Dog festival 2021, today is Fido’s day

“Friend, companion and colleague”. Today we celebrate the dog festival, which has been honored for years with the anniversary of 26 August, the International Dog Day established in 2004. By now Fido is not only ‘man’s friend’, but has acquired a role much wider in the family and in society. This is demonstrated, for example, by the tweet that the Civil Protection dedicates to today. “In the most complex operational scenarios, the women and men of the Civil Protection know they can count on a precious ally. Thanks to the dog units and all the four-legged heroes”, is the message published on Twitter by the Civil Protection. To dogs, and to their problems, also the WHO devotes great attention today. Globally, the number of dogs is believed to be around 900 million and, according to estimates by the World Health Organization, 200 million of them are stray. The 2020 data on stray dogs in Italy, shared by the Ministry of Health, recorded 76,192 entries in health kennels, 42,665 in shelter kennels and 42,360 adoptions of stray dogs. A widespread phenomenon especially in some regions, where colonies of stray dogs thrive and where the abandonment of domestic animals intensifies in the summer period or in conjunction with the opening of the hunting season. ‘adoption of animals without a family are among the main objectives of today’s’ party’.