Outcomes for Pets Consulting

According to?Adoptapet?listings, there are 168,000 dogs and puppies waiting for new homes today. Dogs are waiting longer for homes and many in animal welfare are growing desperate, with nowhere for incoming dogs to go. There is so much more our industry can do to if we work together to identify, talk about, and pilot data-driven solutions. That's why I'm teaming up with?PEDIGREE Foundation?and?Shelter Animals Count?to host a six-part series of industry meetings this spring and summer. We'll focus on how we can better use data to impact positive change for sheltered dogs and puppies. We'll hear from top animal welfare experts, shelters and rescues that are finding success, and the people who are doing the difficult work on the front lines about the challenges and opportunities of this moment. These 60-minute calls will be held on the third Friday of each month beginning in April at 11 am PST/2 pm EST. Learn more and register by visiting the link below!

Sign up for my bi-weekly Animal Welfare eNewsletter to receive information and thought leadership: https://lnkd.in/gqZBJTeA As the recent?Shelter Animals Count report?shows, dog euthanasia is?31% higher than in 2022?and has risen above euthanasia rates of 2018 and 2019.?But the reasons behind this aren’t entirely clear. SAC data, as well as individual data sets from large, government shelters show there are fewer ‘owner surrenders’ but?more dogs entering as lost or stray. We can hypothesize that the increase in stray intakes may be due to the fact that some shelters reduced their open hours and made it more difficult for people to surrender their pets. The SAC data also shows transfers to local rescues and transports to out-of-area shelters and rescues continue to decline nationally. For large, under-resourced shelters that relied on transporting or transferring 10% or more of their pets, this decrease has resulted in more crowded shelters, fewer overall outcomes, and in many cases, more euthanasia. Finally, we know that dog intake is just now rising to pre-pandemic levels. We have not seen a massive national increase in dog intake, even though certain shelters (esp. in large cities and places where shelters were already struggling with capacity) are seeing higher-than-usual intakes. All of this leaves me with more questions than answers: - What is the impact of the policies put into place in many shelters at the start of the pandemic? i.e. fewer hours, limited access to pets, and increased barriers to outcomes? - Are rental fees and restrictions having the same or a greater impact on families with big dogs? Is the rental/HOA problem getting worse or staying the same? - Did we lose so many staff and volunteers during the pandemic that we’ve forgotten how to operate with this volume of intakes? Are we losing ground because we are currently unable to compete with the fast, fun, and easy online puppy sales marketplace? We need to figure it out Shelters need to take a closer look at their data to better understand what is happening in their shelter and more importantly, to hypothesize about why they’re seeing a particular trend.?By taking a data-informed guess as the starting point, shelters can test solutions that can solve the problem. If you make a hypothesis and test a solution, if it works, you’ll have a clue that your guess was right! A treasure trove of ideas In 2022, Julie Levy and Kristen Hassen created?the Maddie’s Million Pet Challenge Big Dog Masterclass?because we saw signs in the data that things were about to get tougher for big dogs in shelters. You can access the entire online conference and watch 20-minute presentations by the experts helping to get big dogs adopted. Tell me your ideas Beyond broader social and economic factors, what do you think is causing the increase in dog euthanasia in shelters nationwide?