Search Results (18)

(1) Background: This study investigates the impact of social vulnerability, as quantified by the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), on animal shelter intakes and adoptions, and the flow of animals between SVI groups at seven shelters within the United States. Understanding how social vulnerability influences these factors is crucial for developing targeted interventions to improve shelter outcomes and community support programs. (2) Methods: The research analyzed intake and adoption data from multiple animal shelters to assess the relationship between the social vulnerability at intake and adoption locations based on Census Tract obtained from addresses, focusing on comparison across strays, seized animals, and owner surrenders. Effect sizes were calculated to determine the magnitude and practical implications of these relationships. The study also examined the distribution of outcomes and reasons for animal surrender in relation to SVI levels. (3) Results: The analysis found that animals tended to enter shelters from areas of higher vulnerability while being adopted out to homes from all levels of vulnerability. Stray animals and those seized by authorities were more likely to come from high-SVI areas and showed a stronger disparity between intake and adoption SVI levels than owner surrenders. Racial/ethnic minority status and socioeconomic status were the components of the SVI that produced the strongest differences between intake and adoption vulnerability levels. Adoptions, however, were evenly distributed across different SVI levels, suggesting equitable access to adoption services. The study also identified that animals from high-SVI areas were not euthanized at higher rates compared to those from lower-SVI areas. (4) Conclusions: The findings highlight the need for further investigation into the high numbers of stray adult dogs in areas of communities that are most socially vulnerable as well as programs to address the volume of young animals originating from these areas. The equitable distribution of adoptions across SVI levels suggests that shelters are effectively engaging with socioeconomically and racially/ethnically diverse communities. Future research should focus on exploring the dynamics of stray animal intakes and enforcement patterns to enhance community and animal welfare initiatives. Full article

The relinquishment of companion animals to shelters presents significant challenges for animal welfare organizations and has substantial implications for the well-being of both the animals and their owners. This study aims to investigate the reasons for voluntarily relinquishing animals to shelters, to examine species-specific differences (cats and dogs), to compare initial relinquishments to returns (re-relinquishments or readmissions), and to identify potential changes over a 6-year period framing the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A retrospective analysis of owner relinquishment records from an open admission shelter in the US was conducted using content analysis, a novel approach in this area of research. A total of 13 relinquishment reason categories were identified, as well as 9 separate categories for specific behavioral issues. Among 2836 randomly selected records, the most frequent reasons cited were Behavior Issues (28%), Housing/Moving (18%), Unable to Care (16%), Too Many Pets (10%), Financial (6%), and Owner Allergies (5%). The most common behavioral reasons reported were Aggression (32% of behavioral surrenders), Social Conflict (28%), and Soiling (13%). However, differences were observed in the pattern of relinquishment reasons based on statistical analyses of species, type of relinquishment, and year. Regarding temporal trends, Housing/Moving and Financial reasons were not found to have changed significantly since the pandemic, but the relative frequency of the category Unable to Care increased significantly in 2022 and 2023. Collectively, these findings partially replicate those from research spanning the past several decades in this area that has employed less systematic methodology and can further be used to help identify and understand the primary drivers of owner relinquishments. Full article

It is important to understand the reasons for companion animal relinquishment to help reduce the financial and ethical problems arising from too many dogs and cats in shelters. This study investigates the socioeconomic factors and reasons behind companion animal relinquishment in Australia, utilizing data from five animal shelters, over a five-year period (Financial Year 2018/19 to 2022/23). Descriptive statistics reveal that the median Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) decile of companion animal guardians who relinquished their companion animal was decile 4 out of 10, indicating that they live in areas of lower-than-average socioeconomic status. Cats accounted for 59.4% and dogs for 40.6% of all relinquishments, with more relinquishments from lower socioeconomic deciles (1–5) (cats: 62.6%, dogs: 65.8%). The median age of relinquished cats was 5 months and dogs 16 months, with human factor-related issues (e.g., Housing, Financial Constraints, Human Healthcare) cited in 86% of cases. Descriptive analysis for the five financial years shows a declining trend in numbers of relinquishments, with housing issues (31.2%) identified as the primary reason, followed by ownership decisions (16.2%), financial constraints (11.2%), and human health issues (10.4%). Comparing the reasons for relinquishment between lower (decile 1–5) and higher (decile 6–10) socioeconomic status demonstrated that financial difficulties were a more common reason in lower vs. higher socioeconomic groups, while human health and family-related issues are more common in higher vs. lower socioeconomic groups. These findings highlight the critical role of socioeconomic factors in understanding why people relinquish their companion animals, which can inform targeted interventions to support companion animal welfare across different socioeconomic backgrounds. Full article

