Since the 1940s, perceived companion animal overpopulation in the United States has been an important issue to the animal welfare community (Moulton, Wright, & Rinky, 1991). This surplus of animals has resulted in millions of dogs and cats being euthanized annually in animal shelters across the country. The nature and scope of this problem have been notoriously difficult to characterize. The number of animal shelters in the United Stares, the demographics of the population of animals passing through them, and the characteristics of per owners relinquishing animals are poorly understood. What portion of these animals are adopted or euthanized, why they are relinquished, and their source of acquisition are all questions for which there have been little data. Consequently, we are no closer to answering the fundamental question of how and why many animals are destroyed each year in shelters (Arkow, 1994).
In personal interviews, people surrendering their dogs and cats to 12 animal shelters in 4 regions of the country discussed their reasons for relinquishing their companion animals and answered questions about their own characteristics and those of their pet. The interviews identified 71 reasons for relinquishment. Personal issues lead the class of reasons for relinquishment of cats and ranked 3rd among those given for relinquishment of dogs. The top 3 health and personal issues cited for giving up cats were allergies of a family member to cats, owner's personal problems, and anew baby. For dogs, the top 3 reasons cited were lack of time for the dog, owner's personal problems, and allergies. Analysis of these health and personal issues suggests that education and counseling before and after acquisition of a pet, as well as the availability of temporary accommodations for pets during times of personal crisis, may reduce relinquishments.
Elasmobranch fishes localize weak electric sources at field intensities of < 5 eta V cm-1, but the response dynamics of electrosensory primary afferent neurons to near threshold stimuli in situ are not well characterized. Electrosensory primary afferents in the round stingray, Urolophus halleri, have a relatively high discharge rate, a regular discharge pattern and entrain to 1-Hz sinusoidal peak electric field gradients of < or = 20 eta V cm-1. Peak neural discharge for units increases as a non-linear function of stimulus intensity, and unit sensitivity (gain) decreases as stimulus intensity increases. Average peak rate-intensity encoding is commonly lost when peak spike rate approximately doubles that of resting, and for many units occurs at intensities < 1 microV cm-1. Best neural sensitivity for nearly all units is at 1-2 Hz with a low-frequency slope of 8 dB/decade and a high-frequency slope of -23 dB/decade. The response characteristics of stingray electrosensory primary afferents indicate sensory adaptations for detection of extremely weak phasic fields near 1-2 Hz. We argue that these properties reflect evolutionary adaptations in elasmobranch fishes to enhance detection of prey, communication and social interactions, and possibly electric-mediated geomagnetic orientation.
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