The Application of Scientific Evidence-Based Changes to an Animal Shelter’s Rehoming Practices

Abstract

Shelters devote much of their often very limited resources to screening potential adopters, including spending copious amounts of time collecting information from them about their family structure, lifestyle, etc. However, in a study that surveyed rehoming organisations’ practices, it was found that they gather substantially more information about potential adopters than there is scientific evidence to justify. Some information gathered for which there is no scientific rationale which could cause adopters to be denied adopting any dog from the organisation. Consequently, the study concluded that organisations may be turning away perfectly suitable homes due to their often strict rehoming criteria, resulting in dogs staying with the organisation for longer than necessary. Therefore, the study recommended organisations relax their strict rehoming criteria and instead focus on ensuring adopters have appropriate expectations and education for adopting a dog. With knowledge of the study’s findings, a shelter in Northern Ireland overhauled their rehoming practices to be in line with the study’s recommendations for change. Their goal was to increase the number of animals adopted per month with a focus on ensuring successful placements, to decrease staff/volunteer workload, and for potential adopters to have an overall better experience with the shelter. Despite challenges in uptake of the changes by staff working with dogs, noteworthy improvements were observed, with the greatest improvements with cats and small animals. Three months after the shelter overhauled their rehoming practices, adoptions increased year-over-year, staff motivation and morale improved and potential adopters reported a more positive experience with the organisation. Information © The Author 2024