There are millions of dogs that are living on the streets. Many organizations are working hard to soften the situation, but it requires a lot of work. In Holland, the government is trying to solve the national problem with stray dogs. The result is amazing: there aren’t any stray dogs in Holland.
Holland achieved this amazing result through a sterilization program, taxation, and stricter animal welfare laws, there are zero stray dogs in Holland. The sterilization was made free of charge and mandatory.
The government wanted to encourage adopting over shopping, so they raised taxes when buying a dog.
Read More: Teacher Stumbles Upon Baby Bears ‘Dancing’ In Finland Forest, Thinks He’s Imagining It
In order to encourage adopting over shopping, the government increased the taxes associated with buying a dog. This makes more sense for people to adopt a dog, instead of buying.
The government also made stronger animal welfare laws. If citizens in Holland abandon pets or abuse them, they will spend up to 3 years in prison or pay a 16,000 euro fine.
Now, there is a special police division in Holland that prevents animal cruelty and animal abandonment.
The number of stray dogs increased in the 19th century after a dog tax went wrong and a rabies epidemic spread amongst the street dogs. When a dog tax was applied, poor dog owners were forced to abandon their pets and caused the number of strays to increase. There were many dogs in close quarters which caused a rabies outbreak.
The rich people saw dogs as a status symbol and many owned a few dogs just to show off their wealth. However, people started abandoning their dogs as a result of the rabies epidemic.
Although this increased the stray dog population, the problem has been solved now.
There aren’t any stray dogs living on the cold and dangerous streets, all dogs are safe and taken care of.
If other countries follow Holland’s example, they can make the world a better place for animals.
