There continues to be great misconceptions about the nature of sheltered animals and how they got there. A commonly cited fallacy is that animals are being surrendered for reasons that relate to their behavior. Indeed, the website of the pharmaceutical giant, Novartis, currently states that “the number one reason people give up pets to shelters is because of behavioral problems…”.
On November 11th, 2007 Pethealth Inc. issued PetPoint Journal #7 in which the reasons given for surrender of pets to North American users of the PetPoint animal management system were identified and ranked for the period 2005-2007. Based on data from nearly 800 animal welfare organizations, on over 1.4-million dogs and cats, the study revealed that a staggering 86% of all animals surrendered to animal welfare organizations were surrendered for reasons that directly related to the life situation of their owners. Animal surrenders that were due to the specific characteristics of the animal in question did not even feature in the Top Ten Reasons for Surrender (see chart below), and in total accounted for only 14% of all animal surrenders.
Top Ten Reasons for Surrender
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Too many pets (18%)
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Unwanted/Incompatible (10%)
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Moving/Deployed (10%)
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Stray/Found/Abandoned (8%)
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Inability to care for (8%)
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Financial/Home Insurance policy restrictions (6%)
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Euthanasia Request (5%)
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Unwanted litter/pregnant female (4%)
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Allergic to Animal (4%)
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Family health/Death of owner (3%)
While we support the interest in the animal welfare community shown by companies like Novartis, we believe that ultimate success in animal welfare will only come through gaining a better understanding of the real issues that shelters and shelter staff face each day.
The information accumulated through daily use of PetPoint represents the single largest source of aggregated data on animals in the animal welfare sector in North America. Pethealth is thus in a unique position assess and develop more accurate conclusions on the issues that may impact your organizations effectiveness.
The PetPoint Journal is published bi-monthly and delivered electronically to animal welfare organizations running the PetPoint animal management system. If you would like more information on PetPoint please contact us by phone at 1-866-630-7387or by emailing sales@petpoint.com. We also welcome study suggestions and recommendations from members of the animal welfare community. If you have any comments, please send them to us at journal@petpoint.com.
