Animal Studies Commons^™

The Business Of Animal Protection, Andrew N. Rowan

Animal Welfare Collection

Today in the USA, total income for private animal protection organizations is around $2.44 billion or just under $8 per capita. However, there are large variations in this figure from one state to another ranging from Colorado at the upper end (around $13 per capita (DC is actually higher at $16‐17 per capita but a lot of money comes in from the outer suburbs in Maryland and Virginia) to a low of around $2 per capita in Utah (note: national groups like Best Friends are not included in the income numbers for each state). If every state were as successful …

Compassion Fatigue In The Animal-Care Community, Charles R. Figley, Robert G. Roop

eBooks

Compassion fatigue---the exhaustion caused by the demands of being empathic and helpful to those who are suffering---is found at every level among the underserved, underappreciated, and uncomplaining caregivers in animal-related fields. In this ground-breaking book, two prominent leaders in the field examination the causes of compassion fatigue and offer help to those who suffer from it.

Compassion Fatigue in the Animal-Care Community is a must-read for animal shelter employees, volunteers, and board members veterinarians, and veterinary practice and veterinary hospital staffs wildlife rehabilitators breed-rescue or equine-rescue volunteers.

Companion Animal Demographics In The United States: A Historical Perspective, Elizabeth A. Clancy, Andrew N. Rowan

State of the Animals 2003

Modern American society recognizes the crucial role of data and information in evaluating and effectively addressing societal problems. Americans are bombarded with information on the economy, public health, social and psychological attitude trends, and other matters that are considered important. For example, no self-respecting politician would think of launching a political campaign or initiative without some sense of what the public might be worrying about. Addressing pet population issues should be no different. Data are needed in order to define the nature and scope of the dog and cat demographic challenge. Data can help people to understand the impact of …

From Pets To Companion Animals, Martha C. Armstrong, Susan Tomasello, Christyna Hunter

State of the Animals 2001

Almost two-thirds of U.S. households have a dog, cat, bird, or reptile as a pet. The number of dogs, and particularly puppies, relinquished to shelters was rapidly diminishing as of mid-2000, to the point that some shelters did not have any puppies for adoption for many months. Those dogs and cats fortunate enough to be in lifelong homes are enjoying a longer life span than those who shared our homes in the first half of the twentieth century.

Additional good news is the way that animal shelters—whether run municipally, privately, or through a combination of municipal and private funding—are different …

Animal Control In Fairfax County, Virginia, Richard Amity

Management and Control of Companion Animal Populations Collection

The Department is responsible for providing services and enforcing laws pertaining to both domestic animals and wildlife. The department which has a staff of fifty, is involved in a variety of activities including, provision of temporary shelter and adoption service for stray and surrendered animals, 24-hour emergency service for injured strays, quarantine of animals which have bitten humans, assistance in the removal of stray dogs and wildlife from public areas, conducting humane education programs and issuance of hunting permits. In 1975, the department in a cooperative arrangement with the Northern Virginia Veterinary Medical Association, also developed a reduced cost spay/neuter …

City Of Los Angeles: Animal Care And Control, Robert I. Rush

Management and Control of Companion Animal Populations Collection

I have found my department's work statistics to be more useful in determining the changes in the pet population and in the success of our programs. The shelters are mirrors of our society, they tell us what dog breeds are popular and what health conditions prevail for pets in our cities. We can gauge the success of our programs by looking at the numbers and types of dogs and cats impounded, the number of animal bites, cruelty cases and stray dogs.

