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Malagasy people for the most part do not have pets.  Animals have a job to do and that is to act as a guardian ( dogs) that stay near a house for a few scraps of food. They bark when a stranger comes to close to the house and at night it can sound like a dozen dogs all barking at once, alerting everyone.   Malagasy are just  way to poor to feed themselves and dogs may be lucky to get burnt rice at the bottom of the pot.
Vasaha keep pets and may even buy packaged dog food at the super market which I think is crazy because they pay high prices for dry food. It would be much less expensive to buy food, be it beef, chicken and duck...etc  mixed with four cups of rice would be more healthy than store bought dry dog food.  These are the lazy vasaha group that are short term ex-pats. They also have leashes and look strange as they walk their dog.
I have dogs who guard my home at night and cats who look for mice. But can I say they are close pets?
No - for when the Cats go out at night I may not see them in the morning for they may be someone's food tomorrow. I have a three legged cat that was my cat for two years now, that was rescued from a trap. My other cat does not liked to be touched and I do not encourage that so that they are not close to humans and will end up in a food pot.
My dogs are used to protect my property at night mostly when my Malagasy guardian sleeps at night. Then again if the dogs barks to much or if the neighbors don't  like the dogs then they will be poisoned. 
Children in the neighborhood love to throw rocks at dogs on the street so the dogs fear people.   
It is a hard life for cats and dogs as it can be for people.

In this part of the island, the Malagasy seem to be very contra-vazaha. We used to have a super friendly cat that, as I have been told, became a meal for some family. We also had a dog that someone killed by feeding it a tainted sponge that got caught in its throat, and then another dog that was killed by a chicken bone or something that got caught in its throat. (We were very careful to set aside a separate covered trash bin for such things.) People in our quartier just let their animals roam freely, which will be amusing if the fokotany implements the Loi Fiscal in January 2017 that requires households to pay AR 5000 per domesticated animal. "Never seen that dog in my life!"

While growing up in the US, we always had dogs. I can't stand to see another one die, so we probably won't get another.