Bringing your Shelter into the 21st Century to Improve Animal Welfare and Achieve Capacity for Care Part One: The Basics

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Gwenda Lucas
5 years ago
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1 Bringing your Shelter into the 21st Century to Improve Animal Welfare and Achieve Capacity for Care Part One: The Basics In so many animal care facilities, the crux of the problem is that there seem to be too many animals in the shelter at any one time. As we move forward improving some of the simpler welfare and flow issues, the staff can experience positive change. Meeting these achievable goals and experiencing the small wins will help us as we use the fundamentals of life saving to take charge of each animal's shelter length-of-stay, organizations of any size can dramatically improve the welfare of the animals that depend on them. Introduction All of us are united by a framework of principles guiding our work 5 Freedoms (plus 1). o Freedom from Hunger and Thirst By ready access to fresh water and appropriate diet to maintain health and vigor. o Freedom from Discomfort By providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area. o Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease By prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment. o Freedom to Express Normal Behavior By providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal s own kind. o Freedom from Fear and Distress By ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering. o Plus 1: Freedom from euthanasia for animals who are healthy or have treatable medical or behavioral problems. When we cannot meet the 5 freedoms (plus 1) for every animal in our care this means we are not operating within our capacity for care (C4C). o When we do not operate within our capacity for care, animal welfare and life-saving are compromised; our organization becomes stuck in a negative cycle that makes it increasingly difficult to reach our goals for optimizing animal welfare and life-saving. o Kittens in the storm drain To achieve and sustain operating within our capacity for care we must regularly evaluate the problems in our own organization and/or community and develop proactive rather than reactive solutions to those problems. All shelters are different from one another, and each one has unique situations, challenges, and needs. However, there are some basic concepts that can be applied by every organization to improve animal welfare and life-saving, and promote more efficient use of limited resources. We challenge you to use and apply the information presented here to your individual shelter! Learning objectives How to escape the negative cycle and move toward operating within your capacity for care Define fundamentals of shelter welfare for the animals in your care Define common critical flow-through points in the animal s pathway from intake to outcome in your shelter and identify your bottlenecks Strategies to optimize flow of animals through shelter and decrease average length of stay in the shelter Embracing change: Shelter team strategies to facilitate animal flow Achieving Shelter Nirvana

2 Escape the negative cycle Limit number of animals in care at any given time to the number that you are able to provide optimal care for (i.e. everyone s 5 Freedoms are met). o We are not suggesting the use of increased euthanasia or reduction of services to animals in need in order to lower a shelter s population. o We are suggesting systematic changes that can gradually reduce and sustain the number of animals in care (which in turn is likely to increase the number of animals with positive outcomes your shelter!) There are 3 zones where systemic changes can be targeted to optimize the number of animals in care at any single time. o Proactively manage who is coming into the shelter o Proactively manage who is leaving the shelter o *Optimize animal flow through the shelter system so that each animal receives exactly the amount of time and care it needs from the shelter, no more and no less. In other words, optimize each animal s length of stay (LOS). *This is the focus of our presentation.

3 Shelter Welfare Minimum standards that a shelter needs to have in place to build foundation of shelter welfare o Intake screening o Sanitation protocols o Feeding protocols Building on that foundation Moving towards the 21st century o Medical treatment protocols o Infectious disease protocols. These are important to have in place, especially when dealing with a disease outbreak. If you are able to stay within your shelter s capacity for care, the frequency with which these protocols are used will significantly decrease. Humane housing is necessary to meet the needs of the individual animal. Daily monitoring and medical walk through Population health management o Necessary to keep the health of the individual animal and the population in check. o Patterns can be noted quickly as they arise and animals can be treated in a timely manner. o New problems can be assessed and addressed as soon as the issue is noted. Managed intake A 21 st century welfare model Does this animal need to come into the shelter right now? Can the organization meet the individual needs of this animal to help provide it with the best possible outcome? Welfare foundations are vital to properly care for the animals in your shelter. A principle of modern day shelter welfare is capacity for care. Once attained, C4C can be maintained by o Organized pathway planning o Reducing length of stay o Decreasing bottlenecks o Removing barriers to flow and adoption Following the guidelines for 21 st century shelter animal welfare will ensure humane treatment is achieved and life-saving is maximized. Critical flow-through points The number of animals served by your organization is not reflected by the number of animals housed, it is reflected by the animals who move through your shelter system from intake to outcome. o This is why providing humane housing (even if it reduces the number of housing units available) will only help your organization to optimize animal welfare and life-saving. Inadequate housing promotes operating beyond your organization s capacity for care and the negative cycle that compromises your ability to serve the animals in your care. Critical flow-through points are services each animal needs to be able to move along its pathway from the time it arrives in the shelter to the time it leaves. Common examples include: o Intake screening or vaccinations o Spay/neuter surgery o Behavior assessment o Testing for diseases such as FIV, FeLV, or heartworm infection o End of legal stray holding period

