Simple Summary: As Australians increasingly purchase their companion dogs online, Australian state and territory authorities are faced with the challenge of ensuring online sales adhere to local regulations. Using webscraping techniques, we analysed 1735 unique advertisements for dogs and puppies from Gumtree-one of Australia's most popular trading platforms-and benchmarked levels of microchipping, desexing and breeder identification numbers in each state and territory. We found an increased likelihood of microchipping in states requiring microchipping prior to sale and inclusion of chip numbers in advertisements. Older animals who were microchipped were more likely to be desexed, and advertisements placed by breeders who were selling vaccinated puppies were more likely to include a breeder registration number in their ad than sellers who identified themselves as owners. We recommend regulatory bodies use this data to make evidence-based decisions on future regulation and use this benchmark to monitor effectiveness of any changes.Abstract: In Australia, each state and territory authority implements and enforces regulations regarding dog management-including the breeding and sale of dogs online-which is increasingly becoming the most popular method of obtaining pets. The aims for this study included: 1. Benchmarking regulatory compliance in online dog advertisements in Australia, and, 2. Understanding factors associated with regulatory compliance in online advertisements. We collected advertisements for dogs and puppies from Gumtree-one of Australia's most popular online trading platforms-on two separate days, two weeks apart (25 March and 8 April 2019). A total of 1735 unique advertisements were included in the dataset. Chi-squared tests and multivariable logistic regression models were used to identify risk factors for microchipping, desexing and breeder identification number, and compliance levels. State laws requiring animals to be microchipped prior to sale and the inclusion of chip numbers in advertisements were found to be the biggest factor in increasing likelihood of microchipped animals in Gumtree advertisements, while desexing was more common in microchipped and older animals. The online ad was more likely to include a breeder ID if the dog was young, vaccinated, and advertised by a breeder rather than an owner. The findings from this study will assist regulators to make evidence-based decisions on managing online advertisements for companion animals. In the future, the benchmarking this study has presented will allow future analysis of the effectiveness of regulation changes.
The roles companion animals have played in our lives has dramatically changed over the last few decades. At the same time, the terms we use to describe both the people and animals in these human-animal relationships have also changed. One example includes the use of the terms ‘owner’ or ‘guardian’ to refer to the human caretaker. While preferences by society appear to indicate increased interest in referring to companion animal caretakers as ‘guardians’, others have cautioned against its use or attempted to restrict it. Additionally, the use of animal welfare terminology has direct implications for how we conduct both welfare research and practice. Our paper examines the use of ‘owner’ and ‘guardian’ with respect to (1) the implications for changing terminology on the function, clarity and uniformity of their use, and (2) the ethical and welfare impact that coincides with each term’s use. Our goal is to propose terminological considerations that could influence future welfare research, as well as help guide our interactions with companion animals.
The use of an ecological model in puppy development research can help to capture the real-world complexity of development factors and outcomes. Using a modified version of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, we explored the real-world experiences of 20 Australian adults who had acquired and were subsequently raising a puppy in their home for companionship purposes. Our participants’ experiences offered insights into several gaps in the current literature and potential opportunities for future research. These insights included: (1) researchers should be wary of viewing a puppy’s household as uniform, or static. Each individual within a household provides unique interactions and development opportunities and therefore cannot be a reliable representative of the household at large; (2) knowledge is unlikely to be uni-directional, or deriving from only a single source, even in environments such as puppy classes. How knowledge is transferred, trusted, interpreted, and applied is likely affected by the individual’s own ecological system (such as biases), as well as the characteristics of the relationship between the individuals involved; and (3) puppies both are affected by, and have an effect on, those around them. The arrival of a puppy into a household is likely to change the existing dynamics of that household. These changes may be positive or negative in nature, or both simultaneously. Further research into these findings may help researchers better understand the complex nature of puppy development.
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