Castration of dogs holds many reasons and opinions, therefore methods, traditions and rea-sons vary. The approaches have during time changed from mostly surgical castrations to also including hormonal treatments. Castration is used to control the dog's reproductive abilities, for medical reasons and to possibly rectify problems of behavioral nature. How common a particular method of castration is in a country is highly dependent on the country's traditions. In Sweden it is most common with castration for medical reasons, such as possible elimina-tion of diseases, for example, benign colorectal tumors.

Swedish farmers have the possibility to be subsidized by EU rural development programme for grazing animals on pastures to promote the biodiversity of flora and fauna. The environmental remedy sometimes does not allow supplementary feed and at the same time the Swedish Animal Welfare Act and the Swedish Agricultural Board?s regulations for animal welfare and protection states that animals, in this case horses, shall be fed with food of good quality and adapted for the species. The regulations also state that they should have an individual feeding regime that enables them to maintain a normal body condition. The aim with this master thesis has been to investigate if it is possible to keep Gotland ponies on extensive pastures, during late spring and summer and still maintain animal welfare. The horses were assessed every fourth week using a welfare assessment protocol developed in line with the Welfare Quality® project (submitted, Viksten et al) where physical, behavioural and resourcebased parameters were observed. Twelve one-year old stallions of the breed Gotland ponies purchased from different breeders were used in the study.

The aim of this study was to examine the view of social service workers on the secondary housing market based upon their work with social investigations regarding people with a difficult substance abuse. The foundation of this study rests upon a phenomenon, which according to other scholars, occurs in the secondary housing market in Sweden. The secondary housing market consists of a multitude of housing projects that social services provide for people who are homeless. The phenomenon is that the secondary housing market contains a number of demands aimed at the clients who live in these housing projects. If a client fails to live up to the demands it can sometimes lead to negative consequences which results in an exclusion from the housing projects.

The aim of this investigation was to determine if, and in that case how, the resources of personne1 in what in this essay will be referred to as the department of students' health in four industrial municipalities had changed from 1999 until 2004. The establishment of the department of students' health could be discussed and analys ed in regard of a few concepts from new institutionaI organizational theory and studies on implementation. The investigation answers the following questions:What differences were there between the municipalities regarding the children's accessibility to the department of students' health?What differences were there between pre-school, compulsory school and upper secondary school within the municipalities regarding the children's accessibility to the department of student's health?The municipalities were commissioned by the government to combine school health service, student welfare and the field of remediaI teaching in order to establish a new section, the department of students' health. The study was carried out quantitatively.

Organisation and market orientation of elderly careThis comparative literature study is intended to describe how elderly care is organised and financed in Germany and Sweden. Furthermore, it analyses the degree of competition and market orientation in both countries' care systems. Important aspects in this context are the kinds of measurements which are used on the two markets and the question if there are quasimarkets.The theoretical backgrounds of the study are Esping-Andersen's "Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism" and Harold Wilensky's convergence theory. Esping-Andersen's theory describes Sweden as a social democratic and Germany as a conservative welfare regime which means that there are different conditions for the development of welfare. The use of Wilensky's theory shows that both welfare systems are converging since the end of the 20th century.

There seems to be a consensus in the world that the climate is changing, bringing unpredictable and severe consequences for both humans and nature. The feld of social work is known for helping misfortunate individuals and groups, and is said to deal with people in their environments. Yet there seems to be a lack of giving these environments meaning as also something natural. This thesis has the purpose of exploring the connection between social work and the physical environment made by research literature, using the methodology of literature review. The questions asked is in which ways the physical environment can be connected to human welfare; if so, what implications are there for the feld of social work, and fnally how can the discussion be understood using a typology over environmental sustainability presented by Andrew Dobson.

