ACTIONS FOR REPRODUCTIVE CONTROL AND RESPONSIBLE OWNERSHIP OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS INTERPRETED THROUGH THE CONCEPT OF METACONTINGENCY

Abstract

The analysis of metacontingencies can guide the creation of explicative models for social practices and can also be helpful in the planning of more effective public policies in achieving these goals. The present work delineates a set of interlocked behavioral contingencies that most likely contributed to the establishment of reproductive control and responsible ownership of dogs and cats practices in a São Paulo state town. The effectiveness of these actions seems related to interactions that created reinforced contingencies for animal protection societies, municipal government, particular vet clinics and owners of dogs and cats. Each of these agents probably has different interests but the interactions established between them apparently created conditions that supported and strengthened the realization of sterilization surgeries in dogs and cats in large scale combined with educative, punitive and monitoring measures structured to promote responsible ownership of domestic animals. These interlocked contingencies had as aggregated products the sterilization of almost ten thousand animals in five years, an expressive diminution in the number of abandoned litters and increased life expectancy for the dogs and cats in town.Key words: metacontingency, reproductive control of dogs and cats, responsible property of domestic animals