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Abstract

Knowing that intake rates were easier to change than adoption rates, the book covers the conclusion that intakes are the key variable to address if one wants to reduce and end the euthanasia of healthy and adoptable animals in animal shelters.  Marsh describes how the New Hampshire shelters worked to reduce state intakes of 19.381 animals in 1993 by 6,000 to reach a euthanasia rate of around 3 dogs and cats per 1,000 people.  One effort focused on adoption and the shelters raised adoption rates from 7.3 to 9 pets per 1,000 people.  In 1999, a year before their scheduled goal, New Hampshire met its goal and 8,128 fewer dogs and cats were euthanized in New Hampshire animal shelters compared to the 1993 benchmark.  When New Hampshire launched its goal, there were no models to follow. No one knew how to stop the killing or even if it could be stopped. Progress since then has been quite uneven across the country. The average national shelter death toll is now about 10 cats and dogs per 1,000 people. In some areas, the death rate is twice that rate while in others it is just a fifth as high. Comparing the experience of places with high and low shelter euthanasia rates can give us some idea of the barriers that need to be overcome to end overpopulation in our nation’s shelters and how they can be overcome. Getting to Zero provides an excellent starting point.

Country

United States of America - 840

Publication Date

6-2012

Publisher

Peter Marsh

City

Concord, NH

Keywords

Animal Sheltering, Euthanasia

Disciplines

Other Animal Sciences | Urban Studies and Planning

Getting to Zero

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