Miami-Dade Dogs

The street dogs of South Florida have garnered mixed reactions. To some, it is a normal sight.  To others, it is making living in the area increasingly difficult.

Domestic dogs are viewed differently around the world and across cultures. The concept of a pet varies widely as well. For some cultures, owning a free roaming dog is not out of the ordinary. Owning a dog that lives indoors and sleeps, sleeps on your bed, and is spayed/neutered may actually sound incredibly abnormal. Is one way right and one way wrong? This can be a heated debate, but the one thing that can help the situation more than anything is to make spaying and neutering accessible and providing outreach and incentives to do so. Free roaming dogs are suceptible to fights over females and creating litter upon litter of unwanted puppies. Education and outreach to help promote responsible pet ownership is also crucial as pet ownership is actually much more complicated than many think.

The trials faced by modern free roaming dogs are immense. Cars zoom down the streets, trash pollution is easily consumable, abuse is rampant, and toxins abound. South Florida has many areas where dogs have been found dumped and the free roaming dogs also walk the line between owned and abandoned so the issue is quite complex and requires community committment to work towards positive change together.

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 Link to interactive map  that will be referenced throughout this page. There are many additional data points included and a variety of combinations of layers to explore.

This map explores Miami-Dade Animal Services data from January 2019 to December 2019 to look for patterns of issues such as animal cruelty, strays, and deaths. Patterns were looked for across population dense areas, White, Black, and Hispanic populations, as well as low income areas and proximity to roadways. It was decided to look at the year before the pandemic to remove that variable. Other maps will be created to look at years 2020, 2021, and 2022 to determine patterns over time and if the pandemic had any effect on the issues listed above.

The white dots represent animal cruelty investigations by Miami-Dade animal services from January 2019 to December 2019.

480 out of 2,254 (21.3%) animal cruelty investigations and 6,347 out of 32,889 (19.3%) total calls occurred in designated low income urban areas. These areas are frequently used by community planners in their planning functions and studies in order to promote economic revitalization for these areas. The areas in this coverage consist of predominantly low-income and depressed areas. The total area of these tracts equals approximately 1.12% of Miami-Dade County. They total approximately 30 mi² and the total area of Miami-Dade County equals 2,431 mi².

1,455 out of 2,254 (64.5%) of animal cruelty investigations were closed in one day or less. This is an indicator of how seriously these calls are being taken (or really, how not seriously.) Animal cruelty (and wildlife crimes) can be seen as victimless crimes. Animals are considered property for example, but their lives matter. As a society, it is important we take animal crimes seriously and prosecuting accordingly.

The green dots represent stray dogs called in to or picked up by Miami-Dade animal services from January 2019 to December 2019.

Areas with high densities of stray dogs are of concern. There is a need for spaying and neutering because areas like this can lead to many more dogs as they breed and give birth on the streets. Dogs may also leave their normal territory (ie perhaps a small range in a neighborhood where the dog typically free roams) when searching for a mate.

The red dots represent stray dogs called in to or picked up by Miami-Dade animal services from January 2019 to December 2019. The blue highlighted dots equal dead animal pickup within 50 ft of a road which is represented by the area covered by the thick blue lines.

This map depicts the overall population density with the dead animal pickup points. Note the thick black line on the left. This is the urban development boundary. You can see that the dead animals almost perfectly align with the edge of the boundary.

This pattern changes as you move south towards the Everglades and to unincorporated parts of Miami-Dade County. Here, dead animal pickup, strays, and animal cruelty extend well beyond this urban development boundary. These areas have also reported running into issues with animal services being unresponsive.

The gray triangles represent all calls in to Miami-Dade animal services from January 2019 to December 2019. There were 32,889 total calls ranging from breeder and pet store checks to stray animals and pitbull investigations. The map for these calls exclude things like license applications and renewals. Looking at this huge number the question is this - how thorough are any investigations? Many people in the area have complained that their calls are not taken care of even when there is urgency.

19,066 out of 32,889 (57.8%) total calls from this data set were completed and closed within one day. The longest case coming in at 1141 days (not depicted in the table below) was for a lost dog. Requests for dog traps and animal services dog tag checks came in with very high completion lengths as well.

In looking at the patterns over the year 2019 there are evident areas that outreach would be beneficial. Those areas would be the zip codes with the highest number of calls and the highest cases of strays and animal cruelty. Outreach should include low cost or free spay and neuter clinics and community education and events for example. Enforcement should also be stronger, cases must be taken seriously. Resources must be provided to help animal owners understand the responsibility of pet ownership as well as the costs. Animal rescues and shelters are overflowing, strapped for resources themselves, and often unable to provide the help the community desperately needs. This is a community problem that will require a community effort, if not a state effort.

I'd like to expand upon this project to create a community driven database that rescue organizations can use to mobilize aid and outreach. For example, community members can submit the location and other applicable information about a found stray dog. The data would be private for the rescues and affiliate organizations for the safety of the animals. I would hope in time there would be a source of funding that rescue organizations and affiliated organizations could use to provide more preventative measures for the many issues we face such as being able to provide veterinary care or free dog training to families in need so that the animals can remain in their homes.

I'd also like to use this map as a base to add to and further my analysis. One such data set I plan to incorporate is crime data to compare areas of high animal crime to areas high with other crimes to look for overlaps and hot spots. Animal crime almost always corresponds to other types of crime such as domestic abuse and money laundering.

I am open to ideas, questions, and partnerships/collaborations. You can contact me  here .

Redland is an unincorporated area in Miami-Dade County. Community members and rescue organizations have come together to feed and rehome stray dogs left tofend for themselves. They are educating the community, and building a better Miami.