Abandoned Dogs Increase, 85 in 2023: +8,6% in One Year

In 2023, the number of abandoned dogs will rise to 85 thousand (+ 8,6% compared to 2022), an important indicator of the economic crisis that weighs on families and citizens.

Also worrying is the number of stray dogs, that is, those without owners who claim them, whose number in the Peninsula in 2023 is estimated at 358 thousand. The greatest critical issues are always found in Lazio, Sicily, Campania, Puglia and Calabria where 244 thousand are estimated.

In short, 2023 was a red-flagged year in terms of pet management and marked by theincrease of the plague of abandonment.

The confirmation comes from the XIII Report Animals in the city of Legambiente - with the patronage of Anci, Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, Enci, Fnovi, Anmvi and the Italian Society of Preventive Veterinary Medicine - presented today at Festambiente in Rispescia, in the Grosseto area, on the occasion of the national festival of Legambiente, and which paints a gloomy picture of the 2023 performances of 771 municipal administrations (out of 7.901 total) and 46 health companies (out of 110 total) that responded to the questionnaire sent by the environmentalist association on the management of animals in the city

. In the face of these numbers, the country, despite there being no lack of virtuous examples, is marked by a management that travels at too different speeds - the Municipalities are still slow with only 34,5% recording sufficient performance against the 80,4% of the Health Authorities - and then there are still too many delays and difficulties in the Peninsula related to monitoring, regulation, controls, and animal-friendly services in the city and at the seaside.

Delays that have negative impacts on the management of pets in cities, in the face of public spending in the sector equal to 2023 million euros in 248 (+7,4% compared to 2022), of which 190 million by Municipalities (3,2 euros/citizen) and almost 58 million by Health Authorities (0,98 euros/citizen).

Public spending heavily influenced by the costs of shelters, an indicator of poor commitment to prevention policies, and equivalent to 64,1% (+6,8% compared to 2022) of sector spending.

We are talking about public spending for the sector that is equivalent to approximately 3,6 times the amount committed to the management of all 24 National Parks and even more than 24 times the amount committed to the management of all 29 Marine Protected Areas.

Among the Achilles heels that Italy must work on is, first and foremost, that of the canine registry. Only 41% of the Municipalities (316 out of 771) know the total number of dogs registered in the canine registry present in their territory, equal to 1.812.008 dogs.

Percentage that drops to 37,1% with regard to the awareness of new registrations that occurred in the year 2023, equal to 87.602 dogs. The data on animal friendly services also gives pause for thought: only 33,3% of municipalities declare that they have spaces dedicated to pets (Overall there are 1.602 areas dedicated to dogs, on average about one space for every 6.842 resident citizens with important differences between municipalities (for example in Cervicati (Cs) there is 1 area for every 785 citizens, against Messina with 1 for every 72.632 inhabitants).

Even lower is the percentage, 24,7%, of coastal municipalities, that is 1 in four, that have regulated access to the beach, only 24 coastal municipalities of the 97 that provided responses.