The Ministry of Agriculture today released an app for the public to help track stray dog sightings, allowing users to take photographs of stray dogs and geo-tag their location, assisted by artificial intelligence (AI).
The data would be used in the future to identify stray dog hotspots, increase management of stray dogs and build a nationwide risk assessment map, the Department of Animal Welfare said.
The “dog tracking map” (犬蹤地圖) app is now available for download and users can begin adding data after verifying their phone number, it said.
Users are shown a satellite map of their location and can upload a photograph, adjusting for the exact location, distance and direction of the sighting.
They are then prompted to enter the number of dogs spotted, their gender, if known, and how many were wearing collars, with a box to add any additional notes.
AI would also identify and estimate the number of dogs from the photos, the ministry said.
The department said it is using the app to build a risk assessment map that would incorporate additional data from regular surveys, reports of incidents between humans and stray dogs, traffic accident reports and instances of stray dogs killing wildlife, using statistical models and geographic information systems (GIS).
The map would allow for comprehensive risk intelligence to identify high-risk areas where resources would be concentrated, it said.
It would further work toward the goal of stabilizing and reducing the stray dog population, it added.
Since Taiwan implemented a no-kill policy for stray dogs and cats in 2017, stray animals have affected Taiwan’s ecosystem, chased or bitten elderly people and children, and caused fatal road traffic accidents involving scooters, it said.
Hotspots for issues between stray dogs and humans or ecological conflicts were previously handled by local governments according to their respective management needs, it said.
While this allowed a certain flexibility, there was no unified, science-based analytical framework nationwide, resulting in inconsistent standards across local governments and reduced precision in resource allocation, it said.
The app would overcome these limitations and encourage citizen participation to accumulate data on stray dog groups, it added.
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