By Steven L. McShane, University of Newcastle (Australia) More the s are now greeted by trained ACC admission counselors Un States rith in ople skills. In a private office, these count ed by their owners. Until recently, animal shelter selors listen to the owner's story about why they want or need nployees assumed that the owners didn't want their pets to surrender their dog. These counselors are trained by anymore, so they focused their resources on ways to get the censed social workers to maintain a norjudgmental attitude rendered dogs re adopted with new owners. owand the owners and to handle difficult situations. "Once Now, animal shelters recognize that they were focused that person (the pet owner) doesn't feel like they're going to problem to some extent. Most owners of sur be judged in that moment. they might open up and tell you rendered dogs love their pets but believe they are unable to the real situation." says Simpson. keep them due to financial or family difficulties. "Owner Based on the information from these conversations, surrenders are not a people problem," explains Lori Welse. ACC counselors direct some owners to support groups that founder of Downtown Dog Rescue in Los Angeles. "By and can provide assistance, such as financial support or tempo large, they are a poverty problem. These families love their rary lodging for the dog. In other situations, the owners are dogs as much as we do, but they are also exceptionally Invited to attend brief training programs where they recehe poor." Even when owners surrender their dog due to the instruction on how to improve the pet's behavior. The com pet's behavior, animal shelter staff have learned that the versations also help counselors determine which pets are problem is often the owners' lack of basic training to im- better off with new owners. As new situations arise, ACC prove their pet's behavior. staff have found increasingly innovative and customized so These discoveries have been a wakeup call for animal lutions to enable owners to keep their pet. "Even two years shelters. Along with finding new homes for surrendered ago. I would think there wouldn't be options for so many of logs, shelters now also focus on strategies that enable own- these pet owners and their animals." says Jenny Coffey of ers to keep their pets. Downtown Dog Rescue in Los Angeles the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals. is a pioneer in applying diverse solutions to minimize the ACC predicted that over the first 18 months of the pro number of dogs surrendered each year to animal shelters. gram. 150 owners would keep their pets as a result of the Through donations, the organization provides free dog vac counseling program. Instead, this initiative has reduced the cinations, spayeutering. medical assistance, pet licenses intake by more than 90 pets per month. Through New York and other forms of support to help low income people keep Community Trust funding. ACC introduced free veterinary their pets rather than surrender them to shelters. and humane care to pets of owners in low income areas of Until recently. Animal Care Centers (ACC) of New New York City. Pet surrenders have dropped by 50 percent York City also focused solely on getting surrendered dogs to on average, in the areas that received this funding new owners. The municipal agency receives more than "It's almost as if a few years back a massive light bulb 30.000 pets annually at its shelters in five New York City went off in the animal welfare community." says Matthew boroughs. Front desk staff members were aware of common Bershadker, CEO of the American Society for the Preven- themes why owners were surrendering their pets: they tion of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). about the industry's couldn't afford veterinary care, they had fallen on hard reframed mandate. "We stopped thinking about how to get times and weren't allowed to keep dogs at their new tempe animals out of shelters and we started thinking about how fary accommodation; the dog had behavior problems th to keep animals from coming into shelters." the owner didn't know how to correct Unfortunately, ACC staff receiving the surrendered have many other duties ( returning peets to owne Discussion Questions license tags, etc ). All they could do in most inst 1. What stage of decision making is mainly discussed in this ask the owners the required questions to complete the came about dog surrenders' To what extent and in what perwork .They were overwhelmed and didn't have time to ways did the change in that stage of decision making sit down with clicats and have hose milly in depth conven allect later stages of decroon making about dog surrenders sations to see if there was anything we could do to help How has creativity played a role in the events described them keep their pet." recall sions supervisor in this case study Aleah Simpson It was also a situation because the answered pairrendered their where many dog loving