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"A good dog deserves a good home"

Thi s i s the firsi siuuy that has i nvestigated the success o f an imal shelters i n New

Zealand. Intermt i onall y, onl y a few studies have i nvesti gated the surrendering of pets

to ani mal shelters and the adopt i on of pets from animal shelters. Whi le the i n formation found overseas can be useful, it may not be ent i rely rel evant to New Zealand. This

study fucusseJ on two main areas o f i n terest tu animal shel ters: the reasons Cor

surrendering anim:.1l s to shelters and the success of adoption of ani mals from shelters.

The adoption of cats fro:n Zeaiand ani tnai shelters is generaily successfu1 ( Chapter 2 ). Of the parti cipants in the pi l ot study that adopted a cat, 98°-'o believed the adoption '.va successful . However, 24° o of cats were reported to ha\ e at least one behaviour

problem suggests lhat beha\ i our problems in cats are not a big issue tu their 0\\ners.

Despite 2° o of cat owners bel i eving the adoption was not successful, no cats \\ ere ret u rned to the sheiter. The same pilot study showed thm 79� o of dog adoptions were successfu l , \v i tli 2 1 ° o of dogs be i ng returned to the shelter, all due to behav iour

problems. Comparing these results inuicales lhai behav iour problems are a l arger issue with dog owners than with cat owners. This couid be due to the types of behaviour problems reponed i n cats not bei ng as se\'ere as the types ofbeha\'iour problems

repo11ed i n dogs. The resu l ts also i ndicate that i f a dog adoption i s not success ful then

the uvvner is more

1

i kely to return the Jug to the shel ter than an owner that

unsuecessfuliy adopted a cat. Based on this i nformation, it was decided that i t would be ben efi cial to New Zealand animal shelters to further i nvestigate the area of dog

adoptions.

f n order to better understand dog adoptions from shelters, i t is im portant to look at the

types of dogs surrendered to shelters and the reasons for their surrender. A study of

number of the dugs were s urrenJereJ to the shelter during autumn anJ winter (Chapter

3 ). The f,>Teatest n umbers of dogs surrendered were stray dogs ( 3 1 % ). Many puppies

were surrendered as part of a l itter (26%). Both these categories of surrendered dogs

create costs for the shelter, e ither i n the care of these a n i mals u n t i l they a re returned or tramJerreu tu the local counc i l pound, or i n the euthanasia or rehu m i ng o f the Jug. Educati on i s i m portant i n m i n i m i sing the number of stray dogs and also i n reducing the n umber of unwanted l i tters. l f owners neuter their dogs and keep them on their

pro pert) , the n u mbers of stray dogs and unwa nted puppies will be red uced. Few er than

expected Jug� w ere surrendered d ue tu behav iour problems (6.5° o). The Ill\\ n umber of

dogs i n this category seems to contradict the fac t that all unsuccessfu l l y adopted dogs i n the pi lot s tudy were returned to the she lter due t o behaviour problems. There are several expla nat i o n s for t h i s. Either the surrendering O\\ ners are unv. i l l i ng to adm it the Jog has beha\iour problems i n case it \\ i l l j eoparu i�e the dug · s chance� u f be i ng

rehomed. or they s i m ply do not bel ieve the dog has a problem. The change i n

environment could affect the adopted dog·s behaviour in the new home, or owners may feel that if the dog has a behav iour problem it m akes it a more acceptable reason for returning the Jog tu the shel ter.

Must ani mal shelters obta i n i n fonnatiun from owners regarding why they are

s u rrendering the dog, however very few use this information once it is gathered. By analysing this i n fonnation, the shelter can gai n a more accurate understandi ng of where their resource are needed. Thus, their plan n i ng for the fut ure can be more precise and val uabl e resources are l ess l i kely tu be wasted.

The success rate of adopted dogs (90%) was h igh compared with overseas studies

( Chapter

4).

Behaviour problems were the reason for the dog being returned i n 90% of

unsuccessful cases, a figure consistent with the pi l ot study (Chapter 2 ).

A significant poi nt to note i n this study however was the very low success rate of

contacting owners. Questionnaires \vere completed for only 28% of al l the names of

owners suppi ied by the participating shel ters. l t was not possible tu contact 50% of the

owners and the telephone numbers for

2 1 %

were incorrect. In future, a possible way of

getting around this problem is for the shelters to ask for contact details for a next of kin.

This would ensure that even if the adopting owner mon:d, there would be a \\ ay to

contact them.

Results from the q uestionnaire shm\ ed that the majority of

O \ \

ners appeared to contact

the shelter j ust before they returned the dog. Therefore it appears that either these

O\\ ners are not recei ving the ad' ice from the shelter about the speci fic problems they

are having with thei r adopted dog, or they are contacting the shelter after they have

al r eady made the dec ision to return the dog. Adopting ow ners do not appear to see the

shelter as a source of informati on, and they need to reali se that they can ask the shelter

for advice. On the other hand, the shelter staff also need to be proactive in handing out

helpful advice or i f they cannot help, be able to i n form the owners of where they can get

the necessary information rrom. By the shelters taking the responsibil ity to ensure that

the adopting owners receive the advice necessary to resol ve any i ssues before they

become a major problem, the shelter can help to keep the numbers of dogs returned to

their shelter to a m inimum. Future research could look i nto this area by i nvestigating

the speci llc problems owners are having with their adopted dog, at which stage they ask

for advice, if they do at all, and what type of help they are getting, or whether the

shelters simply say bring the dog back to us.

This research has provided basic information relat i ng to animal shelters in New

Zealand. It sho,vs that shelters would benefit from further in depth studies, looking into

particular areas. Chapter four showed that a large percentage of people that had

adopted a dog mov ed lu

a new address and therefore couid not be contacted, wh ile

chapter three showed that a large proportion uf people surrendered their dog because

they were moving. Based on this i nformation, had these people been i ncl uded in the

study, the adoption success rates could have been a lot lower. Therefore, by fi nding a

way o f incl uding these people in future research \\ Ould benefit the shelters.

A study looking more thoroughly at the reasons \\ hy people surrender dog to shel ters

would also be beneficiaL Research suggests that people are not ahvays enti rely honest

\vhen stating the reason for surrender.

A

study involving interv iews with each owner as

they surrender their dog to a shelter would give a greater i nsight into the reason for

surrender, and also into \\ hether people \ ie\\ a _ he Iter as an ·easy '' ay" to get rid o f an

unwanted dog.

I\

further area of study that would be helpful to shelters would be what types of dogs

are desirable to the public when they are looking to adopt a dog. By knowing what

people want could help the shelters when they decide which ani mals to put up for

adoption. Fol lowi ng a dog through from when it i s s urrendered to a helter, to whether

or not it is adopted would be a useful way of assessing what attributes of dogs are

popular with the public. A well as this, fol lowing the dog through into its new home

would provide an opportunity to compare behaviour problems and other reported i ssues,

between the surrenderi ng owner and the adopting owner.

As previously mentioned, this research found a rel atively h igh success rate for the

adoption of animals from three New Zealand animal shelters. While the study showed

that these shelters appear to be doing a good job of placing dogs into new homes, it also

hopefully highlights areas that can be

on. l n addition, the research provides a

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