User:HellMap/sandbox3

TODO Stray animal shelter
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	HellMap
Tagging:	man_made=stray_animal_shelter
Applies to:	/
Definition:	TODO
Statistics:
Draft started:	2024-12-17

Proposal

TODO: A couple clear explanation images here

This proposal is for an urban stray animal shelter - a small-scale unattended shelter for free-roaming stray/feral animals (such as dogs or cats), a permanent usually community-maintained location where animals can be fed and tended by the locals. It is mostly a cultural and region-specific feature, most common in developing world, especially Asia and Eastern Europe, and least common in Western developed world.

This is distinctly different to amenity=animal_shelter, which is an attended/staffed formal/regulated captive animal facility.

This is not a single-purpose amenity=feeding_place or amenity=game_feeding without a shelter found in non-urban and mostly natural environments for completely non-domesticated animals that would avoid human contact.

Similar concepts already include man_made=birdhouse, man_made=nesting_site and man_made=insect_hotel.

Background

A typical example are "cat houses" that tend to appear in urban locations where there are stray semi-domesticated cats that freely-roam the area and are usually fed and taken care of by the locals. Without such a location, these cats might sleep or congregate in unwanted locations like basements, stairwells, sheds, under cars, etc. This may be due to locals not approving of stray cats, and these being a "compromise" rather than eliminating them. This could also be a strong social and cultural tradition of taking care of animals. These then may have small shelter buildings, feeding stations, some sort of enclosure, signage/information, decorations, etc. This also allows vets to visit and neuter and vaccinate the animals.

To elaborate some more on the assumptions about such a shelter:

• animals - these are for multiple animals rather than individual ones or families, not like a doghouse or a birdhouse
• strays - these are not owned pets or livestock (although local pets might end up visiting these), but they are at least semi-domesticated rather than wild
• free-roaming - animals are not captive and can freely leave and return
• urban - this isn't for wildlife/game and wild animals, but found in populated areas
• shelter - not just a feeding spot, but at least something to shelter them at night and from the elements
• unattended - there is no active continuous human supervision, although humans or vets might visit the location
• constructed - this isn't simply a natural animal nest/den/lair - humans have deliberately made something
• small-scale - this isn't a facility, but something the locals or an NGO might throw together or a municipality might one-time fund

...

Rationale

There is currently no exact tag for this on OSM.

The primary key is man_made=* rather than amenity=* to clearly indicate its "lesser" status and to reduce ambiguity with amenity=animal_shelter. Although amenity=feeding_place uses "amenity", although it should probably have used "man-made" too.

While it might appear that amenity=animal_shelter could serve as the base tag, it would require adding a multitude of tags to capture the differences, for example hypothetically informal=yes, free-roaming=yes, supervised=no, strays=yes, certification=no, etc. at which point it just becomes troll tagging for consumers and renderers, therefore a separate tag is proposed.

It might also make sense to add to amenity=feeding_place something like shelter=yes, domesticated=yes, etc. but again this feels like troll-tagging the feeding station, because the feature in question is the animal congregation location and shelter foremost and a feeding spot as a consequence.

Tagging

• man_made=stray_animal_shelter
• animal=*, such as cat or dog
• informal=(yes/no) - whether the shelter has an official status, such as maintained by the municipality. While likely most are informal, depending on the location, one might not be able to make an assumption about the default, so this key is encouraged.
• amenity=feeding_place ??? Together or something like feeding=yes?

Examples

• Thailand https://www.designboom.com/design/recycled-billboards-shelter-stray-dogs-thailand-04-24-2022/
• India https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/youth-group-in-mumbai-recycle-plastic-waste-turn-it-into-shelters-for-stray-dogs-4121663.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/htcity/htcity-delhi-junction/delhi-monsoon-youngsters-in-delhi-ncr-make-shelters-for-stray-dogs-101719835427348.html
• Turkey https://www.dailysabah.com/gallery/paw-city-welcomes-fluffy-residents-in-turkeys-antalya/images https://littlebuddythecat.com/2021/10/26/the-cat-houses-of-istanbul-everybody-accepts-cats-must-have-their-own-life-spaces-in-the-city/
• Kazakhstan https://astanatimes.com/2023/08/public-foundation-builds-shelters-for-homeless-cats-in-almaty/
• Latvia https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=130258390022969&focus=photo

Features/Pages affected

• New page for man_made=stray_animal_shelter
• Short note at amenity=animal_shelter explaining difference
• Links from similar related pages mentioned above

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.