Shelter’s Edge
About Dr. Emily Weiss
- Biography
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Emily Weiss, PhD CAAB
Vice President of Shelter Research and Development
After working on my undergrad in Psychobiology in New York, a tornado involving grad school and a colony of mice landed me in Kansas…
It was there that I completed my graduate degrees, with my research focusing on the selection of dogs from shelters for use as service animals. I then secured a position as Curator of Behavior and Research at the Sedgwick County Zoo, where I worked with a large variety of species – from giant Aldabra tortoises to lions and orangutans.
While working as Curator I continued my research on shelter animals, developing SAFER, an assessment to help identify the potential for future aggression, and Meet Your Match Canine-ality and Puppy-ality, a program to match adopters with canines who meet their expectations. Since 2005 I have been with the ASPCA – where we’ve developed Feline-ality, the ASPCA dashboard (a tool to measure progress toward increased live release rate in communities), developed a dialogue with the equine community to improve training and welfare for companion horses, and embarked on several research projects focused on improving welfare and increasing the live release rate for shelters and communities.
What gives me hope: The growth of study in the area of human and non-human animal interactions
What gets my goat: Ego before empathy
Important idea I want to promote: Naked data, baby!
You may have seen me at: in Meet Your Match guides and videos, on PBS Nature, and at national and regional conferences, including HSUS Expo and Midwest Veterinary Conference
Owned by: Canines Bailey, Que and Sea; equines Triss, Walker andVirgil; camilid (llama) Angus, and bovines Stella, Hughie and Heffer