Outcomes for Pets

Did you know that 31% of people interested in fostering specifically want to foster senior pets? That stat, shared by my colleague during a recent planning session for our upcoming Dogs and Data webinar series, stopped me in my tracks. It’s nearly the same percentage as those who want to foster puppies or kittens, yet senior pets are still stuck in shelters. So why aren’t we focusing foster efforts on seniors and other groups of vulnerable pets who we know the public wants to help? That...

Better dog behavior documentation at your fingertips Not a week goes by without me seeing something written about a shelter dog that makes me cringe. Well-intentioned staff members and volunteers, just trying to do their jobs, often write notes that actually hurt dogs' chances of finding a permanent home. Open-ended and subjective terms like "reactive," "aggressive," and "high-energy" have come to dominate shelter notes, confusing potential adopters, increasing length-of-stay, and...

Unlocking AI for Animal Welfare Professionals: Watch the Recording In case you missed my recent webinar on using AI in animal shelters and rescues, the recording is now available! In this session, I teach you how to use a few of the most well-known LLMs, including Claude, Chat-GPT, and Gemini. After that, I share practical uses of AI for animal shelters. These include designing graphics, improving standard operating procedures, writing news releases, and building better meeting agendas. The...

It's a little early to predict how the current tariff troubles will play out. But we know with certainty that national and global financial instability will increase costs for animal shelters and rescues. At a minimum, we can expect prices of pet food, veterinary supplies, medication, cleaning supplies, and construction costs to rise. Animal shelters will have to do more with less and will face tough decisions about services, personnel, and programs. Here are six things your shelter or rescue...

With the busy season just around the corner, more animals will become at-risk of euthanasia, simply due to lack of kennel capacity or their length of stay. Tragically, this is partly due to self-imposed policies, practices, and other barriers that slow down the movement of animals through shelter systems. On April 15, I'll be joined by some brilliant colleagues for a daylong session at the Humane World for Animals - Animal Care Expo, where we'll teach attendees how to build their own Big Dog...

The words 'managed intake' have taken on many meanings in animal welfare. Because there is some disagreement over the concept and how it should and shouldn't be practiced, we're going to dig into what we mean when we say managed intake and explain some dos and don'ts. For the purposes of this newsletter, I'll use the terms 'managed intake' and 'intake triage' interchangeably to refer to the practices and mechanisms of support that keep pets in their homes and communities whenever it's in the...

As I travel around the U.S. to help some of the nation's largest animal shelters, I regularly meet the invisible victims of the animal criminal justice system: dogs, cats, and other animals held for months and even years on 'court case' holds. They're typically held in solitary confinement kennels and can not be seen by the public or volunteers. Depending on state laws and regulations, court case animals can be considered and held as 'evidence' which means they do not receive enrichment or...

Dr. Kate Hurley is one of the leading voices in the animal welfare movement, and someone whose words of wisdom resonate deeply with me every time I'm lucky enough to hear her speak or be in conversation with her. Her experience includes serving as the Director of the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program since 2005, co-authoring both editions of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians' Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters, and co-founding and leading the Million Cat...

Avian flu has infected at least 90 herds of cows in 12 states and has been responsible for the deaths of more than 30 million chickens in the U.S. alone. The H5N1 variant is potentially deadly to cats, as discussed in this story in today's New York Times. And Avian flu is not just impacting farmed animals and the companion animals that live among farmed animals. Around the world, mice, chickens, seals, sea lions, wild birds, minks, foxes, dogs, and even a dolphin and a polar bear have tested...