KC DOG BLOG

Some thoughts on 4th of July Shelter Intakes, and solutions

You don't have to look very far to see a news story about how July 5th is the busiest day for animal shelters.  The theory goes that fireworks, with their loud popping and banging, scare dogs and many escape due to fear and then come into shelters on the following days. There are certainly no shortage of shelters making this claim.

The usually very thorough Emily Weiss at the ASPCApro has written blogs on consecutive years trying to dispel this as a myth, noting that in their survey of pet owners who had lost their pets, these owners said the 4th of July was not the reason their pet was lost. 

I'll preface this with noting that I'm a huge fan of challenging "Common knowledge" that exists in animal welfare circles as many "knowns" seem to be handed down for years with little or no evidence of them being true , including things like the myth about the need for heavy screening for adopters, or only 1 in 600 pit bulls that enters a shelter finds a home,  or the ridiculous math about the number of offspring an unaltered cat may produce or black dog syndrome. Many of these are just plain wrong, and often negatively impact animals in our shelters. 

However, in speaking with pretty much everyone in the shelter/rescue community, and observing the comments on Dr. Weiss's post, most people aren't going along with Dr. Weiss's assertion that the 4th of July isn't a major concern for shelters.

Last year, I ran numbers for KC Pet Project, and we saw a 15-25% increase in the number of dogs that came into the shelter in the days following the 4th of July. 

Kathy Pobloskie of Lost Dogs of Wisconsin noted a roughly 50% increase in lost dog reports during the week of July 2-8. 

Susan Taney of Lost Dogs Illinois cited roughly a 30% increase in lost dog reports during that same time period.

This year, Lost Dogs Illinois is reporting a 100% increase in lost dog reports following Independence Day -- from an average of 22 per day for the last 2 weeks of June to 44 per day during the first week of July.

In talking with shelter leaders and lost pets advocates that I know and respect from around the country, it seems that most report similar numbers -- numbers that indicate a pretty substantial increase in lost dogs surrounding the 4th of July Holiday -- usually not escalating to the level of straymagedon, but not inconsequential either.

And even a small increase in intake during the month of July (which is already the busiest month for shelters) is liable to make every additional intake a life or death situation as the high intakes in July have most shelters already busting at the seems with homeless pets.

So what is a shelter to do? 

Many good shelters are already doing a great job of taking to their websites, social media and even mainstream media about the importance of keeping pets contained during the "fireworks season" and the importance of having your pet up-to-date with their microchip and tags so in the event they DO get lost, they can be reunited with you quickly. If your organization is not doing this, you should definitely do so in your communities.

Meanwhile, another solution is to start making room in your shelter for the new pets by getting the pets that are there OUT before the 4th. For the 4th year in a row, KC Pet Project has hosted a major adoption event on July 4th to help get dogs OUT, before the new ones come in.

While many shelters close for the holiday, it is a day when most families are off work and have time to spend together -- and will often use the time to find a new pet. This has always been a very good adoption day for us, ranging from at least an average adoption day to our highest adoption day ever. (I think day-of-week of the holiday plays a big role in the success of the event). 

So instead of being closed while increased numbers of dogs are being scared into being lost -- KC Pet Project is OPEN -- getting animals out of the shelter to make room. 

And getting animals out, can at least reduce a bit of the sting of the animals coming in.

And finally, when you get lost pets in - -assume they are LOST and not stray. Take pictures, post them online and in social media and work to get them reunited with owners. It's the fastest, and best, way to get them out of the shelter. 

What is your organization doing to help diffuse 4th of July intakes?

 

New ASPCA Paper on the frequency of lost pets, and their reclaim by owners

This month, there was an interesting study by the ASPCA (written by Emily Weiss, Margaret Slater and Linda Ford) in their issue of Animals (HT to Seattle Dog Spot).

The study, performed between September-November 2010, includied 1,015 pet owning households -- 80% of whom owned dogs (817) and 50% (506) owned cats -- 30% (308) owned both a dog and a cat.

According to the reported research:

- 14% of dogs had been lost in the past 5 years, (of which, 95% were recovered) and 15% of cats were lost (of which, 75% were recovered).

-- 50% of dogs and 33% of cats had been lost multiple times

 -- 80% of dogs and 88% of cats were spayed or neutered (male dogs were less likely to be altered than female dogs). This would seem to be counter to common thinking that unaltered animals are more likely to run off than altered ones.

-- Not surprisingly, people with higher incomes and more education were MORE likely to alter their pets than people with lower incomes and less education -- further highlighting the need for targeted low-cost spay/neuter services.

-- There was no significant difference in likelihood of a pet being lost based on income or education

-- 49% of found dogs were found by searching their neighborhood, 20% came home on their own, 15% were contacted because they were wearing a tag or had a microchip, 7% were brought home by a neighbor and 6% by contacting animal control

-- 59% of cats were found because they returned home on their own, 30% were found by searching the neighborhood. Only 2% were returned home because they were wearing a tag or mcircochipped, and another 2% via contacting animal control.

--  For people who never found their lost dogs, 75% of searched their neighborhood, 75% visited the shelter, 50% hung posters, 50% put an ad in their paper, 50% posted online and 38% called their veterinarian (I will note that the sample size is very low for this since most people found their pets).

-- For people who never found their cats, 67% searched the neighborhood, 22% visited a shelter, 17% hung posters , 11% put an ad in the paper, 6% posted online and 11% called veterinarians (again, a fairly low sample size). The number of lost cat owners that never visited the shelter to look for the cat (and a verys small percent have any form of identification) is likely a reason that most shelters have strikingly low return-to-owner rates for cats.

-- People who made less than $50,000 a year were less likely to be reunited with their dogs than people in higher income brackets. For cats, low income (less than $30,000 and high income ($100,000+) were more likely to be reunited, where people between $30,000-100,000 were less likely to find them.

-- Women were more likely than men to be reunited with their dogs, but the opposite was true for cats.

-- While the numbers of unfound pets seem fairly low by these numbers, when you compare to the large numbers of owned pets in this country (86 million cats, 78 million dogs), this still means that roughly 2.2 million dogs are lost each year, and 2.6 million cats. Based on this, a large number of the animals that  find their way into shelters across the nation are actually owned animals, not strays. And based on numbers of animals that are never found, this accounts for 110,000 dogs and 645,000 cats annually that are owned, but unable to be reunited with their owners.

I think the results of the study are interesting on a lot of levels. They support a lot of reasons for targeted low cost spay/neuter programs and the need for aggressive programs to encourage pet owners to put identifying tags and microchips on their pets (particularly for indoor cats, who do get lost). It also poses a pretty hefty task on shelters to try to be creative to create programs to help reunited cats to cat owners (which includes encouraging cat owners to come to the shelter to look for their lost cats.

There may be some sample bias in this survey, but I thik it does provide some good first data on the frequency of pets becoming lost, and then found again. 

Read the study in its entirety and I'd love to get your thoughts.