Maddie's Insights - Beyond Animal Shelter Walls - webcast

Maddie’s Insights: Beyond Animal Shelter Walls: Using community data to understand intake diversion of Owner Surrendered Animals
Speaker: Presenter Name: Lexis Ly, PhD Student, UBC Animal Welfare Program
How do we reduce relinquishment to animal shelters? In the U.S. and Canada, approximately 25-30% of animals that enter shelters are surrendered by owners. However, despite many shelters and rescues providing various pet support services for the past few decades, there has been little demonstratable reduction in owner-surrendered animals. Currently, many animal shelters use data collected at intake, such as surrender reasons, to create programs that aim to support pet owners to keep their pets. This presentation will outline research into animal shelters, pet owning communities, self-rehoming platforms, and pet owners to demonstrate the complex system of pet surrender. By the end of this presentation, participants will learn how community data can complement animal shelter data to help divert animals from shelters.