An estimated 200-600 million stray dogs live worldwide, facing hunger, disease, injury, and death. Mass culling is ineffective; welfare-positive management requires community-based approaches.
Stray dogs experience chronic stress, hunger, injury from conflict, road traffic, and disease. Mass killing programmes cause acute suffering and fail to address root causes because dog populations rebound rapidly. Welfare-positive approaches combining sterilisation, vaccination, and community education address the welfare of existing strays and prevent population growth. The welfare case for TNR over culling is now well-established in the scientific literature.