After estimating the number of available housing units, the shelter can acquire the ALOS for animals from its software system (by season and age group, if appropriate) and use those values to determine how many additional animals they can admit to the facility in that period of time while remaining within their humane housing capacity. Alternatively, the shelter can specify target ALOS values, depending on the intent of the calculations. The usefulness of the formula is illustrated in the following example. (Age group is ignored to simplify the calculations).
Shelter A historically receives an average of 260 cats during the months July–September (92 days), which results in some cats being euthanized and others being temporarily housed in stacked portable wire cages. The shelter has 40 humane housing spaces for cats and historically has had an ALOS during this period of 22 days per cat. The formula suggests that the shelter should only accept approximately 167 cats to avoid overpopulating during this period.
What would happen if the shelter reduced its ALOS? Looking at Table 3.3, if the shelter could reduce its ALOS to 14 days, it could successfully house an estimated 262 cats (enabling it to avoid overcrowding during the period). The shelter can make this ALOS a goal to work toward.
If the shelter also wished to manage its intake, it could modify the formula to estimate the number of cats (on average) that should be admitted daily during the period with a given ALOS. If both sides of the formula are divided by the number of days in the period, the average number of cats to be admitted daily can be estimated according to the modified formula below.
If the ALOS remained at 22 days, the shelter would need to reduce its weekly intake to approximately 12 (1.8 cats/day × 7 days) cats to avoid overpopulating (Column 4, Table 3.3). If the shelter were to reduce its ALOS to 18, they could comfortably accept 15 cats/week (2.9 cats/day × 7 days).
To summarize, the formula can be used to estimate the:
Table 3.3 The effect of lowering ALOS on the estimated number of cats that can be admitted during July–September without overcrowding in Shelter A.
| Number of housing units | Average LOS (days) | Cats that could be housed in the period | Approximate number of cats to accept |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 22 | 167 | 1.8/day 12/week |
| 40 | 18 | 204 | 2.2/day 15/week |
| 40 | 14 | 262 | 2.9/day 20/week |
1 ALOS of animals needed to avoid overcrowding with a given intake and number of housing units;
2 number of animals to admit in a specified period based on the number of available housing units and ALOS;
3 predicted effect of reducing the ALOS on the number of animals that should be admitted to avoid overcrowding.
The formula can be used to estimate any one of its component parts (if the other values are known or target values are inserted). Thus, a shelter could also calculate the number of housing units needed to comfortably house animals with a specific ALOS and rate of intake. Additionally, this formula can be used to determine the number of animals to have on the adoption floor based on a specific ALOS in the adoption area and adoption rate (see the Adoption Driven Capacity calculator on the Koret Shelter Medicine website http://www.sheltermedicine.com/library/resources/capacity‐for‐care‐c4c‐magic‐number‐calculator). These uses, assumptions associated with the use of the formula, and the calculations are explained in more detail in other sources (Koret Shelter Medicine 2015; Newbury and Hurley 2013a; Scarlett et al. 2017c).
Other metrics can also be used to manage population numbers. For example, a shelter could compare the number of animals actually housed in the building (daily in‐shelter inventory) to the estimated number of available housing units. If the number of animals housed in the building exceeds the number of humane housing units available, the number of “excess animals” and the percent overcapacity could be monitored over time and strategies implemented to reduce it.
The use of the formula produces estimates because the component parts are estimated. Nonetheless, these estimates are tools that have helped manage the populations of a growing number of shelters, in combination with reducing ALOS, managing intake, improving the quality of housing and other approaches (Karsten et al. 2017).
3.4.2 Staffing Capacity
Inadequate staffing to provide basic care (cleaning and feeding) often leads to breaches in shelter biosecurity. When this happens, exposure to infectious agents and disease frequency increases. Therefore, monitoring staff numbers is an important component of a comprehensive disease control program. The National Animal Control Association (NACA) recommends that staff spend a minimum of 15 minutes per animal providing basic care (NACA 2014). Using these recommendations, a shelter's capacity to provide basic care can be assessed by (i) estimating the amount of time that staff should be engaged in basic animal care daily; (ii) calculating the number of hours staff actually is engaged in basic care daily; and (iii) comparing the two estimates. Calculations are described in more detail in other sources (Newbury and Hurley 2013b; Scarlett et al. 2017d).
If staff time for basic care is insufficient or less than that which is suggested in the guidelines, the shelter should consider an investment in additional staff positions, cross‐training of non‐animal care staff, or a reduction in the numbers of animals in the shelter. If a shelter meets the guidelines, it should be noted that the recommended daily time per animal is a minimum estimate solely for feeding and cleaning. Other staffing‐related recommendations are also available (Newbury and Hurley 2013b). Shelters should strive to increase the available staff time per animal to maximize the welfare of the animals in their care. Since staffing needs can vary widely (e.g. by season, after a seizure of several animals, and with the changing physical and behavioral needs of the animals), shelters should evaluate the adequacy of staffing on a regular basis and as animal care needs change. Some shelters routinely utilize trained volunteers to assist staff in providing animal care and enrichment; when these volunteers are adequately trained and reliable and available to help with daily care, they may be counted toward the total amount of available animal care time for the shelter.
3.5 Other Disease‐Related Metrics
Disease surveillance, the ALOS, and C4C metrics are not the only ones that can be useful to shelters. Once data monitoring becomes routine, other disease‐related metrics such as the average time to disease recovery, percentage occupancy of isolation wards, ratio of sick‐to‐ healthy animals, or average sick‐days can be monitored to enhance insight into disease control and understanding and management of population health.
3.6 Software Needs
Many
