Abstract:
This study is a quantitative research that was aimed to explore the rate of dog abandonment, a characteristics of owners that abandoned their dogs, and to study the transition of Thai society based on Toffler's theory. by using a questionnaire as the tool for data collection. The studied population consisted of members of a household in each of the areas of the 3 social waves. 310 people selected from The First Wave area, 408 people from The Second Wave area, and 308 people from The Third Wave area. The results revealed that; (1) Thai society is a society of dog owners, yet it is also a society of dog abandoners. The 58.8% of people have owned a dog, yet dog abandonment was highest, 26.7%, in the Second Wave society. (2) The rate of dog abandonment among 446 people who were current dog owners and those who used to own a dog in the previous three years was 20.6% with the average of 1.7 dogs abandoned. (3) The high rate of dog abandonment of the Second Wave society or industrial suburban area was associated with having more problems with dog ownership than those in the First Wave or agricultural area and the Third Wave society or urban area. For example, there were problems with inappropriate raising locations, dogs' wellbeing management, increased expenses, and affected domestic relationships. However, the meaning of dogs also changed with the transitional waves of the society. The members of the First Wave gave positive definitions towards dogs, which was relatively low compared to the other societies. Men also had higher rate in dog abandonment than women. The residents of a crowded area such as rental rooms or townhouses also tended to abandon dogs more than those who lived in a single house with more outdoor space. Moreover, dog abandonment was also associated with the relationship between the owners and their dogs. Families that neglected their dogs tended to abandon them more than those who treated their dogs with care such as feeding, bathing, and ridding of tick and flea. (4) As for dog abandonment as categorized based on the lifestyle of globalization, it was found that those who moderately use information technology had the highest rate in dog abandonment followed by those who least used information technology, whereas, those who followed the technology trend closely were least likely to abandon their dogs. These findings were consistent with the area of globalization that is in the Second Wave society, where dog abandonment was found most, it also mostly consisted of moderate technology users. On the contrary, dog abandonment was found least among the high technology users as dogs possessed more value or role according to the trend of globalization, thus the owners tended to have deeper relationship with their dogs