Georgia’s national programme to manage its street dog population is built around measures we would ordinarily welcome. Dogs are being collected for sterilisation, rabies vaccination, identification and registration, with authorities presenting the programme as a humane response to street dog population management.
But a humane policy still needs something else. It needs traceability.
Earlier this year, 65 dogs were reportedly collected from Zugdidi as part of the programme. According to subsequent reporting, only 26 had been returned by 3 April. The National Food Agency separately reported that 28 dogs had been returned to the environment.
Whichever figure is used, there is an obvious discrepancy. Sixty five dogs collected. Where did they all go?
There may be perfectly legitimate explanations. Dogs may have remained in veterinary care, some may have required additional treatment, some may have been transferred elsewhere and there may be other outcomes which have simply not been adequately reported publicly. We are not suggesting that the remaining dogs were killed, nor can their fate be determined from the figures currently available to us. That is precisely the problem. When authorities collect street dogs, the public should not have to speculate about what happened afterwards.
There is another important issue with the dogs that were returned. Animal advocates reported that some were not taken back to the territories from which they had been collected but were instead released outside the town, close to a highway. The National Food Agency later stated that dogs collected under the programme would be returned to their original locations, subject to restrictions applying to certain places.
Street dogs are not interchangeable animals that can simply be released wherever space can be found. Many live within established territories, know where food and water can be found and have relationships with community carers. Moving them to unfamiliar locations can create new welfare risks and simply relocates rather than manages the problem.
Georgia’s programme has continued during 2026, with authorities reporting sterilisation, vaccination, microchipping and registration activity across the country. Those are positive measures and they offer a considerably more humane foundation for population management than the mass killing policies we are documenting elsewhere.
But the success of the programme cannot be measured solely by how many dogs enter it. We also need to know how many come out.
If 65 dogs are collected, there should be a record showing the outcome for 65 dogs. If a dog was sterilised, vaccinated and returned, that should be recorded. If a dog remained in veterinary treatment, that should be recorded. If a dog was transferred to a shelter, adopted, died during treatment or experienced another outcome, that should also be recorded. Without that information, collection statistics tell us very little about animal welfare.
Following concerns raised by animal advocates, Georgian authorities have given assurances about dogs being returned and information being made available. What we have not yet been able to identify is publicly accessible outcome data demonstrating consistently what happens to dogs from the moment they are collected until their final outcome.
Georgia remains on the Dog Desk Animal Action Global Stray Dog Crisis Map Watchlist. We are not placing it there because the country has adopted an overt policy of killing street dogs. Its national programme contains sterilisation, vaccination and identification measures that could form part of a humane and effective approach. We are watching because those measures must be accompanied by accountability.
The Zugdidi figures demonstrate why. Sixty-five dogs entered the system. Public reporting subsequently accounted for the return of considerably fewer.
Every dog collected by a publicly funded population management programme should remain traceable until their outcome is known.
Georgia says it is building a humane system for managing its street dogs. Transparent outcome records would help demonstrate that it is.
Until then, we will keep asking the simplest question. Where did all the dogs go?