DOGGED BY THE WRONG PROBLEM

By Steven L$.$ McShane, University of Newcastle $($Australia$)$

More than three million dogs enter animal shelters each year in the United States. And almost one$-$ third of these have been surrendered by their owners. Until recently, animal shelter employees assumed that the owners didn$$t want their pets anymore, so they focusedtheir resources on ways to get their surrendered dogs readopted with new owners.

Now, animal shelters recognize that they were focused on the wrong problem to some extent. Most owners of surrendered dogs love their pets but believe they are unable to keepthem due to financial or family difficulties.

$$Owner surrenders are not a people problem$$ explains Lori Weise, founder of Downtowndog rescue in Los Angeles $$By and large, they are poverty problem. These families love their dogs as much as we do$,$ but they are also exceptionally poor$$ even when owners surrender their dog due to the pet$$s behaviour, animal shelter staff have learned that the problem is often the owner$$s lack of basic training to improve their pet$$s behaviour.

These discoveries have been a wake$-$up call for animal shelters. Along with finding new homes for surrendered dogs, shelter now also focus on strategies that enable owners to keeptheir pets Downtown Dog Rescue in Los Angeles is a pioneer in applying diverse solutions to minimize the number of dogs surrendered each year to animal shelters. Through donations, the organization provides free dog vaccinations, spay$/$neutering$,$ medical assistance, pet licenses, and other forms of support to help low$-$ income people keep their pets rather than surrender them to shelters.

Until recently, Animal Care Centers $($ACC$)$ of New York City also focused solely on getting surrendered dogs to new owners. The municipal agency receives more than $30,000$ pets annually at its shelters in five New York City boroughs.

Front desk staff members were aware of common themes why owners were surrenderingtheir pets: they couldn$$t afford veterinary care; they had fallen on hard times and weren$$tallowed to keep dogs at their new temporary accommodation; the dog have behaviour problems that the owner didn$$t know how to correct.

Unfortunately, ACC staff receiving the surrendered dogs have many other duties $($returningpets to owners, tracing licenses tags, etc.$).$ All they could do in most instances was ask the owners the requires questions to complete the paperwork. $$They were overwhelmed and didn$$t have time to sit down with clients and have those really in$-$deep conversations to seeif there was anything we could do to help them keep their pets,$$ recalls ACC admissions supervisor Aleah Simpson. It was also an awkward situation because the owners answered the questions and surrendered their pet in ACC$$s crowded front lobby were many dog$-$ loving clients were listening.

Inspired by the work of Downtown Dog Rescue in Los Angeles, ACC now takes a dramatically different approach to dog surrenders instead of answering a few questions

asked by busy front desk staff, owners who intended to surrender their dogs are now greeted by trained ACC admission counselors with impeccable people skills. In a private office, these counselors listen to the owner$$s story about why they want or need to surrender their dog. These counsellors are trained by licensed social workers to maintain anonjudgmental attitudes towards the owners and to handle difficult situations.

$$Once that person $($the pet owner$)$ doesn$$t feel that they$$re going to be judge in thatmoment, they might open up and tell you the real situation$$ says Simpson.

Based on the information from these conversations, ACC counsellors direct some owners tosupport groups that can provide assistance, such as financial support or temporary lodging of the dog. In other situations, the owners are invited to attend brief training programs where they receive instruction on how to improve the pet$$s behaviour. The conversations also help counsellors determine which pets are better off with new owners. As new situations arise, ACC staff have found increasingly innovative and customized solutions to enable owners to keep their pet. $$Even two years ago, I would think they wouldn$$t be options for so many of these pet owners and their animals,$$ says Jenny Coffey of the Mayor$$s Alliance for NYC$$s Animals.

ACC predicted that over the first $18$ months of the program, $150$ owners would keep their pets as a result of the counselling program. Instead, this initiative has reduced the intake bymore than $90$ pets per month. Through New York Community Trust funding, ACC introduced free veterinary and human care to pets of owners of low$-$income areas of New York City.

Pet surrenders have dropped by $50$ percent, on average, in the areas that received thisfunding.

$$It$$s almost as if a few years back a massive light bulb went off in the animal welfare community$$ says Mathew Bershadker, CEO of the American Society for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals $($ASPCA$),$ about th