There is a need for research that explores the challenges associated with dog ownership. In particular, increasing our understanding of how young people manage their dog’s undesired behaviours can inform a more nuanced perspective of dog ownership as well as highlight the impact of such interactions on both dogs and young people. This qualitative study addresses this gap in the human–animal interactions literature through a secondary analysis of a data set of transcribed semi-structured interviews with seven participants aged between 17–26 years. The data were collected during a larger investigation that focused on young people’s relationships with their dogs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using thematic analyses, we examined interviews that probed participants’ experiences and responses when their dogs misbehaved. The findings identified and explored three emerging themes including Attachment Patterns, which was supported by the codes of connection and kinship. The second theme was Synchrony and/or Lack of Synchrony, which was supported by the codes of reaction and communication. The third theme was Response to Challenging Situations, supported by the codes of emotional reactions and coping styles. Findings suggest that participants handled their dog’s undesired behaviours in unique ways and that such situations may negatively impact their emotions. Undesired dog behaviours were not related to participants’ perceptions of poor attachment patterns towards their dogs. These findings can inform efforts to foster positive interactions between young people and their dogs and reduce dog surrenders. Full article

This research examines the ways people acquire dogs in the US as well as the ways the dogs leave the household and the way these differ by income level in seven geographically diverse study communities. A web-based panel survey was distributed and received 6318 responses. Individuals were asked a series of demographic and socioeconomic questions as well as how they acquired their current dogs, how previous dogs left their household, and where they left to. The results indicate that the likelihood of acquiring a dog through friends and family decreased monotonically as income increased, while the opposite was observed for adopting and purchasing a dog. The likelihood of giving a dog away to a friend or family member also decreased as income increased, as opposed to shelter surrender—a person earning over USD 100,000 annually was more than four times likelier to surrender to a shelter than a person earning under USD 15,000. The results suggest a stronger reliance on informal social networks in lower-income communities for both obtaining and placing dogs. As these dogs would otherwise end up in the shelter system, animal shelters may support low-income pet owners to help keep their dogs within their community of care. Full article

Companion animals play a central role in many families and are especially valued by those who are socially isolated. Crisis situations such as acute hospitalizations, homelessness, and natural disasters can make it difficult to preserve the human–animal bond and can result in animals being surrendered or euthanized. Social support programs like the RSPCA NSW Emergency Boarding and Homelessness program support people experiencing crisis situations with emergency pet boarding, access to veterinary treatment and individualized case management. This study aimed to estimate the social return on investment (SROI) for this program using the standard SROI methodology. In-depth interviews were conducted with 13 program stakeholders and questionnaire responses were received from 29 program clients. Outcomes were quantified for four stakeholder groups: program clients, client’s animals, RSPCA Inspectors, animal pounds, and shelters. Clients and their animals experienced the bulk of the benefit from the program, estimated to have a combined value of over AUD 5 million for the 2020–2021 financial year. The estimated social return on investment was AUD 8.21 for each AUD 1 invested. The study demonstrates that keeping people together with their companion animals or ensuring they are reunited as soon as possible can reduce stressors and improve outcomes for people and animals. Full article

Not all dog adoptions are successful. This two-year retrospective study used survival (i.e., time-to-event) analyses to investigate readmissions for dogs adopted from RSPCA Queensland shelters between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020. A better understanding of temporal patterns and risk factors associated with readmission may help RSPCA Queensland shelters better target and tailor resources to improve retention by adopters. The failure function (the cumulative percentage of adoptions that were readmitted by day of the adoption period) increased rapidly during the first 14 days of the adoption period. Approximately two-thirds of all returns occurred in this period. This readmission rate may have been influenced by the RSPCA Queensland adoption-fee refund policy. The cumulative percentage of adoptions that were readmitted plateaued at just under 15%. Dog size, age, coat colour, breed, and spending time in foster before adoption were factors associated with the risk of readmission. Failure functions for a low and a high-risk adoption example demonstrated the large degree of difference in hazard of readmission between covariate patterns, with estimated percentages of adoptions being returned by 90 days for those examples being 2% and 17%, respectively. Spending time in foster care before adoption appears to be protective against readmission, presumably because it supports a successful transition to the new home environment. Behaviour support and training provided for dogs during foster care may contribute to improve their outcomes. These findings highlight the profile of the higher-risk dogs potentially providing shelters with an opportunity to examine where and how resources could be allocated to maximize outcomes for the overall cohort. Population attributable 90-day failure estimates were calculated for each of bodyweight and age at adoption, coat colour, spending time in foster care before adoption, and breed. This calculation shows the expected reduction in the cumulative percentage of dogs readmitted by day 90 if the hazards of readmission for higher risk categories were reduced to those of a lower risk category. Expected reductions for individual factors ranged from 1.8% to 3.6% with one additional estimate of 6.8%. Risk of readmission could be reduced through increased development of foster capacity and capability, targeted interventions, improved adopter-dog matching processes, and more effective targeting of support for higher risk dogs, such as older or larger dogs. Population impact analyses provide a macro view that could assist shelters in strategically assessing the return on investment for various strategies aiming to improve adoption outcomes and potentially reduce readmissions. Full article

