the shelter is to maintain the physical health of animals, the behavioral or emotional health of animals likewise deserves careful attention and consideration. Good emotional or mental health implies a state of psychological or behavioral wellbeing. When animals possess good emotional health, they experience an array of positive emotional states (contentment, playfulness, relaxation) and can effectively function, learn, and adapt to everyday life. If faced with a stressful situation, they are able to cope and do not experience significant or prolonged stress, fear, anxiety, or frustration. In short, emotionally healthy animals are content, resilient and enjoy their lives, which should be the goal for any animal residing in a shelter.
When considering emotional health in the shelter, it must be recognized that animal shelters are not normal or natural environments in which to house cats and dogs. They are meant to serve as temporary housing for animals waiting to be reclaimed, rehomed, or returned to the field, and, in some cases, as temporary housing for animals that will be euthanized. Over the past several years, there has been a growing trend in animal sheltering to provide pets awaiting adoption with longer‐term stays. If not chosen by an adopter, an animal may stay in the shelter for weeks, months, or even years. Long‐term housing (i.e. greater than two weeks), however, predisposes animals to compromised behavioral health and welfare. In fact, maintaining the behavioral health and welfare of animals residing in shelters long term is extremely difficult because the risk of emotional distress and behavioral deterioration increases dramatically over time.
Cats and dogs experience many stressors in animal shelters, beginning at the time of admission to the facility. Even under the best possible conditions, animal shelters are stressful by their very nature: Incoming animals are confined and exposed to varying intensities of new and novel stimuli as well as to a variety of infectious disease agents. When confined long term, they often suffer from anxiety, social isolation, inadequate mental stimulation, and lack of exercise, all of which can adversely affect their physical and behavioral health and decrease their adoptability. This may increase their LOS in some shelters or result in euthanasia in others. Over time, the animal's emotional and/or physical well‐being is compromised even further.
When addressing behavioral health in the shelter, just as with disease control, prevention is crucial. A behavioral wellness program starts with proactive strategies to decrease stress and promote a positive emotional environment from the moment animals arrive at the shelter until the moment their stay ends. As previously described, a thorough behavioral history and examination are essential and will provide an important baseline for action and follow‐up. Also, ongoing examination and observation of behavior during all interactions are crucial in order to ascertain as much information as possible about an animal's emotional state, welfare, and personality. Careful attention must be given to housing and enrichment, and concurrent population management strategies must be employed to minimize LOS and maximize the best outcomes for animals.
2.6.1 The Role of Stress
Stress involves outcomes secondary to increased secretion of catecholamines and cortisol. The harmful effects of chronic activation of these hormones have been well described and include adverse metabolic responses that promote dehydration, mental depression, insulin resistance, peptic ulcer formation and increased susceptibility to infection (Greco 1991; Moberg 1985). Chronic stress can also alter metabolism sufficiently to cause weight loss, prevent normal growth, and result in persistent abnormal behavior deleterious to the animal. Stress responses and immunity are also intimately related; stress compromises the immune response, lowering resistance to infection (Griffin 1989). In fact, stress can trigger the shedding of certain viral pathogens, including reactivation of latent viral rhinotracheitis (feline herpesvirus) infections in cats (Gaskell and Povey 1977). In an animal shelter, minimizing stress has the potential to greatly improve animal welfare, decrease infection rates and disease transmission, and enhance adoptability.
A stressor represents any stress‐producing factor or stimulus. Housing cats and dogs in animal shelters presents enormous opportunities for introducing stressors. Stressors may include illness; captivity; transport; crowding; isolation; changes in diet, environmental temperature, light patterns, and/or ventilation; strange smells; noises; other animals; handling and restraint; irregular caregiving schedules; unpredictable daily manipulations; the absence of familiar human contact; and the presence of unfamiliar human contact. In fact, anything unfamiliar to a cat or dog can trigger apprehension and activate the stress response. The severity, chronicity, novelty, predictability, and duration of the stressor, as well as the individual's perception, influence the response to a stressor (McMillan 2002; Moberg 1985). An individual animal's perception of a stressor is influenced by its genetic makeup, personality, and prior socialization and experience.
If allowed, animals employ coping strategies in order to lessen the negative impacts of a stressor (Carlstead et al. 1993; McMillan 2002). There is marked variability among individuals regarding their ability to cope. Some examples of behavioral coping strategies include hiding, seeking social companionship, and acquiring mental stimulation. Those that are successfully able to cope will suffer less from the physical and mental impacts of stress and will adjust better to life in an animal shelter. That being said, it is rare to find an animal that thrives when housed long term in a shelter.
When animals are housed in shelters, stress frequently originates from the loss of control over conditions and lack of opportunities for engaging in active behavioral responses that would serve as a means of coping. When stress is perceived as inescapable or uncontrollable, the resulting stress response is most severe (Carlstead et al. 1993; McMillan 2002). This is an extremely important consideration when designing housing and husbandry protocols for cats and dogs in shelters.
2.6.2 Behavioral Needs of Cats and Dogs
In addition to basic physical needs (such as proper nutrition and shelter), certain behavioral needs are also fundamentally important for cat and dog wellness. First and foremost, they require freedom from fear and distress, as well as the freedom to express normal behavior. Most cats and dogs do not thrive in isolation; indeed, they are social animals, and thus the opportunity for social interactions represents a basic behavioral need. They also require the ability to create different functional areas in their living environments for elimination, resting, and eating. They require consistent routines or daily patterns of care, including consistent periods of light and darkness. Other important behavioral needs include the ability to find a hiding place, to sleep without being disturbed, and to be free of chronic harassment from humans, other animals, or environmental stressors. Cats and dogs also require mental stimulation and the ability to play and exercise at will. Finally, cats need to scratch, and dogs need to chew. For cats, scratching is a normal behavior that conditions the claws, serves as a visual and scent marker, and is a means of stretching. For dogs, chewing is a normal behavior that conditions the teeth, serves as a method of investigating their environment, and can be a healthy coping strategy because it provides a ready outlet to express a normal behavior.
Most animals experience at least some degree of fear and stress at the time of admission to a shelter. The “four F's” are often used to describe common types of behaviors associated with these emotional states: they include fight, flight, fret/fidget, and freeze behaviors. When fearful and stressed, some animals will display “fight” behaviors, such as struggling, growling, snarling, hissing, biting, or lunging, in an attempt to drive away a perceived threat. Others may display “flight behaviors” such as cowering, looking away, or moving away to escape, hide, or otherwise avoid contact. Still others will display “fret or fidget” behaviors: for example, they might move restlessly, nervously lick their lips, pace or shift about. And, some will display “freeze” behaviors: they may appear tense or frozen in a helpless state. Many stressed and fearful animals display a mixture of these fight, flight, fret/fidget, and freeze behaviors.
Manifestations of normal and abnormal behavior can indicate how successfully an animal is coping with its environment. In animal shelters, behavioral expressions of fear, anxiety, stress and/or frustration
