Uganda shelter study finds widespread welfare risks for dogs
Bottom line
A new cross-sectional study of four dog shelters in Central Uganda found that most sheltered dogs were living with suboptimal welfare, with problems tied to both the animals’ condition and the shelter environment. Using the Shelter Quality® protocol, researchers assessed 81 dogs across 32 pens during July and August 2024 and reported high rates of thin body condition, skin lesions, fear or aggression, diarrhea, pain-associated behavior, and stereotypies. The study also identified modifiable risk factors, including poor bedding, inadequate ventilation, group housing, and lack of outdoor access. The work appears to be the first structured welfare assessment focused on dog shelters in this setting. (sciety.org)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the findings underscore how shelter welfare depends on more than treatment of individual cases. The Shelter Quality® framework evaluates animal-based, resource-based, and management-based measures together, which matters in facilities where staffing, infrastructure, exercise access, isolation space, and veterinary oversight may all be constrained. In Uganda, where shelters are increasingly promoted as an alternative to poisoning for free-roaming dog control, the study suggests that scaling sheltering without parallel investment in housing design, husbandry, and clinical support can create new welfare risks. (sciety.org)
What to watch: Whether these findings lead to shelter-specific standards, training, or targeted investment in veterinary staffing, pen design, bedding, ventilation, and exercise access in Uganda’s growing companion-animal welfare sector. (sciety.org)
A new study from Central Uganda adds structured data to a problem shelter veterinarians know well: rescue alone doesn’t guarantee good welfare. Researchers used the Shelter Quality® protocol to assess four dog shelters and found that the majority of dogs had suboptimal welfare, with common signs including low body condition, skin lesions, fear or aggression, diarrhea, pain-associated behavior, and stereotypic behaviors. The findings point to deficits in resources, housing, and management, not just isolated medical issues. (sciety.org)
That context matters because shelters in Central Uganda are increasingly being advanced as a humane alternative to poisoning for managing free-roaming dog populations. According to the study abstract, the authors set out to identify animal-based welfare problems, assess infrastructure and management, and determine risk factors for welfare compromise. They conducted the study between July and August 2024 in four shelters housing 141 dogs in total, then sampled 81 dogs from 32 pens for detailed assessment. (sciety.org)
The assessment tool is also worth noting. Shelter Quality® was developed as a practical welfare protocol for long-term shelter dogs, built around the four welfare principles of good feeding, good housing, good health, and appropriate behavior. It combines animal-based, resource-based, and management-based measures, and prior work has described it as a concise, practical tool for identifying critical aspects of the shelter environment. That makes it especially relevant for veterinary teams trying to distinguish between individual pathology and system-level welfare hazards. (izs.it)
In the Uganda study, the most prevalent individual-level findings included thin body condition in 59.3% of dogs, skin lesions in 45.7%, and fear or aggression in 39.1%. At the pen level, signs of diarrhea appeared in 46.9% of pens, pain-associated behavior in 56.3%, and stereotypies in 46.9%. A related Makerere University dissertation record describing the same project reports additional environmental deficits, including inadequate space allowance, inadequate water supply, insufficient bedding, limited shelter from adverse weather, lack of exercise provision in some facilities, and limited access to shelter veterinarians and hospital pens. (sciety.org)
There doesn’t appear to be much formal outside commentary on this specific paper yet, which is not unusual for a recent preprint. But the broader sector context in Uganda has become more visible in 2026 after a BBC Africa Eye investigation documented alleged abuse and fundraising fraud tied to sham dog shelters in Mityana, including poor housing, crowding, and exploitation of injured animals for online donations. That investigation is separate from this study and shouldn’t be conflated with the shelters assessed here, but it does reinforce the paper’s central point: sheltering can carry serious welfare risks when oversight, infrastructure, and accountability are weak. (aib.org.uk)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this study is a reminder that shelter medicine is inseparable from shelter design and operations. Clinical care can’t fully compensate for chronic deficits in ventilation, bedding, exercise, social management, or outdoor access. The paper’s identified risk factors are practical ones, and many are modifiable. For clinicians, NGOs, and shelter managers, that supports a shift toward routine welfare auditing, minimum housing standards, better pain recognition, clearer isolation and treatment capacity, and more structured behavior support. The Shelter Quality® protocol itself was designed to help competent authorities, NGOs, and shelter managers identify critical intervention points and improve rehoming prospects by improving welfare. (izs.it)
The findings may also have implications beyond Uganda. Similar work using the same protocol in other countries has shown that long-term shelter environments can undermine welfare when management and enrichment lag behind intake pressure. In that sense, the Uganda data fit into a larger international conversation in shelter medicine: humane population control strategies need operational standards, not just good intentions. (sciencedirect.com)
What to watch: The next step is whether this preprint moves into peer-reviewed publication, and whether its findings are used to inform local standards, donor due diligence, staff training, and veterinary partnerships for shelter oversight in Uganda. (sciety.org)