Human Demographics, Animal Demographics, Human-Animal Interaction And The Animal Control Program Of Baltimore City, Lloyd H. Ross

Management and Control of Companion Animal Populations Collection

A study of the ecology and public health impact of urban cats in two neighborhoods in Baltimore (Childs, 1982) indicated that the frequency of cat ownership varied from 20.1% of households to 7.4% of households in the two contrasting areas. It is interesting to note that the low percentage of cats occurred in the low income and predominately Black neighborhood. Information obtained for this study on the age structure of animals in the community varies slightly, depending upon the data source. The polling of 18 veterinary hospitals in Baltimore indicates that animals examined were generally between the ages of 6 …

Solving The Pet Overpopulation Problem

Close Up Reports

Because of the short pregnancies and large litters of dogs and cats, one individual female with all her female offspring reproducing similarly can be the source of over 4,000 new lives within seven years. Some of these animals will find homes complete with laps to sit on and fireplaces to enjoy, but millions of other perfectly healthy dogs and cats won't be so lucky. The overabundance of these potential pets tends to cheapen the intrinsic value of each individual animal in the eyes of the general public. The swelling problem causes some people to use cruel methods of disposing of …

Is Your Pet Safe From Laboratory Experimentation?

Close Up Reports

In the U.S., the path from public or private shelters to laboratories is treat too often by dogs and cats. In a few states, so-called "pound seizure" laws require shelters to turn over unclaimed or unwanted dogs and cats to researchers. In other states, shelters may voluntarily sell dogs and cats to "bunchers" who travel around a state or states, bunching animals together to resell to research facilities. Even in the handful of states that prohibit release of animals for research purposes, unscrupulous profit seekers can find animals and sell them for research across state lines.

Many scientists claim these …

A Strategy For Dog-Owner Education, Ian Dunbar

Animal Welfare Collection

By conservative estimates, the humane societies and societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals in the United States euthanize over 15 million pets each year. It is a great shame that people who have devoted their lives to animals should be forced to destroy the majority of animals that pass through their hands. In addition, the Pet Food Institute's 1975 Survey revealed that a high percentage of pet owners were unsatisfied with their animals and ended up giving them away, taking them to animal shelters, or losing them in accidents. It would appear that only a minority of pets …

Homeless Cats And Dogs Are Suffering And Dying

Close Up Reports

Last year more than 13 million homeless cats and dogs were euthanized at humane societies and municipal animal shelters. As a statistic, 13 million may be meaningless. But think of it another way. Think of the 13 million as individual animals with individual personalities--each with their own beating heart, each with their own wretched story of how they found their way to the animal shelter. Each one was an individual breathing creature whose life was ended because there was no home to go to.

Our Pet Population Explosion And Operation Spared, Kay Clausing

Pets Collection

All humane societies are dedicated to preventing cruelty and suffering. No society can effectively prevent cruelty unless it makes spaying compulsory for all females released for adoption and talks spaying to every owner of a female. Even if the home is a good one in every other respect, if a female is permitted to produce even one litter, the humane society is simply delaying or postponing cruelty. In fact, it is perpetuating it. When the female (which your society otherwise placed so carefully) has a litter, often its owners are not qualified to judge what constitutes a good home. In …

The War Against Surplus Breeding, Irene Castle

Puppy Mills Collection

Almost the whole humane movement is snowed under and overwhelmed by the still mounting flood of surplus cats and dogs. The surplus turns our shelters into sordid slaughterhouses. It distorts and perverts the thinking of many even of our very best people. Hundreds of our societies are kept permanently on the edge of bankruptcy by the single problem of taking in and disposing of cats and dogs which are homeless or unwanted simply because of the immense surplus of such animals.

It is so easy for all of us to throw up our hands and denounce veterinarians for the high …

Animal Shelter Programs And Policies, Edwin J. Sayres

Animal Welfare Collection

A discussion of policies and programs that, ideally, should be followed by humane societies in the operation of shelters and the limitations that are imposed by finances, local circumstances, and other factors is a substantial undertaking. I would like, first, to give you some background information about St. Hubert's Giralda and hope that what I have to say will contribute something to people confronted with the problems of shelter management and animal control programs.

Our methods and approach were basically acquired from material available through national and state organizations in this field. We are especially indebted to the Union County …