The goal for any animal shelter is to keep animals there for the shortest time possible, and help them get adopted as quickly as possible. Understanding what factors might impact “length of stay” (LOS; how long it takes animals in shelters to get adopted) can help shelters allocate resources, promote animals, and also focus efforts on ways to level the playing field, such as through behavior modification or adoption incentives.
A new study looked at whether the behavior of cats was a factor in determining how long it takes to get adopted, with a specific focus on what the researchers labeled as socialization. The study, “The influence of degree of socialization and age on length of stay of shelter cats” was recently published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science. The researchers had adoption staff of 31 animal shelters assign recently adopted cats one of three socialization levels: interactive (approaches, allows petting, purrs or meows at potential adopter), approachable (not aggressive, may allow handling, not playful), or unapproachable (hiding, running away from potential adopters). Data for a total of 645 cats who were at least one year of age was collected. They also included the age of the cat in the analyses, and looked at the effects of socialization category and age on how many days the cat stayed in the shelter.
Cats in the study were housed in shelters for an average of 55 days, although the median length of stay was only 25 days. The median is the value at which half of the sample is below that value, and half is above. So 50% of cats stay at the shelter for fewer than 25 days, and 50% stay longer than 25 days. Because the average is higher than the median, that tells us that a small number of cats are staying for a very long time, and in fact, the longest length of stay reported before adoption in the study was 1010 days.
Adoptable Cats In Your Local Shelter L Adopt A Pet L Aspca
Results suggested that both age and behavior impacted how long it took cats to get adopted. For each additional year of age, it took cats an average of 3.7 more days to get adopted. There was also a large effect of behavior category on LOS. Interactive cats were adopted in an average of 36.9 days, but approachable and unapproachable cats took much longer – for approachable cats, the average time to get adopted was 50.8 days, and unapproachable cats were in the shelter for 118.7 days on average. But older cats in the unapproachable category stayed on average even longer – another 14 days for each additional year of age.
One potential weakness of the study is that multiple shelters participated in the study and were asked to categorize cats according to the provided descriptions. It is unknown how accurate these categorizations were, or whether raters would have high levels of agreement when assessing the same cat. If we assume that most shelters were able to determine whether cats were interactive, approachable or unapproachable, then we can agree that indeed, age and behavior are important to determining how long cats stay in shelters.
Now MOST cats in shelters (57%) fit into that first “interactive” category, with 32% in the approachable category and 11% in the unapproachable category. But being scared almost doubles a cat’s length of time in a shelter, and actively hiding leads to an LOS of over three times that of an interactive cat.
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Animal shelters should be temporary housing for homeless animals. Animals in shelters experience significant stress and a longer stay increases the risk of illness. Animals who stay in shelters for long periods of time can be a drain on shelter resources and may also prevent other animals from being placed for adoption due to lack of space. So what to do with this newfound knowledge?
I think the important takeaway from this study is that given the challenges of getting shy and fearful cats adopted in a timely manner, we need to figure out the best ways to help those cats do BETTER in shelters. This could mean changes to housing, such as providing better hiding spaces and giving scared cats quieter spaces so they can decompress and de-stress. It could also mean actively training cats to be more comfortable in their environment, rewarding cats through clicker training or similar methods for positive behaviors. Shelters could focus some efforts on fostering scared cats in homes temporarily to attempt to socialize them, perhaps returning them to the shelter as more “adoptable.”
Brown, W. P., & Stephan, V. L. (2020). The influence of degree of socialization and age on length of stay of shelter cats.
National Adopt A Shelter Pet Day
Tanaka, A., Wagner, D. C., Kass, P. H., & Hurley, K. F. (2012). Associations among weight loss, stress, and upper respiratory tract infection in shelter cats.
Vinke, C. M., Godijn, L. M., & Van der Leij, W. J. R. (2014). Will a hiding box provide stress reduction for shelter cats?. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 160, 86-93.Fundraising efforts for the Pet Refuge were essentially shut down for two years because of COVID restrictions, and now the shelter is having trouble paying the cost of caring for its more than 100 cats, shelter operators say.
Everything we do is fundraising and donations. We weren't able to do any fundraising. We lost a lot of money, said Kim Filburn, secretary forthe North Kingstown-Exeter Animal Protection League, which runs the shelter.
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The organization was started in 1968, and it has been running a shelter from the Stony Lane location since 2004, according to Linda Stevens, president of the nonprofit organization.
One of the largest shelters for cats in Rhode Island, the Pet Refuge accepts cats from all over the state. It doesn't euthanize animals because of lack of space or medical conditions, but rather only if the cat has a fatal disease orsevere pain.
As a result, the facility has about 30 resident cats or lifers, which haven't been adoptedbecause of temperament, age or medical condition, Stevens said.
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The North Kingstown-Exeter Animal Protection League doesn't receive any municipal funding and generates all of its own financing, much of it through in-person effortssuch as dinners or campaignsin front of stores. All of that was curtailed during the height of the pandemic and is only now starting up again.
It costs about $180, 000 annually to run the shelter, the women said. Expenses include food and medical care for the cats. Spaying and neutering alone costs $15, 000 to $20, 000 annually, according to Stevens. Other costs include paying for one full- and four part-time staffers, as well as heat and electricity for the building, whichis likely to need a new roof andHVAC system within a couple of years, Stevens said.
We have done many gofundme appeals over the years to help individual cats, and now we have to do one to save our beloved shelter, the appeal says. Without a significant infusion of money and fast, the doors to the Pet Refuge may close forever.
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Stevens believes Rhode Island's housing crunch also put an extra strain on the shelter. It's not uncommon for an owner to surrender a pet because they've lost housing or must move where they can't have a pet.
We get calls nearly every day from people who have to surrender their beloved animals due to their own displacement in their circumstances, the GoFundMe appeal says. We want to keep our doors open to continue to take in these cats and kittens, often the ones that other shelters will not or can not take.
We truly are a refuge and are often the place of last resort, the appeal says. And we want to make sure that every cat at Pet Refuge has a home with us until they get a forever home, or for their entire lives if they don’t.
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I can't even think about it, said Filburn. We'd have to see if we could get somebody else to take the cats.Your staff or volunteers—or your partner’s staff—can be responsible for daily cat care and adoptions. Regardless of who is in charge of these tasks, make sure they are trained on proper protocol.
The Bucks County SPCA in Pennsylvania runs numerous successful offsite cat adoption locations and holds special volunteer training sessions for offsite cat volunteers: one for daily caregivers and one for adoption counselors (you must be a cat caregiver before advancing to adoption counselor).
Volunteer training consists of classroom instruction, an online exam and a one-on-one in-person tutorial, totaling approximately five hours of training prior to being assigned a shift.
Stray, Unowned, And Community Cats
According to Linda Reider, executive director of Bucks County SPCA, each of the agency’s offsite adoption locations houses multiple cats and costs approximately $200 to set up. Reider recommends buying needed supplies from the partner agency if possible. Supply costs can be substantially less if items are donated.
Choosing Cats: Select healthy, social cats for offsite locations. If the location will house multiple cats, offer a variety of ages, colors and both genders. Cats who have urine/litterbox issues are not suitable for offsite locations since they may make it difficult to keep the area clean.
Vetting Cats: All cats going to offsite locations should
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