Adoption preference factors for dogs in a public shelter in the Province of Palermo (Southern Italy) and comparison with adoption rates of a shelter in Northern Italy

Introduction In Italy, each year approximately 150 thousand dogs are taken into shelters. Only a small fraction is adopted, especially in the region of Sicily (south Italy), where a large population of stray dogs exists. The goals of the study were 1) to evaluate characteristics of adopted dogs in a public shelter in Sicily; and, 2) to compare data of population and adoptation rate with those of a shelter in the Northern Italy Materials and Methods A retrospective analysis of adopters’ preference was conducted by by comparing parameters such as age of the dog, gender, coat color, and size to the total canine population in a shelter in Palermo between 2014-2016. Similar data were collected from a shelter in northern Italy, and compared by Poisson regression. Results The most important characteristics affecting the adopters' choices were age and size; young dogs were preferred over older dogs (adoptions/totals ratio 0.98) and small size dogs were preferred over larger dogs (adoptions/totals ratio 0.87). Data analysis showed that in the shelter in Palermo, the canine population significantly increased during the three years of evaluation (P<0.05) and adoption rates were significantly lower than in Trento's Province shelter (P<0.05). Conclusion This preliminary study offers a quantitative analysis of adopters' preferences that could be useful to assess some adoptability index for dogs. Moreover, the study highlights the critical situation of over-population in Sicily's public dog shelters. It is paramount to find methods as development and validation of behavioural assessment protocols to increase successful adoption rates.