The purpose of this study was to examine why adventure treatment is mainly directed towards young men and how that can be related to the construction of masculinity.Our questions were:- What were the social workers thoughts and images about masculinity?- Why did they think adventure treatment were suitable for young men and for what reasons?- How did the social workers describe their role as treatment providers?This study was a qualitative study that was based on six interviews as well as observations. We tried to find patterns and deviations in our empirical material. Then we connected them with previous research and theories. The social workers described the typical client as a competitive kind of person, interested in physical activities and with boyish manners.

This thesis discusses the Swedish drug policy and its principle of prohibition. In the world of today there is an ongoing discussion about prohibition and the concept of harm reduction. This thesis is an analysis of Swedish drug policy and an investigation as to whether the prohibition concept is in a state of decline. It tries to answer the question; is the Swedish drug policy moving away from its prohibition principle towards a harm reduction principle? The recent debate, articles, documents and earlier research has been analyzed in order to find answers to my questions.

The intention of this study was to examine how social workers, leaders within the social work administration and politicians in the social work committee in Helsingborg related to residential treatment of youth and the research showing signs of undesirable results.The main questions were:1. How do social workers, leaders within the social work administration and politicians in the social work committee relate to residential treatment of youth and the research existing about it?2. Which factors do the different categories mean justify the placements?3.

Animal welfare issues are not considered as high priority in Malawi, a developing country in south east Africa, due to problems affecting the human population. In Lilongwe, the capital city, education programs are used to increase the awareness of animal welfare issues among primary school children. A study was undertaken to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of animal welfare in primary school children as well as two different teaching methods for animal welfare, namely humane lessons (HL) and Animal Kindness Clubs (AKC). The gender perspective, in terms of differences in attitude towards and knowledge in animal welfare, was also evaluated as well as the link between domestic and animal violence. The study was performed in collaboration with Lilongwe Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (LSPCA). A questionnaire of multiple choice character was handed out to 249 children aged between 9 and 15 from six different schools.

The society has always tried to get rid of those who do not "fit in". They doesn't follow the normal behaviour and rules and have to be "dismissed". The community has developed different kinds of institutional care for individuals with dysfunctional behaviour. Those institutions are mental hospitals and prisons. Many of these institutions put the individuals in an extreme situation since they loses their independence and freedom.

The purpose of this study was investigating the means which rule the social worker?s choice of institution placing youths and how they match the youth?s individual need compared with the type of home. The questions were: Which significance has the characteristics of the youth and their family for the placing? Which significance has the characteristics of the institution? Which significance has the social workers? way of working, investigation, theories, economy etc.? A qualitative way of interviewing has been used. Eight interviews were done; six with social welfare secretaries who place youths and two social workers who work with coun­selling and placement.

Psittacines and reptiles are exotic animals that are difficult to care for and it requires extra knowledge to make a correct assessment of their wellbeing. An animal welfare inspector, with an education in general animal welfare, may not have a deep enough knowledge of exotic animals to do a proper assessment of the animal?s general condition and its environment. In this paper it was therefore examined if animal welfare inspectors have enough knowledge to do a satisfying inspection of establishments working with selling of exotic animals. A literature study was used to examine difficulties with each species.

Exotic small animals that are commonly kept as pets include aquarium fish, cage and aviary birds, rodents, rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), reptiles and amphibians. These different kinds of animals, even species within the same class, may differ markedly from each other regarding physiology and requirements. Although these species are common in both Swedish households and in pet trade, many animal keepers have a lack of knowledge about the origin and requirements of their pets. This is a cause of several health problems seen in animals which are held in captivity. In Sweden, the county administrative boards perform all animal welfare controls.

In the beginning of the nineties there was a change in how the voluntary sector was perceived, and the significance of their work became reevaluated and more acknowledged. As a result, this sector gained a new and higher interest. The changes and downsizing in the welfare state with economic crises, due to political cutback, made the politicians look fore new solutions. One solution is to encourage cooperation between the public sector and the voluntary sector in order to handle the different needs of individuals.Uppsala community and the voluntary sector are working closely together within a project called ?God Livsmiljö?.