Definitions of stray dogs are inherently problematic and judgements regarding when a dog is
considered to be a stray varies from country to country and may be subject to local and national
regulations (see Table 1, for three classifications of dogs considered “stray”). Indeed any dog, found
unaccompanied by a responsible person in a public place may, in some countries, be considered as
stray and collected accordingly. Conversely, at the other end of the scale, unwanted dogs; dogs, whose
owners have revoked all care giving responsibilities, may, if they survive for long enough, be able to
reproduce and rear young. Though this generation of dogs may be considered to be genuinely
ownerless and in some instances feral, their survival rates are invariably low and their reproductive
success is likely to be poor. They are therefore not considered to be the main source of
overpopulation. Somewhere between the two examples, dogs may be cared for by one or more
members of a community, allowed to roam and permitted to reproduce. Nevertheless, they are
genuinely dependent upon human caregivers, as they provide access to the resources essential for
their survival. The reproduction rates of these dogs and their rearing success has the potential to be
high because care given by humans offers the necessary protection for puppy survival (c.f.
International Companion Animal Management Coalition, 2007 for characterisation of dogs in terms of
their ownership status, p: 5).
In summary, feral dogs, those that are truly independent of human care givers are rarely
considered to be salient contributors to the problem of strays.