Rethinking RTOs: Identifying and Removing Barriers to Owner Reclaim, Part Two Brigid Wasson Head Consultant The Path Ahead Animal Shelter Consulting Board Member Missing Pet Partnership
Intro & Review of Part One RECOMMENDATIONS: 1) Scan all incoming animals for a microchip. 2) Microchip and tag ID to all animals leaving the shelter. 3) Comprehensive web site. 4) Active social media presence with a focus on lost and found pet content. 5) Public friendly phone system. 6)Public friendly business hours. 7) Public friendly reclaim process.
RECOMMENDATIONS
RECOMMENDATION #1 Be mindful of your shelter s location.
Location, location location. Location especially affects owner reclaims, as the shelter may be far from where the animal was lost. Multiple shelters in a geographic area. Confusing jurisdictional system.
Shelters are poorly located. Is your shelter next to The airport? The sewage treatment plant? The jail? The dump? Poorly located shelters have no street visibility and are hard to find.
Smaller regional shelters have much higher RTO rates. City of Chico Animal Shelter Petaluma Animal Shelter Alameda Animal Shelter, We re on an island.
Bigger shelters covering a large geographic area have lower RTO rates. Current trend for consolidation and contracting in both government and nonprofit shelters. Some agencies contract with up to 10 cities over a very large area and have very low reclaim (and live release)rates.
Changing trends in contracting services. In the late 90 s in California, the Hayden Law (SB 1785)extended hold periods for stray animals. Many nonprofit shelters responded by cancelling their contracts with cities and counties, forcing them to open their own shelters. Today, the trend is reversing as government agencies look for cost savings and nonprofits with lifesaving focus seek to take back the contracts.
Location isn't something easily changed, but be aware if you are considering building a new shelter or taking on contracts
RECOMMENDATION #2 Only admit cats truly in need.
What is managed intake? We can t do that. We re open admission. What does that even mean? Every shelter doing some kind of managed intake. Jurisdiction, type of animal, owner surrender vs. stray.
Most cats brought to shelters are not lost. The majority of cats recovered are picked up within two bocks of home, many next door or across the street. By allowing the public to trap cats and drop them off at your shelter, you are taking pets out of their communities and making it difficult for their owners to find them. Accepting healthy free roaming cats in a shelter does not help them find their way home.
By neutering, microchipping, and returning cats to their communities, you are giving them the best chance at being reunited with their owners. When the San Jose Animal Shelter implemented their TNR program, called Feral Freedom, they got calls from owners saying their missing cat returned neutered! These were cats believed to be feral, would have been euthanized prior to the TNR program
Shelters implementing TNR and managed intake of cats are not only seeing a reduction in intake and euthanasia, they are seeing an increase in cat owner reclaims of 6-8% Webinar: 5 Steps Shelters Can Take to Increase Cat Reclaims. Million Cat Challenge
RECOMMENDATION #3 Manage owner surrenders.
What does this have to do with finding the owners of lost pets? Many people surrendering pets are not actually the owners. They could be a friend or relative of the owner, or someone who recently found the animal. Many shelters require proof of ownership for reclaim, but not for surrender.
Craigslist lost dog posting.
Petharbor listing of found dog in shelter.
If the person surrendering indicates that someone else is the owner, require contact with that person: Law enforcement can visit incarcerated individuals and ask if they wish to sign an owner surrender. If the owner is sick, ask when they will be returning home, or if they can be contacted where they are staying. If they say the owner is incompetent, ask for that person's power of attorney or conservator.
Owner surrender counseling and appointments reduces the likelihood that someone other than the owner will try to leave the animal at the shelter.
RECOMMENDATION #4 Good record keeping.
Good data is essential for tracking success If you don't have it, how can you measure how you're doing? Need a baseline and metrics to track improvement (or not).
Some shelters are keeping records by hand on paper, some keep no records (vets, smaller shelters). Some have software such as Chameleon or Shelter Buddy, but they aren't taking full advantage of its capabilities.
Garbage in, garbage out. Important: create procedures for data entry or staff will do it 10 different ways. WRONG: RTO used for owner surrender returns, community cat/tnr returns. Reclaims outcomed as adoptions Transfers lumped in with RTOs Owner surrender intake not broken out from strays. DOAs do not count as intake!
Create and manage reports to meet your needs. Track reclaim reasons so you know what is most effective (tag, chip). Build infrastructure, plan for the future. If you start now, it may be a year before you can run a clean report, so start.
RECOMMENDATION #5 Paper trail for transferred animals.
Some of the private nonprofit shelters that (ostensibly) don t take in strays have no recorded reclaims. Why? Even if they accept no strays, the majority of their animals were transferred in from an animal control shelter. The legal hold period in CA in 72 hours, so these animals could have become lost less than one week ago.
Receiving shelters typically get no info on where or when the animals were found. Owners looking for these animals will have no way of knowing they were transferred to another area. While it's great that the higher volume shelters are saving animals lives through transfer, without a paper trail it becomes impossible for their owners to find them.
All shelters need to maintain records and to educate owners of lost pets. Easy access records of transfers in and out with photos. List of all shelters in the area and all transfer partners. Coordinate your efforts. You re only truly successful as a community.
RECOMMENDATION #6 Respect jurisdiction.
Some shelters allow the public to drop off animals from anywhere. The logic is that it's convenient for the finder, but it's the convenience of the owner we need to be concerned with.
Not respecting jurisdiction makes an already confusing situation even more confusing for the pet owner. The (incorrect) receiving shelter may: 1) Keep the animal 2) Transfer it to the correct shelter for the jurisdiction 3) Transfer it to a rescue group or to a different shelter.
Make RTO a priority and see your rates increase. It s the right thing to do for the owner, the animal, and the shelter.
Q&A