Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

In Swedish households there are approximately 1 443 000 cats and 881 000 dogs. About 20% of the households have at least one cat and about 15% have at least one dog. The owners of these pets are obliged to comply with the animal welfare legislation regarding cats and dogs. The County Administrative Boards (länsstyrelserna) are responsible for ensuring that the legal requirements are met. However, inspections are not carried out on a regular basis. Unless a County Administrative Board receives a complaint from the general public about an owner potentially not complying with the legislation, and considers that report to justify an inspection, a cat or dog owner will not be subject to one. It is every cat and dog owners’ individual responsibility to meet the legal requirements and, according to these, have the competence needed to properly care for their pet. Despite this fact, the owners’ lack of knowledge, or ability to care for their cat or dog, is usually the reason for why they fail to comply with the legislation. This study investigated Swedish cat and dog owners’ view on the animal welfare legislation for pet cats and dogs with the aim to understand the owners’ knowledge, experience and opinions about the legislation and the effect this can have on their pets. The method used was a survey shared on the social media platform “Facebook” which resulted in responses from 115 cat and/or dog owners. The results showed that many owners had heard about the animal welfare act with its supporting regulations and had some knowledge about how to find them but also that they lacked knowledge about what they included. It was found that only few had searched in the regulations and that it was common to turn to Google or equivalent when seeking information about the legislation. The findings show that the level of knowledge could lead to negative consequences for cats and dogs. To ensure good animal protection and welfare we could benefit from making the regulations easily accessible and educating cat and dog owners on the legislation. Further research is needed to fully understand cat and dog owners’ perception on the animal welfare legislation and how to improve the owners’ level of knowledge.