Animal Sheltering

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to announce a Special Issue on “Animal Sheltering” of Animals, devoted to new research aimed at reducing the number of dogs and cats euthanized in shelters and municipal animal control facilities. This Special Issue is focused on improving our understanding of the causes of relinquishment, or of pets being lost, and strategies to reduce them. It is also aimed at identifying strategies that increase live release and positively impact return to owner, adoptions, fostering and the role of rescue groups.

Although in many countries there has been a significant reduction in the number of healthy and treatable animals euthanized in shelters and animal control facilities, unacceptable numbers are still being euthanized. Peer-reviewed studies that document effective strategies are vital to provide evidence for shelter managers, boards, government agencies and other policy makers to embrace change to save lives. Euthanasia of animals also has significant impact on staff, and evidence of this negative impact, and the positive impact of introducing life-saving strategies are important to convince management and authorities of the need to change.

To achieve zero euthanasia of healthy and treatable dogs and cats in shelters and municipal facilities, it is vital that research is fostered that improves our understanding of the factors that reduce pets being relinquished or lost, and effective strategies to save lives. Therefore, I invite researchers to submit original manuscripts that will advance our knowledge of ways to reduce intake and increase live release of animals from shelters and municipal animal control facilities.

We are delighted to announce that Maddie's Fund^®, Found Animals, and The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) are generously providing sponsorship for this Special Issue "Animal Sheltering", and therefore the publication fee payable by authors for accepted articles will be waived.

Prof. Jacquie Rand
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.