MISCONCEPTION: Animal Humane Society’s lowered euthanasia rate is artificial

 
Truth: It can be very confusing when you hear that to help more animals we set out to reduce intake at our five Minneapolis-St. Paul metro shelters. But that is exactly what the hard-working staff and volunteers at Animal Humane Society have done through our Bound for Home initiative leading us to reduce our rate of euthanasia by 41%*.

The answer wasn’t found by turning people away or preventing them from surrendering their animal by asking them to make an appointment, as many people believed. Rather, the answer was found by working proactively with pet owners in the community to find the best solution for both them and their pet. This meant working together with them to address common, yet often easily resolvable reasons for surrender before they even came to the shelter.

The truth is we recognized that euthanasia was occurring in our shelters because the shelter system and the animals in it were chronically stressed due to the high volume of animals that were always in our care. Given that our mission and vision encompasses engaging the community to make the world a more humane place for animals, we knew we couldn’t simply begin to just limit our intake by refusing to take in animals or put them on a waiting list until we're done caring for animals already in our care. We had to remain available to all animals at all times while also finding some measure of control over the rate at which animals come into our care. It was then that we set out to work proactively with the community through a new animal intake process—and it has made all the difference, saving animal lives that we would not have been able to save under our old model.

Since implementing the new intake process we are now able to have non-judgmental conversations with pet owners before they arrive at the shelter, which has allowed us to:

1. Help pet owners in the community find better or alternative solutions for their pet. In fact, from July to November 2011 (some of our busiest months) we were able to help 995 families keep their pets, oftentimes with the help of our newly improved behavior helpline, while also providing information to help another 895 personally find new homes for their pet outside the shelter—that's nearly 2,000 animals in five months who didn't have to go through the shelter system!

2. Help more lost pets find their way home before having to go to a shelter or animal control facility. In addition to the nearly 1,500 animals we reunite with owners each year, more than 145 pets found their way back home from July to November 2011 because we were able to help concerned citizens reunite strays they had found with their rightful owners.

3. Increase adoptions and get animals into new homes quickly simply because we’ve taken the guesswork out of who a great majority of the animals are that come into our care because of the conversations we're now able to have with their owners. And because they’re spending less time in the shelter that frees up more time and financial resources for us to work with animals that need more from us.

4. Develop four additional animal rehabilitation programs for those animals that show mild aggression or other manageable issues. Now that fewer animals are coming in and more are going into homes sooner we are now able to spend more time rehabilitating animals that can make great pets with some help.

As you can see, we’re doing more for animals by helping pet owners in the community while also greatly facilitating the movement of animals that come to our shelters from homeless to home. By doing that, we’ve reduced the number of animals that are in our shelters at any given time, which has relieved the stress in the shelter system contributing to our euthanizing 4,153 fewer felines and 969 fewer canines,** placing 81%* of the animals that come into our care.

And we're not stopping there. We will continue to work hard to work together with pet owners in the community. Our hope is that as we continue to progress down this path of doing more for animals, we'll reach a day where we're placing 90% of the animals that come into our shelters.

We’ve put the following video together to further explain how we’re doing more for animals by reducing intake in our shelters.

*January 1–June 30, 2011.
**January 1–October 31, 2011.
*,**Both compared to the same time period 2010.