When Speeding Up Saves Lives - 5 Simple Shifts to Prevent Euthanasia for Space

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 Superhighway. Here are some of the tips we'll be sharing. Whether or not you're attending Expo this year, these tips can have an immediate and measurable impact on lifesaving in your shelter or rescue.

Make pets visible and accessible to the public upon intake

In many shelters, friendly, healthy pets are kept in the back during their stray hold period, meaning potential adopters never see them until days later. To get pets adopted as quickly as possible, let the public see these animals during their stray hold and note clearly when they’ll be available (for example: “Available to adopt on March 28”). This gives potential adopters a chance to fall in love early and be ready to take the pet home the moment they become available. When shelters are packed, simply being seen can be the difference between life and death. For lost and stray pets, make Petco Love Lost your primary lost and found database to ensure these pets can also be easily found online.

These puppies just arrived at the shelter and they're being housed in a public area of the shelter so they can be seen by the public.

Make most of your animals available for adoption and foster

Many pets are overlooked simply because they’ve been in the shelter a while or have minor issues. But fostering gives people a way to help without a long-term commitment. Try signs like “Ask Me About Fostering!” or “Available for Foster or Adoption!” on kennels. Train staff to respond quickly when someone shows interest in fostering and teach all staff to process a foster placement.

This volunteer-created promotion features pets available for foster or adoption!

Offer pre-adoption for pets on stray hold

Pre-adoption lets potential adopters reserve a pet before their stray hold is over. The adopter fills out paperwork and pays in advance, then picks up the pet as soon as it’s legally available and has been altered. If the original owner reclaims the pet, the adopter gets a refund or credit toward another adoption. People who pre-adopt are given a 'return by' time and date and if they don't show up, the animal simply becomes available for adoption again.

These kittens are completing a stray hold but they've all been pre-adopted so they can get altered and leave on the same day their stray hold ends.

Send pets who are receiving medical treatment to foster homes

Pets with treatable conditions like mange, ringworm, or upper respiratory infections often sit in shelters for weeks. But many adopters and fosters are happy to care for these pets at home, especially when given even minimal guidance and support. You can send foster caregivers home with medications and schedule a recheck remotely or in-person. We often hear concerns from veterinary staff that sending medical needs pets to foster homes will take up too much of their time, but once they say yes, they find the benefits to animals and the staff far outweigh any costs.

World's Best Foster Resource Library

Limit your use of 'unavailable' and 'rescue-only' statuses

It's heartbreaking to see how much longer length of stay can become when pets are assigned a status that places restrictions on their availability or makes them completely unavailable. By creating a clear, definitive policy for how and when these status types should be used, and limiting how long they can be assigned to an animal, shelters can significantly reduce both length-of-stay and euthanasia for time or space. These statuses should be reserved for extreme cases where placement of the animal would violate a legal hold or where it is truly in the best interest of public safety and the animal to be unavailable.

The bottom line: By making simple changes to your adoption and foster policies and practices, shelters can make a big impact on how fast animals find homes. Start with one or two of these strategies and track your progress in reducing length of stay and increasing lifesaving. Which one of these changes will you try today?

As always, thanks for everything you do to save lives!

Kristen