Road Count Blog
When: June 6th – September 4th 2021
Where: New Providence, Bahamas
Who: A LOT of dedicated Baark! Volunteers
Why: To establish a rough idea of the population to see if what we are doing is helping!
What: Hundreds of hours of volunteer time + collaboration with WVS + IFAW
The Facts
983 households visited
805 consented to take part in our survey
1043 dogs encountered
Of the 1043 dogs:
– 52% vaccinated
– 23% spayed or neutered
– 20.6% roam ALL the time (16.4% spayed or neutered)
– 11.1% roam SOMETIMES
– 66.5% never roam (26.6% spayed or neutered)
Reasons people did NOT want to spay or neuter:
1. Wanted puppies
2. Believed it would cause a change of behavior and it’s not necessary
Reasons people who DO WANT to spay or neuter but had not:
1. Cost
2. Accessibility.
The Big Picture
Census of 2010 reported an average household of 3.5 people
Using this mean and the data collected it gives an estimated dog population in New Providence of 83,564 dogs
20.6% of which are roaming (see above)
= 17,214 roaming owned dogs! (plus more stray and community dogs who are loosely owned)
This data is supported from our 2 past population surveys
2012 – we estimated a population of 20,000 roaming dogs
2015 – we estimated a population of 15,000 roaming dogs *(Large spay and neuter efforts in 2013 and 2014 + distemper outbreak of 2014/2015 contributed to this reduction)
Of the 17,214 roaming dogs estimated in 2021 16.4% are spayed or neutered
Leaving an estimated number of 14,391 dogs unfixed and roaming (plus more owned dogs that need to be spayed or neutered.)
What it means:
– Baark!’s efforts have been effective in keeping the population increase at a minimum for the past 6 years. Without our efforts the population would have been much higher and more than likely we would have had a distemper outbreak as nature’s way of reducing the population. This would have resulted in a tremendous amount of unnecessary suffering
– Baark! has averaged about 2,000 spay and neuters per year (with our #’s per year increasing to over 3,000 per year since 2020)
– By dramatically increasing the number of dogs we spay/neuter to 5,000 – 7,000 per year we anticipate in 5 years to have dramatically affected the number of unwanted dogs in The Bahamas.
For the Cat Lovers!
A population count for cats is very tricky because they are not easily spotted like dogs are.
During our study, many owners admitted to ‘feeding’ cats or seeing cats around but many did not take ownership for the cats.
Baark! is committed to spaying and neutering cats as well and reducing the number of unwanted cats as well. (This is also a positive for our bird lovers out there too!).
Reminder
Baark!’s mission is to reduce the amount of unnecessary suffering for dogs and cats in The Bahamas through spay, neuter and education efforts.
The Baark! team prides ourselves on working towards this mission EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Education
IMMEASURABLE – Bahamian’s orientation towards animals is changing.
2021 Full Results of Population Study