Mobile application for reporting animal abuse

Abstract

The growing concern for animal welfare and rights underscores the importance of institutions dedicated to combating crimes against animals. As society becomes more aware of the ethical treatment of animals, these institutions play a crucial role in enforcing laws, raising awareness, and promoting animal welfare. Aiming to create a tool that helps in the registration and diagnosis of cases of animal abuse, the purpose of this work was to develop an application that can be used by agencies that act fighting crimes against fauna. Thus, the Federal University of Parana signed a contract with the company Scipet Soluções de Inovação Tecnológica LTDA, to develop an application that can be used in the monitoring of reports of animal abuse. The application “Denúncia Animal” was developed in the year 2021 and has features both for the registration of occurrences, including data from the complaint and data from the animal victim, and for the diagnosis of abuse based on the “Protocol for expert report on animal welfare in case of companion animal cruelty suspicion” (Hammerschmidt & Molento, 2014), the integration of a photographic record of animals and documentation generated during inspections can significantly enhance the efficiency of inspection. The application is in the initial phase of testing by municipal enforcement agencies and its use provides these agencies convenience for recording information at the time of inspections and organization of data relating to reports of cases of abuse on a single platform, which may allow centralization of all data on crimes against fauna in a single database, enabling both municipal and state agencies to act in an integrated manner can lead to increased efficiency and effectiveness in public administration.