One Health Ethics in High-volume Spay/neuter Campaigns Using Trap Neuter and Release (Tnr) in Kenya.

Abstract

Over 700million dogs exist in the world as owned and unowned. A high density of free roaming dogs poses challenges to public health including transmission of zoonotic diseases like rabies, echinococcosis, leishmaniosis etc. The control of such animals is aimed at mitigating public health challenges as well as improving the welfare of such animals. There three main methods of dog/cat population control include mass culling, birth control and long term sheltering. Many animal welfare organizations prefer birth control as the most ethical method of controlling free roaming dogs and cats. To facilitate this, the organization adopt trap neuter and release as a preferred method of facilitating birth control. Despite the wide acceptance of TNR by policy makes and animal welfarist, its implementation raises ethical concerns that should be addressed. One health ethics provides a methodological framework to more comprehensively understand ethical considerations related TNR and not just animal welfare. This research sort to evaluate the application of One Health ethics in TNR and propose possible guidelines that is considerate to animals, environment and humans. A scoping review of published literature between 2019-2024 using PRISMA guideline complimented with case studies from Kenya was used. Key ethical frameworks used in analysis were principlism, deontology and care ethics. Key findings in this study include; TNR is the most ethical method of dog/cat population management compared to long term shelter and mass culling, there is little Community engagement and adoption of participatory process in designing, implementation and evaluation and reporting. This should aim to protect environment, community members and safety of animals, Consent process in TNR is unclear, most TNR campaigns take between 3- 5 days in Kenya without clear post-operative care and there are gaps in Kenyan laws regulating TNR and..............................................................