Updates to the AAHA website make the newly published 2024 AAHA Community Care Guidelines for Small Animal Practice more accessible to veterinarians and animal health pros. A community approach can begin to improve healthcare access by mobilizing all available resources within it.
Emily Singler shares efforts to quantify why pet owners surrender pets to shelters and the barriers to responsible, sustained pet care in the article here.
<Human Animal Support Services study results revealed> that human circumstances were a huge part of the pet surrender story for many families.”
According to HASS, the top five reasons for owner surrender were:
- housing challenges
- having too many pets
- having no time/being overwhelmed
- financial constraints
- experiencing a short-term life crisis
The full HASS PDF listing of reasons why owners surrender their pets to shelters in the United States can be found here <Link>.
Source: AAHA NEWStat, November 1, 2024. Link.
Also see: HASS, reasons for pet surrender, August 15, 2024. Link.
Commentary
A pragmatic look at all the reasons for relinquishment exposes a problem veterinary teams cannot solve—pet owners are frequently not prepared to own and care for pets for a decade or more. Only 10 percent of dogs born will find a permanent home, while 60 percent of adopted pets are no longer in their adoptive homes six months after their initial adoption, and 20 percent are returned back to the original shelter, according to a July 2024 article from The Zebra <Link>.
As an industry, we must continue to reduce irresponsible breeding, improve how we qualify people seeking to adopt pets and question the constant push to empty shelters (65 percent of owners adopt a rescue dog for free). This is not veterinarians’ responsibility, although community education is one role veterinary teams can support.