Forty-three cities across twenty-five countries have taken part in landmark study on human-animal bond in urban policy— and are asking to learn from.
- Jun 8
- 4 min read
For immediate release — Monday, 8 June 2026
Noble Alliance Association · Geneva
The Petriots Cities 2026 Global City Survey, the first systematic cross-national study of municipal companion-animal governance, finds formal policy adoption at 86 per cent, near-universal appetite for structured peer exchange, and a shared diagnosis of housing, veterinary cost, and data infrastructure as the field's most pressing frontiers.
Noble Alliance Association today published the Petriots Cities 2026 Global City Survey, the first systematic cross-national inquiry into how municipal governments govern the relationship between their residents and their companion animals. Forty-three cities across twenty-five countries and all eight United Nations M49 world regions participated, completing a thirty-nine-question instrument spanning policy, governance, funding, service delivery, workforce, data, and forward priorities.
"What emerges is neither the picture of an unrealised ideal nor that of a completed achievement. It is the image of a field already constituted, yet still unevenly developed — one in which companion-animal considerations are increasingly reflected in municipal policy and administration."
The survey documents a policy domain more institutionally advanced than public discourse has typically recognised. Thirty-seven of the forty-three responding cities have adopted formal policy frameworks. Nearly four in five engage with the concept of the human–animal bond as a policy value. Services are expanding. But resources are strained, data systems are uneven, and a cluster of structural challenges — housing precarity, veterinary cost inflation, and fragmented institutional coordination — recurs independently across regions.
Ten principal findings
01 Formal companion-animal policy is widespread: 86 per cent of responding cities have adopted a policy, strategy, or action plan — a rate substantially higher than existing discourse suggests.
02 Recognition of the human–animal bond is common and expressed through diverse framings: public health, social determinants of wellbeing, civic identity, urban design, and interspecies coexistence.
03 Governance is inherently cross-departmental, yet the translation of coordination frequency
04 Resource adequacy is the single most consistent structural constraint: 72 per cent of cities describe current funding as less than fully adequate, including several where allocations have increased.
05 Cities are actively exploring financing beyond the municipal general budget — 65 per cent are looking to national and regional transfers, 53 per cent to public-private partnerships, 35 per cent to innovative instruments including social bonds and participatory budgeting.
06 Animal abandonment, housing instability, and veterinary cost inflation are described across regions as interconnected challenges requiring more integrated policy responses.
07 Pet-inclusive housing has emerged spontaneously and cross-regionally as the most significant frontier challenge in contemporary urban companion-animal governance — named without prompting by cities across multiple world regions.
08 Non-governmental organisations, volunteer networks, and private veterinary partners are integral — not supplementary — to service delivery in the vast majority of cities.
09 Municipal data systems remain uneven: dog registration coverage stands at 88 per cent, cat registration at 67 per cent — a 21-point gap with direct implications for population management and public health monitoring.
10 Ninety-three per cent of cities expressed interest in a structured Community of Practice — a level of collective readiness that, by the standards of cross-national policy surveys, is unusually high, and which Noble Alliance intends to organise into durable institutional form.
"No declaration fulfils itself. Between principle and accomplishment there lies the patient work of government — the construction of institutions, the coordination of effort, and the steady accumulation of practical capacity."
— Stefano Gnes and Vera Gualdi, Co-Founders and Co-Présidents, Noble Alliance Association
The survey's methodology is descriptive and inductive. Noble Alliance is not aware of any previous systematic inquiry conducted at a comparable global municipal scale. The instrument was administered in English between November 2025 and February 2026. Responses were collected through early March 2026. The sample is not probabilistic and findings should not be treated as estimates of global municipal prevalence; they are a portrait of the responding cities. Respondents occupied positions of direct operational responsibility: directors of animal services, veterinary officers, heads of urban services, public health officials, and — in one case — a Mayor who completed the survey personally.
The report also proposes a governance architecture for the Petriots Cities Community of Practice, built around an annual Roundtable of senior municipal officials, three thematic working groups addressing funding, housing, and data systems, a shared case-study library, and a follow-up survey in 2027 to introduce the temporal dimension required for longitudinal analysis.
About the report
The Petriots Cities 2026 Global City Survey: The Human–Animal Bond in Urban Policy: Practices, Priorities, and Emerging Convergences is published by Noble Alliance Association, Geneva. The report is freely available for non-commercial reproduction with full attribution. External review was provided by Professor Ian Rouse.
Urban governance Human–animal bond Municipal policy One Health Pet-inclusive housing Community of Practice
About Noble Alliance Association
Noble Alliance Association is an independent Swiss nonprofit based in Geneva. Founded on a declaration that recognises the human–animal bond as a universal value of humanity, it structures its work around five guiding principles — living, caring, protecting, governing, and imagining. The Petriots Cities programme is Noble Alliance's urban governance initiative. Noble Alliance is free and independent.
Media contact
Noble Alliance Association
Rue Rothschild 50 · CH-1202 Geneva · Switzerland
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