Glossary

A - E

Adopted (Total)

Animals that are placed in permanent homes or transferred to rescues and shelters outside the partnership that guarantee adoption of the transferred animals. Animals placed in foster care are not included.

ASPCA Partner Community

ASPCA partner communities are cities or regions whose major animal sheltering agencies have applied together and been accepted to work intensively with ASPCA experts to increase the community-wide live release rate for companion animals.

Community Liaison

The person whom you designate as the key contact between your community and the ASPCA while you are applying to become an ASPCA partner community. (If your community is selected, each agency will work directly with the ASPCA’s liaison for your community.)

Dashboard

The ASPCA Animal Stats Dashboard is a management tool that sorts partner data for each community into a series of key indicators. These help you know where your work towards increasing the live release rate is on track or off track. The purpose is to provide focus and support management decisions, not to evaluate. Often dashboard indicators require a closer look at underlying supporting data to better understand cause and effect.

Enrichment

Additions to an animal's environment with which the animal voluntarily interacts and, as a result, is believed to experience improved physical and/or psychological health. Walks, toys, and soothing music are examples of enrichment.

Euthanasia (Total)

The number of dogs and cats who were euthanized, including by owner request.

Euthanasia Rate

A formula that expresses the percent of animals killed at shelters within a community. The total animals euthanized, including owner-requested euthanasia, divided by total live intake. This rate should be used in conjunction with live release rate and other measures to develop a full picture of outcomes of animals in the shelter system.

I - O

Intake (Total)

The number of dogs and cats entering a facility.

Limited Admission Shelter

A shelter that accepts animals only as space becomes available. These facilities may also limit intake by requiring appointments for incoming animals, by accepting animals from only certain sources (for example, only from the local government animal control agency), and by instituting additional criteria such as preference to highly desirable animals.

Live Release Rate (LRR)

Live release rate represents the percent of animals who leave shelter facilities alive through adoption, return to owner, or transfer to another non-profit agency such as another shelter, a breed rescue group or foster care network that can guarantee a home for all of the animals it receives. To get the most accurate assessment of a community’s progress toward becoming a humane community, the LRR is calculated based on all of the animals entering the system and not just on the number of animals entering one facility. LRR is calculated for all animals, not just adoptable animals.

No-kill Community

A community partnership among public (government funded) and private (nonprofit) animal protection organizations aimed at eliminating the euthanasia of the community’s shelter animals except in instances of serious health, temperament or behavior issues. The original no-kill collaboration launched in San Francisco in 1994 when an historic partnership between the private San Francisco SPCA and the public San Francisco Animal Care & Control led to sharing resources and collaborating on strategies and programs to end the euthanasia for space of animals in the city.

Open Adoptions (or Learning-centered Adoptions)

A policy to help people adopt animals best suited to their lifestyles. The purpose of the adoption interaction is to create learning opportunities in order to equip the person with information and resources for her/his current and future use as a pet parent or guardian. Open adoption agencies generally have few or no hard and fast adoption criteria. Instead, the process uses guidelines as a checklist of things to discuss in the adoption counseling.

Open Admission Shelters

Shelters that accept surrendered animals (and in some cases stray animals) from their geographic service area on an unlimited basis. Typically these facilities euthanize animals when necessary in order to make space for incoming animals. In most cases, publicly funded animal control agencies are open admission shelters.

Owner Requested Euthanasia

A low-cost service provided by some shelters to euthanize pets that are aged, infirm or dangerous.

P - T

Partner

The organizations in your community who apply together. Your community must have at least two partner agencies and a maximum of five. All major sheltering agencies in your defined area — both private and public — must be partners. “Major” means those nonprofit organizations and public agencies that (combined) shelter 80% or more of the homeless animals in your community.

In addition to your community’s major sheltering agencies, partners can be spay/neuter providers, volunteer organizations, and/or other organizations key to your community’s success.

Return to Owner (RTO)

The number of lost or stray animals in the shelter system who are successfully reunited with their owners. Most states have laws that mandate a legal holding period during which time agencies providing publicly funded animal control services must hold animals for owner reclaim. RTO rates vary widely but in general RTO rates for dogs are substantially higher than RTO rates for cats.

Safety Net

A collection of resources and services that prevent animals from becoming homeless, similar to the social safety net in human services. One such example is Project Safety Net at the Richmond SPCA (Richmond, VA) which is a set of prevention programs that inform and equip community members with the information and resources they need to care responsibly for or re-home their companion animals – eliminating the need for animals to enter the sheltering system.

Sheltering Agency

An organization that provides housing for unowned animals. This may include shelters, animal care and control agencies, and rescues that have a facility or foster homes.

Stray Intake

Animals admitted to an animal control or private animal shelter because they are lost or are picked up while running at large. Some published research suggests that approximately one-half of animals in shelters nationwide enter those shelters as strays.

Surrender Intake

Animals admitted to an animal control or private animal shelter because the owners no longer want them or can no longer care for them. Some research suggests that approximately one-half of animals in shelters nationwide enter those shelters as surrenders.

Targeted Spay/Neuter

The total number of animals altered through low-cost spay/neuter services or a TNR program. Targeted includes:

• Low-income by actual income level or entitlement
  qualification OR
• Low-income / high-risk by zip code of residence OR
• Unlikely to have been altered in the absence of low-cost program OR
• Impounded one or more times as a stray OR
• Feral animal

Total Live Release

The total number of animals returned to owner, adopted, or transferred outside the Dashboard-reporting partner organizations to adoption facilities that guarantee adoption of the transferred animals. Not included in this number: animals adopted but returned within 30 days, animals currently in the shelter, and animals in foster care.

Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR)

An effective, humane, non-lethal approach for managing feral cat populations. Healthy free-roaming cats are humanely trapped, sterilized and vaccinated. Any trapped social adults or feral kittens under twelve weeks of age are generally placed for adoption instead of being returned to the feral colony. Feral cats are returned to their habitat and provided with long-term care, including food and shelter.

Transfer

The practice of moving animals between organizations within a community in order to improve their opportunity for adoption and increase the community’s live release rate.

Transport

The practice of moving available animals from communities where they have little or no chance of being adopted to communities where they can be guaranteed adoption.