alt="Schematic illustration of program development and management considerations."/>
Figure 5.1 Program development and management considerations.
5.4.1 Community Landscape—Assessing Pet Ownership Needs in the Community
Understanding the community in which pets and their owners live is critical when considering which safety net programs to implement. Trends in pet ownership, existing services that support pet ownership, and unmet needs combine to form the community’s landscape of pet ownership. All pet owners need access to foundational services that support pet ownership, including provision of basic pet needs, veterinary care, and behavioral resources. However, strategies necessary to ensure access to these services will vary based on the community.
5.4.1.1 Pet Ownership Trends
Knowing pet ownership trends in the community, including ownership rates, general demographics of pets and owners, and community animal populations, is important for program development. National or local surveys about pet ownership are good sources with which to start (American Pet Products Association [APPA] 2017; American Veterinary Medical Association [AVMA] n.d.). Municipal licensing records, shelter intake data, veterinary patient data, pet food/supply store locations and sales, and grocery and convenience store sales of pet food and supplies, as well as other market research, are also useful sources of this information. New research assessing pet ownership trends may be necessary, so organizations should consider conducting their own surveys, polls, interviews, and focus groups. Ultimately, any organization planning to offer safety net programs will need an understanding of pet ownership trends in the communities they support. A model built on archival and direct research with community constituents will yield powerful insights an organization can use when planning safety net programs.
5.4.1.2 Services Supporting Pet Ownership
Because no animal sheltering organization exists in a vacuum, knowing which services already exist will help avoid unnecessary duplication and more effectively deploy limited resources. An inventory of services that support pet ownership can include both animal‐oriented and people‐oriented programs. Based on the information gleaned from a services inventory, an organization might decide that partnering with or supporting another organization on a new program may be the most efficient use of resources. Just as importantly, organizations need to know how the community uses existing services and what impact those services have. For example, self‐administered animal food banks typically require minimal resources to implement and manage, but if a community already has well‐used and impactful pet food banks offered by other organizations, even this minimal resource investment might not be needed.
5.4.1.3 Identifying Community Needs
Once an organization has identified pet ownership demographics and existing services, it is critical to then determine community needs. Organizations can develop their own process or adapt an existing one, such as the Pets for Life community assessment (Humane Society of the United States n.d.). Identifying the goal and scope of the community needs assessment will help determine the direction to take; the assessment can be comprehensive or more targeted. Organizations should begin by mining their own intake data to assess trends in relinquishment reasons and intake types or locations. However, intake data can tell only part of the story; organizations will benefit from conducting their own surveys, interviews, and focus groups targeted to understanding the unmet needs of pet owners. These data‐gathering efforts can be combined with efforts to identify pet ownership and demographic trends in the community for efficient data collection. Even informal conversations with relinquishing owners will yield a deeper understanding of ownership challenges than simple responses to questions in a form (DiGiacomo et al. 1998). Outreach should include not only pet owners but past owners as well as other agencies serving pets and owners. Information learned from these data‐gathering efforts, both formal and informal, when collected in a systematic and accessible way, will provide a comprehensive understanding of the community’s needs. Table 5.1 presents some options for information sources that can be used in program planning.
5.4.2 Program Goal and Potential Impact
After gathering data to understand pet ownership demographics, current services, and needs, an organization should be ready to determine which safety net programs would be valuable for the community. Successful safety net programs should have clear, concrete, and actionable goals that align with the organization’s overall mission. Goals should reflect the identified needs, weighted in terms of desired impact (see Scarlett et al. 2017 for guidance on goal setting). A program may address issues that put a pet at high risk for surrender but that are less common, or it may address less risky but more common challenges or some combination. For example, problem behaviors put pets at risk for surrender (Dolan et al. 2015; Weiss et al. 2014), but those behaviors range from less serious but common problems like housetraining issues or high energy to more serious but less common problems like aggression or separation anxiety. More serious problems may best be served by a program that provides intensive behavioral consultations, while less serious concerns can be addressed through website information or helplines. Both types of programs are impactful but in different ways; that impact should support the desired goals. Organizations also need to examine potential impacts of any program outside of the desired goals, both positive and negative.
Table 5.1 Sources of program‐planning information.
| Pet ownership demographics | Existing services | Community need | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animal‐oriented resources | People‐oriented resources | ||
| National surveys such as APPA, AVMA Regional/local surveys | Other animal shelters and rescues including municipal animal care and control agencies | Human health and welfare non‐profit agencies such as:Health clinicsHousing support servicesHuman shelter and homeless servicesHuman food banks | Animal shelter and rescue intake data (including municipal animal care and control):Intake types and reasonsIntake locations |
| Municipal licensing data | Veterinarians and veterinary services | Similar resources as listed above run by governmental agencies | New research including surveys, interviews, and focus groups with pet owners, past owners, and agencies serving pets, owners, and other community members |
| Veterinary clinic patient data | Grooming services | Human‐oriented programs run by other animal welfare organizations | |
| Pet food/supply store sales data Grocery/convenience store pet food and supplies sales data | Pet food and supply stores Grocery/convenience stores that sell pet food and supplies | ||
| Animal shelter and rescue intake data (including municipal animal care and control) | Pet food banks | ||
| New research such as surveys, polls, interviews, focus groups |
Dog‐walking, daycare, and pet‐boarding
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