title_full Representations of Free-Living and Unrestrained Dogs as an Emerging Public Health Issue in Australian Newspapers
title_fullStr Representations of Free-Living and Unrestrained Dogs as an Emerging Public Health Issue in Australian Newspapers
title_full_unstemmed Representations of Free-Living and Unrestrained Dogs as an Emerging Public Health Issue in Australian Newspapers
title_short Representations of Free-Living and Unrestrained Dogs as an Emerging Public Health Issue in Australian Newspapers
title_sort representations of free-living and unrestrained dogs as an emerging public health issue in australian newspapers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8198982/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34071420
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115807
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