ABSTRACT

The popularity of companion animals in South Korea has increased rapidly in recent years. However, the injection of companion animals with unprescribed vaccines or antibiotic treatments by their owners without veterinary consultation has emerged as a serious animal welfare concern. To develop strategies for addressing this issue, first it is necessary to understand the determinants of such behavior. We considered that direct questioning of dog owners via a survey about their experiences of administering injections would be unreliable, hence an exploration of the determinants of owners’ opinions about self-administered injections was deemed a viable alternative. In this regard, as an exploratory study we conducted an online questionnaire survey that was completed by 654 companion dog owners aged between 19 and 39 years residing in Seoul, South Korea. The questions pertained to the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the owners, their attitudes toward their companion dogs, and their opinions on the provision of unprescribed owner-administered injections. A 5-point Likert scale was used to assess their opinions about unprescribed injections, with responses categorized as negative (disagree, strongly disagree) and non-negative (neutral, agree, strongly agree). Multivariable logistic regressions were used to assess the association of explanatory variables with whether the owners held negative opinions regarding unprescribed owner-administered injections. The results revealed that owners with more favorable attitudes toward their dogs tended to have negative opinions about unprescribed owner-administered injections (odds ratio = 3.50, 95%; confidence interval = 2.42–5.11), but no significant effect of household income. Although further research is required to confirm the causal relationships, improvement of owners’ attitudes toward their companion dogs may be important for addressing the problem of unprescribed injections.

摘要

近年来，伴侣动物在韩国的流行迅速增加。然而，已经出现的严重问题是动物饲养者在未经兽医咨询的情况下给其伴侣注射未经处方的疫苗或抗生素治疗。要制定解决此问题的策略，首先必须了解这种行为的决定因素。我们认为，通过对狗主人进行注射经历的调查来直接询问狗主人是不可靠的，因此，探索主人关于自我注射的观点的决定因素的探索被认为是一种可行的选择。在这方面，作为一项探索性研究，我们进行了在线问卷调查，调查问卷由居住在​​首尔的654位年龄在19至39岁之间的伴侣狗主人完成，韩国。这些问题涉及主人的人口和社会经济特征，他们对伴侣犬的态度以及他们对提供未经规定的主人管理注射的看法。使用5点Likert量表评估他们对非处方注射的看法，并将回答分为负面（不同意，强烈不同意）和非负面（中立，同意，强烈同意）。多变量logistic回归用于评估解释变量与车主是否对未经处方的车主管理注射持有否定意见的关联。结果表明，对犬只态度更友好的主人往往对未经处方的主人管理注射有负面意见（赔率= 3.50，95％；置信区间= 2.42-5.11），但对家庭收入没有明显影响。尽管需要进行进一步的研究以确认因果关系，但改善主人对伴侣犬的态度对于解决非处方注射的问题可能很重要。