Criação de banco de imagens de cães residentes em ONGS de Uberlândia

Abstract

The rate of abandonment of domestic animals, constituting a crime of mistreatment, has been rapidly increasing in Brazil. As dogs and cats become more and more a part of the family, these crimes gain attention and generate outrage. Various methods of animal identification are used in Brazil and other countries to reduce this high incidence of crimes, such as microchips, tags, tattoos, markings, among others. However, these methods are subject to significant vulnerabilities. Based on this, this project aims to characterize and identify dogs through their phenotypic characteristics, contributing to forensic veterinary medicine and the responsible authorities by creating a database containing images of dogs residing in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the city of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. For the creation of this database, images were collected containing information from 40 dogs from two NGOs in Uberlândia, namely "Clube dos Focinhos" and "Cantinho da Si", with 20 animals from each organization. Five images of each animal were taken in cranio-caudal, dorso-ventral, right lateral, left lateral, and caudo-frontal projections. Data such as name, age, breed, size, sex, coat, history, and specific characteristics like tail docking were also collected. The dogs were cataloged into four spreadsheets divided by age, classifying the animals as puppies, young, adult, and elderly. Since puppies and young dogs are preferred for adoption, more dogs in this age range were cataloged. Based on the results presented, it can be concluded that in order to contribute to the reduction of abandonment and mistreatment crimes, the identification method needs to be practical and unalterable, with photography being the method that best exhibits these characteristics.