Targeting the Risk
Last week I had a great call with a couple of my favorite vets in Texas – Dr. Melissa Draper, Chief Veterinarian, and Dr. Sandra Strong, Medical Director of SPAYSA and contracting shelter vet for the City of San Antonio, who work together at City of San Antonio Animal Care Services. Conversations are always lively with the 2 of them – the combination of passion toward their community’s animals, curiosity around data, and insight in their community allows for polite debate and creative thought. They are working on a spay/neuter initiative where they are trying to better target S/N toward areas of risk. The community is focusing funding toward S/N, and Strong and Draper are proponents of focused targets toward high risk. While not quite ready to use the GIS technology with their data, they are working to analyze risk and focus their S/N services toward those areas.
Both Dr. Strong and Dr. Draper know their community and are digging into their data. They have found that the populations most at risk of euthanasia are, like many communities, free-roaming cats (both kittens and adults), owned cats, and pit bulls. S/N targeting will impact certain populations directly. When I think about S/N impacting risk, the focus is on those juvenile populations. High intake of puppies and kittens into the sheltering system likely means there is a surplus of those types (be it breed, color or species) in the area from which they came.
What might it mean, then, if few puppies are entering the sheltering system, but young adults and adults are? This is the case with Dr. Strong and Dr. Draper’s data. There are very few pit bull type puppies entering the sheltering system, 
but large numbers of pit bull-type adolescent and adults. There are pockets of puppy intake, and these pockets will be addressed with S/N services. I look forward to seeing the potential changes in intake from these pockets. But overall, if there are few puppies coming into the sheltering system, then measuring effect of S/N becomes difficult, as the population we are trying to affect is the next generation – to prevent the litters so that they do not end up in the sheltering system. If the puppies are already not entering, but the older animals are, is it the ‘overpopulation’ issue or potentially something else entirely?
People want puppies; they want a dog as a companion. Is it possible that puppies are being absorbed within the community as folks want those puppies and, as they grow into adolescents and adults, behaviors and physiology changes, bonds break, and the dogs then enter the sheltering system? If we come in with an S/N program with this potential reality, we will not stop the flow of adolescents and adults coming to the shelter – because people want puppies, and they will find them. What may be needed instead is a safety net program of behavior help, classes, food banks, vet services or similar to help keep the bond intact. Certainly, part of those services would be S/N – but the S/N alone would likely not stop the flow of this population entering the shelter.
Has your organization focused resources toward these at-risk adolescents and adults to decrease the likelihood they enter the system? What have you tried? What data did you collect? We would love to hear your experiences.
Tags: intake, pit bulls, R&D, safety net programs, spay/neuter
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Courtney Says:
Very true. We see this at the KS Humane Society where I volunteer. People want that puppy for the “aw” factor and its a “fresh” start for the training, etc. But when the newest wears off, you have a unobedient animal that is in the shelter.
Rose Tremblay Says:
I notice this in our shelter with pits more than anything else… we hardly ever have “puppies”. The average age of pit bulls in our shelter is 6 months to 2 years, right about the time they reach the point of pulling their owners around the block or being “bull-headed”. When they get to this point, people who don’t have or won’t make the time to properly train them just turn them in, and then they are our problem… Many people just don’t understand how much energy these kids have and when they do, they realize they just can’t or won’t provide an outlet for that, and they turn them in because they are too rambunctious and uncontrollable.
Kozzykats Says:
Very insightful information as usual Dr. Weiss. A strong S/N program will not stop the influx of adult companion animals.
Our shelter is certified in Training Wheels, a program developed by Sue Sternberg. This programs helps adopters address behavioral issues by providing counseling, in home training, and behavior modification equipment, such as no pull harnesses and head halters – free of charge.
We take a proactive approach by going into communities and providing these free services so that we can reach the owner before they call us because at that point, they are usually at their wit’s end and ready to surrender.
We don’t have any hard data at this point, but anecdotal data suggests that we are decreasig surrenders by providing this service.
Emily Weiss Says:
Oh! What a great opportunity to collect some data! Feel free to connect with me and my team to troubleshoot some options for data collection.
Elena Battles Says:
Dr. Weiss,
We are interested in exploring the use of GIS technology for our TNR programs. Are you open to new organizations/ communities joining this research? Hope to have the chance to work together on this exciting tool.
Elena Battles, Humane Society Silicon Valley
Emily Weiss Says:
Elena –
we have some opportunities for communities to work with us and the GIS tool. In order to participate, we need the organizations that take in 85% of the shelter intake in the area participating, as well as the major targeted S/N providers. We find many communities need to modify the data they are currently collecting so that the correct information is collected.