I think I’ve noticed this before, but I get the impression that there’s more awareness of dogs as an invasive species in Brazil, Argentina and Chile than in America. Either that these three have more stray dogs than America does or even if these three have a lot of dog owners and dog lovers, there’s more awareness of the damage they inflict on the environment than America does. Maybe not always the case, but speaking from personal experience even if there are studies on dog predation in America not a lot of Americans see dogs as an invasive species the way they do with cats.
There might be an anti-cat sentiment in Brazil, Chile and Argentina since not a lot of them own cats, but even then despite having a high dog ownership rate a good number of them are aware of the damage dogs inflict on the environment enough to make considerable amount of studies on that. It’s possible that Chile, Brazil and Argentina still have a lot of stray dogs and free-roaming dogs in general, so they’re more aware of their faults than America does. So aware they even see them as an invasive species, despite having even more dog owners than America does.
Okay, I might be speaking from experience where it seems there are more Americans and Australians who mostly or solely cats as an invasive species but don’t say much about dogs whereas relatively more Brazilians, Chileans and Argentinians see dogs as an invasive species as well. I might be biased in here, but either that Brazil, Chile and Argentina have more stray dogs wrecking havoc or that despite having a higher dog ownership rate than Australia and America do more Australians and Americans disproportionately blame cats.
It could be a bit of both, but I have a nagging feeling that even if there’s ever an anti-cat sentiment in Brazil and the Southern Cone in general there are more Brazilian, Chilean and Argentinian studies regarding dogs as an invasive species than America and Australia do. Again, it’s due to my experience going to Lusophone and Hispanophone websites where by going there I get idea of what’s actually going on there that gets missed out in Anglophone websites. True, dog predation on wildlife has been understudied but I actually think dogs might present the best example of the social-ecological mismatch.
While they are a valued asset in conservation, they can also pose threats to it and this is why they are the best example of the social-ecological mismatch. We’re used to seeing them as valuable pets and companions that we can’t see them as anything other than those roles, even though they’re perfectly capable of killing wildlife on their own. One of my former dogs had a habit of killing frogs that my father had to install fences to minimise this. Another dog ate a skink.
I think it is important to take what goes on in nonwestern and global South countries, if because a lot of insight that those in North America and Europe miss out. Well to an extent, but it’s still important to take note of these.
fynm 