Lisbon, May 3, 2024 (Lusa) – Mainland Portugal has more than 930,000 stray animals, including 830,541 cats and 101,015 dogs, according to data from the first National Census of Stray Animals released today by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests.
The National Census of Wandering Animals 2023 was developed by the University of Aveiro for the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) and financed by the Environmental Fund.
Data from the National Republican Guard (GNR), compiled in the study and related to road accidents, reveals that 4,640 accidents were reported, of which 4,443 were dogs and 197 cats between 2019 and 2022, with 2020 being the year in which the most accidents were reported (1,428 and 84, respectively).
As for stray cats, only 5.3% of respondents said they had ever felt physically threatened and 5.9% had actually been attacked.
With regard to caring for these cats, 83.4% of respondents have already provided food, 78.6% water, 48.3% shelter, and 14.1% other care.
As for stray dogs, 27.2% of respondents said they had already felt physically threatened by a stray dog, of which 7.2% had been attacked.
More than two-thirds (70.5%) of respondents have provided food for stray dogs, 65.2% have provided water, 37.1% shelter, and 17.1% have provided other care
This study also points out that cat owners have lower levels of responsibility than dog owners, especially in terms of individual identification and unsupervised access to the outdoors.
The majority (26.8%) only have one or two cats, but some had three (17.2%), four (7.8%), five (5.4%) or more than five (14.7%), the main reason being companionship (78%).
“Obtaining cats was reported to be mainly from found animals (68.6%), adopted from shelters (29.5%) or offered by friends or family (19.6%),” according to the data.
A small proportion of those surveyed pointed to buying animals from breeders (4%) via the internet (3.8%), or by breeding them themselves (2.7%).
Dogs, on the other hand, have high rates of responsible ownership: 92% of owners identify and register all their animals and 92% never allow them outside unsupervised, while 25% say they don’t use any form of contraception on their animals and 28% report that they have hunted.
The majority of respondents had only one (45.2%) or two (24.1%) dogs and the main motivation for owning dogs was for companionship (88%).
Approximately one in four people (23.9%) bought animals from breeders (17.2%), via the internet (5.3%) or in pet stores (1.4%).
As part of this study, the Errantes application was also created, which allows each user to record their data and that of their pets, as well as sightings of free-roaming animals or prey captured by animals with or without a keeper.
