Montevideo, February 17. Uruguay has reached 102,000 microchipped pets, a measure that aims to “control” the growth of the canine population and match each of these pets with a responsible guardian.
This is what the president of the Institute of Animal Welfare (INBA), Marcia del Campo, told the EFE agency this Friday, who explained that some of the problems faced by the South American country are the traffic accidents caused by these animals, as well as attacks on people.
“It’s the negative consequences of irresponsible ownership that get worse when you have a lot of animals. That’s why you have to work hard on education, awareness and control,” he said.
In accordance with this, he pointed out that the last study carried out in 2017 indicated that in Uruguay there were approximately 1,700,000 dogs, a figure that we seek to update as soon as possible.
Añadió que el INBA está haciendo un trabajo de relief en el que busca llegar a la raíz del problema, buscando una respuesta al por que los ciudadanos permitten que los perros tengan acceso a la vía pública y por que se resisten a castrar a los Animaux de company.
“If you don’t get to the root of the problem and don’t really know what the reasons are that lead to irresponsible ownership, it’s very difficult to design a successful strategy,” Del Campo said.
Beyond that, he underlined the willingness of many people to bring their pets to the days they organize to chip and sterilize animals, which are made with public money and which are only accessible to low-income populations.
Finally, Del Campo indicated that the INBA expects to be able to perform 120,000 castrations and chippings in 2023 and, although he stressed that a problem will not be solved “overnight”, he assured that the right path will be taken.