Those who work in the animal protection and welfare (APW) sector are consistently exposed to human and animal suffering, particularly those who witness animal surrenders and seizures. Continued exposure to suffering can result in stress, anxiety, burnout, and compassion fatigue, which are detrimental to individual and organizational well-being. The aim of this study was to understand the challenges experienced by Canadian APW workers, and to explore how trauma-informed approaches can be implemented to help mitigate these challenges. To achieve this, we utilized purposive sampling to seek workers in the APW sector who had experience with animal surrender and/or seizure. Telephone interviews were conducted with 11 participants. Participants reported experiencing many challenges that negatively impacted their mental health; this article summarizes them by focusing on two key themes drawn from the narratives of the participants: feeling unprepared and forced strength. Trauma-informed practices are explored as a means to prevent compassion fatigue and burnout, and to increase the resilience of individuals and organizations. We suggest trauma-informed practices help APW workers manage job-related stressors while also providing a more compassionate experience for animal guardians. Further, we propose that trauma-informed practices are a crucial component in facilitating respectful relationships with the communities that APW organizations serve. Full article

A prolonged length of stay (LOS) in a rehoming shelter can be detrimental to cat behaviour, health and welfare. Research shows LOS is impacted by animal signalment, behaviour and personality, whether or not previously owned or a stray, and considerations such as cage placement, cage design and the provision of enrichment. A retrospective study was undertaken at a charity organisation that rehomes surrendered and stray cats from three UK shelters. Records from 2011 to 2015, relating to 4460 rehomed cats aged between 1.0 year and 20.1 years old, were analysed to investigate factors that might affect LOS. Univariate and multivariate analysis determined the effects of name, adoption description (first person vs. third person), age and sex on LOS. The final multivariate model demonstrated that age, sex and adoption description, but not name, had a significant effect on LOS. Younger cats, male cats and cats with adoption profiles written in the third person had a significantly shorter mean LOS. Survival curves conducted using a log-rank test and time-to-event analysis, using the dates of relinquishment and rehoming, revealed that cats with a third person description had a shorter LOS. Shelters should consider writing adoption descriptions in the third person to minimise LOS. Full article

In this article, we attempt to characterize the widespread trade in pet macaques in Vietnam. Data on confiscations as well as surrenders, releases, and individuals housed at rescue centers across Vietnam for 2015–2019 were opportunistically recorded. Data comparisons between Education for Nature Vietnam and three government-run wildlife rescue centers show that at least 1254 cases of macaque keeping occurred during the study period, including a minimum of 32 Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis), 158 long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), 291 Northern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca leonina), 65 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), and 110 stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides). A minimum of 423 individuals were confiscated, and at least 490 individual macaques were released. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with two key Animals Asia (a non-governmental organization) colleagues and their insights are presented. Although we recognize that the data included are limited and can serve only as a baseline for the scale of the macaque pet trade in Vietnam, we believe that they support our concern that the problem is significant and must be addressed. We stress the need for organizations and authorities to work together to better understand the issue. The keeping of macaques as pets is the cause of serious welfare and conservation issues in Vietnam. Full article

Some shelters in the United States consider dogs identified as food aggressive during behavioral evaluations to be unadoptable. We surveyed adopters of dogs from a New York shelter to examine predictive abilities of shelter behavioral evaluations and owner surrender profiles. Twenty of 139 dogs (14.4%) were assessed as resource guarding in the shelter. We found statistically significant associations between shelter assessment as resource guarding and guarding reported in the adoptive home for three situations: taking away toys, bones or other valued objects; taking away food; and retrieving items or food taken by the dog. Similarly, owner descriptions of resource guarding on surrender profiles significantly predicted guarding in adoptive homes. However, positive predictive values for all analyses were low, and more than half of dogs assessed as resource guarding either in the shelter or by surrendering owners did not show guarding post adoption. All three sources of information regarding resource guarding status (surrender profile, shelter behavioral evaluation, and adopter report) were available for 44 dogs; measures of agreement were in the fair range. Thus, reports of resource guarding by surrendering owners and detection of guarding during shelter behavioral evaluations should be interpreted with caution because neither source of information consistently signaled guarding would occur in adoptive homes. Full article