4 Critical flow-through points can become bottlenecks to animal flow if the capacity of that particular flow-through point is exceeded. Examples: o Not enough staff to vaccinate every animal at time of intake o Limited time surgery schedule to sterilize all healthy animals o Waiting for a treatment or procedure prior to moving to the adoption floor o Waiting to be moved from the back of the shelter to the adoption floor While each shelter may have its own unique list of critical flow-through points, there are a number of tools any shelter can use to keep animals from getting stuck at critical flow through points Strategies to optimize flow of animals through shelter and decrease average length of stay in the shelter Evaluate all animals at time of intake for signs of disease or behavior problems; identify likely outcome for each individual animal based on findings from intake. This gives each animal on a pathway plan. The plan may change over time, but a plan will help to minimize length of stay. Perform daily monitoring of each individual animal to look for new signs of illness, stress, or behavioral problems. Conduct regular population rounds to ensure that no animals are getting stuck waiting for a service from the shelter in order to reach their optimal outcome, and that their current needs (which can change over time) are being met. Use protocols and staff training to delegate tasks, and use the more limited time of veterinarians, technicians, and/or supervisors as efficiently as possible. Provide safe and humane housing for all animals to promote emotional well-being and prevent illness Establish open adoption and redemption policies that facilitate and streamline live outcomes Re-evaluate current processes to streamline flow Here are some common examples of the ways that critical flow-through points can become bottlenecks to animal flow, and alternative approaches that promote flow. Routine intake quarantine holds o Better option: Screen animals at time of intake for signs of infectious disease. Isolate if signs of disease are present, but do not routinely hold animals who appear healthy for a set quarantine period. Waiting for end of stray period prior to moving animal to adoption floor o Better option: Make stray animals who are unidentified, healthy, and friendly available from time of intake via Open Selection. While these animals may not be sterilized or officially adopted until their stray period has ended, they can meet potential adopters and possibly even be put on adoption hold before their stray period has ended!

5 Applying lime sulfur dip to every cat prior to moving to adoption floor to prevent ringworm outbreaks o Better option: Train staff to evaluate all animals for signs consistent with ringworm infection at time of intake, and have a system for isolating suspect animals until further evaluation can be performed by veterinarian. Shelter Team Strategies to improve flow and decrease LOS Identify the problems YOU face, then identify which ones YOU can fix o Recognize that everyone is working toward the same goal o Every organization has unique resource limitations (staffing, financial, facilities); however, everyone can optimize operations within these limitations to promote welfare and life-saving. Work towards moving forward; move as quickly as you can, but don t leave anyone behind. o Management and staff culture change can be hard. Because this is the way we have always done this is not a good enough reason to not try new things. Must convince the Debbie Downers and get the Eeyore s on board. o Shape the path what can you do to make the positive change easier than the historic habits? Reevaluate in timely manner is this working? What do we need to do to improve it? Summary In the 21 st century, though they remain important, shelter basics have advanced beyond vaccinating animals at the time of intake or choosing the right chemicals for sanitation. Proactive population management is the keystone of all of our life-saving efforts. Using pathway planning, eliminating bottlenecks and removing barriers to animal flow, it is possible for any shelter to lead the way in 21 st century animal welfare. All roads lead to optimizing length of stay and maximizing capacity for care in other words, Shelter Nirvana! Bringing your Shelter into the 21st Century to Improve Animal Welfare and Achieve Capacity for Care Part Two: Shelter Case Studies Jen intake process what is it, why is it important, how to do you it, is it necessary Sarah population management rounds Rachelle shelter team strategies and communications

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