A survey of urban pet ownership in Bali

Department of Veterinary Public Health, Udayana University, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.

A personal interview survey was conducted to determine the type and characteristics of the animals kept by 200 households in a traditional Balinese community in Denpasar, Indonesia. Fifty-seven per cent of the households owned an animal. One or more birds were kept by 45.2 per cent of households, dogs were owned by 39 per cent, cats by 18.5 per cent and some other sort of animal was owned by 4.5 per cent of households. Chickens were the most commonly kept bird (29.5 per cent of households) followed by cuckoos (10.5 per cent) and doves (8.5 per cent). More cats were kept in households with cats (average of 1.5) than dogs in the households with dogs (1.32. More male dogs and cats (85 per cent and 73 per cent, respectively) were kept than females. Only 11 per cent of the female dogs were neutered compared with 44 per cent of males and no female cats were neutered compared with 9.5 per cent of males. This low level of neutering accounted for the finding that 69 and 78 per cent of the entire bitches and queens had had litters in the 12 months preceding the survey.