Measures aimed at reducing the length of stay (LOS) of cats in shelters can promote animal welfare and more efficient use of resources. The extent to which variables shown to impact LOS are broadly applicable is unclear. The aim of this study was to describe a population of cats adopted from an urban shelter, and to analyze the association between potential predictor variables and LOS. A study cohort was identified retrospectively from shelter records (n = 2584), 48.8% of which were < 12 weeks old at admission, and 80.7% were stray. Among 445 cats relinquished by owners, reasons for surrender were primarily owner-related (87.2%). Overall, reason for surrender and coat color were significantly associated with LOS. Hazard ratios showed that all reasons for surrender for owner-relinquished cats were associated with a shorter LOS than stray cats and this association was significant (p < 0.05) for all except cat behavioral or medical reasons. In contrast to previous reports, white cats had a significantly (p < 0.05) longer LOS than black cats. This study highlights an important role for shelter-specific baseline data to inform and measure the effect of interventional studies aimed at improving animal welfare by reducing LOS in shelter-housed cats Full article

Better understanding of factors contributing to live release (rehoming) may help shelters improve outcomes. In this cross-sectional, exploratory, non-interventional study, data for all intakes (n = 21,409) for dogs eligible for rehoming from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016 are analyzed to identify such factors. Live release was >88%. A total of 1510 (7.1%) dogs interacted with the foster care system, 98.9% of whom had live release. Foster care increased the odds of live release by about five-fold for all dogs (odds ratio (OR) 5.30 (95% confidence interval (CI): 3.13; 8.97), p < 0.001) and by >20-fold for adult dogs (OR 22.2 (95% CI: 5.48; 90.2), p < 0.001) compared to first-time owner-surrendered dogs. Dogs returned from foster care had a 70% reduction in health concerns, as judged by intake staff, compared with dogs sent to foster. In addition to saving 2882 lives, the rescue network utilized by this shelter was estimated as having reduced in-shelter care needs by 13,409 animal care-days over two years. Dogs returned from adoption also had increased odds of live release (OR 4.74 (95% CI: 3.02; 7.44), p < 0.0001). Nearly a third (29.6%) of dogs originally brought in by owners for euthanasia were determined to be potentially savable, and a fifth of the original group (21.1%) were ultimately placed. Less than 4% of dogs presented with behavioral concerns at intake. It remains to be determined whether other large, open intake shelters performing animal control can replicate these results. Full article

With advances in veterinary medicine that can increase the lifespan of cats and dogs and the effectiveness of spay/neuter programs in reducing the juvenile population of pets, animal shelters are experiencing an increasing population of older companion animals in their care. The purpose of this study was to assess the factors that inform the outcomes of these older cats and dogs. The sample consisted of 124 cats and 122 dogs that were over the age of 84 months (seven years) who were taken into a shelter over a one-year period. To assess the impact of condition at intake on the outcome for the senior animals, a multinomial logistic regression was performed. These findings indicate that preventative programming that can address the reasons these older animals are surrendered, as well as advancements in specialized medical or behavioral programs for ageing companion animals, may support an increase in live outcomes for older cats and dogs in shelters. Further study is needed to evaluate how the quality of life of older animals is impacted by remaining in the care of shelters rather than being euthanized. Full article

The surrender of cats to animal shelters results in financial, social and moral burdens for the community. Correlations of caretaking and interactions with surrendered cats were calculated, to understand more about humans’ relationships with surrendered cats and the contribution of semi-owned cats to shelter intakes. A questionnaire was used to collect detailed information about 100 surrenderers’ relationships with cats they surrendered to four animal shelters in Australia, with each surrenderer classifying themselves as being either the owner or a non-owner of the surrendered cat (ownership perception). Method of acquisition of the cat, association time, closeness of the relationship with the cat and degree of responsibility for the cat’s care were all associated with ownership perception. Many non-owners (59%) fed and interacted with the cat they surrendered but rarely displayed other caretaking behaviours. However, most surrenderers of owned and unowned cats were attached to and felt responsible for the cat. Based on these results and other evidence, a causal model of ownership perception was proposed to provide a better understanding of factors influencing ownership perception. This model consisted of a set of variables proposed as directly or indirectly influencing ownership perception, with connecting arrows to indicate proposed causal relationships. Understanding ownership perception and the contribution of semi-owned cats to shelter intake is important as these can inform the development of more targeted and effective intervention strategies to reduce numbers of unwanted cats. Full article