Although the goal of easing the suffering of stay dogs in Davao was clear from the start, the intervention choice was not always obvious. Dog Population Management (DPM) is a complex process, one that must be tailor-fitted to the environment in which the implementing agent is working (Asbjer, 2009). It is for this reason that a considerable amount of research went in to answering two important questions.
Which intervention choice is the most suitable for Baba’s Foundation Incorporated (BFI)?
Animal welfare organizations participate in a variety of activities like lobbying for legislative change, building animal re-homing centers/shelters, mass sterilization campaigns, and educational outreach on responsible pet ownership. Some of these interventions treat the cause of dog overpopulation while others only address the effects of the problem. BFI believes that both a preventative approach (educational outreach) and a direct relief one (sourcing homes for existing stray dogs) are needed to treat the problem holistically.
Due to the fact that many of the expenses of daily animal care, such as providing a sheltered environment, socializing the animals, and daily feeding/exercising are placed on the community instead of the organization, foster networks can touch more animals per dollar than can typical animal shelters (Tasker, 2008). Shelters can be “very expensive and time consuming to run, hence creative alternatives to centers should be explored prior to a commitment to build one” (The International Companion Animal Management Coalition (ICAM), 2008). The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) provides an example of one of these alternatives in its publication titled “Guidelines for the Design and Management of Animal Shelters,” where it tells the story of an East Asian group that built a shelter to ease the suffering of stray dogs, only to see its standard of care be quickly diminished from overcrowded conditions. Things changed when the project was re-conceptualized.
“The new organization focused on creating a foster network of dedicated volunteers to take abandoned dogs and cats into their homes temporarily. For its part, the organization agreed to support the animals, paying for all medical bills, vaccinations, and neutering, until long-term homes were found. In the first year the organization built up a network of more than 40 foster homes with the goal to reach 100 within the second year. The animals are re-homed via the internet and the network has the potential to house a greater number of animals than a shelter ever could. The animals are all homed in appropriate conditions and the scheme has far lower overheads and administrative costs than a shelter… The new organization has become a success in a city where many similar projects have failed” (RSPCA, 2009).
Beyond being a more efficient use of donor dollars, developing a foster home network involves less technical expertise than does building an animal shelter. The Humane Society (HSI) states, “Very few people have the proper training in how to run a humane animal shelter” and “in many countries such training may be hard to find” (HSI, 2008). The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) strongly discourages starting a shelter, citing a “myriad of issues to take into account,” including gaining approval, meeting regulatory requirements, planning activities, and insecure sources of funds (Tasker, 2008). The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) also outlines the many complex issues that are unique to an animal shelter in “Alphabetical Resource of Shelter Medicine Topics.” These include environmental enrichment programs, segregating sub-populations, kennel sanitation, and euthanasia protocols (Spindel and Makolinski, 2008). Further, the key elements of a successful fostering network (central control and organization, good record keeping, veterinary support, contracts, publicity, etc.) are all either within BFI’s existing scope of operations or can be easily obtained (Tasker, 2008).
Virtually all of the literature on Dog Population Management agrees that addressing the effects of animal overpopulation is insufficient, and that attacks should be aimed at controlling the roots of the problem. Animal Welfare Issues Online states that “Whatever approach is adopted, the aim should always be to avoid animal suffering and killing through effective, preventative programs…Any program that only concentrates on the ‘end result’ is no more than a ‘sticking plaster’ approach, and simply perpetuates the problem” (Animal Welfare Issues Online, 2005). Lobbying for legislative progress as well as working to change society’s attitudes and beliefs towards animals are both options for mitigating the causes of dog overpopulation. The latter was mentioned in a recent report by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), with the promotion of responsible pet ownership cited as a strong tool for reducing the numbers of stray dogs and incidence of zoonotic diseases (OIE, 2010). In East Europe, one animal welfare organization is undertaking such a task. By going into schools and teaching students basic tenets of responsible pet ownership such as the benefits of sterilization, the group has been able to reach 3,500 kids in under a year. This intervention correlated with a significant decrease in the number of stray dogs that were collected by the local municipality and now provides a model for other advocates to use in promoting animal welfare (Tasker, 2008). BARK is developing an educational campaign, where staff will go through two activities with private school students that will teach them humane animal practices.
How will Baba’s Asong Pinoy Rescue Ko (BARK) Project find homes for the greatest number of animals possible?
The simple answer to this is that, by targeting the low hanging fruit, i.e. dogs that are adoption-friendly, BARK will touch the greatest number of dogs given resource constraints. “Adoption-friendly” animals are those that fit existing societal preferences and are thus quickly adopted, as well as those that are unlikely to be relinquished to the care of the initial owner. Several factors have been well-documented as being important in affecting the outcome of adoption-ready dogs.
Behavioral problems represent a major stumbling block in re-homing stray dogs. A study of an Italian animal shelter concluded that “almost all the dogs were returned because of behavioral problems” (Mondelli et al., 2004). Similarly, a Northern Ireland study found that the majority of the people (68.3%) who adopted a dog from a rescue shelter later reported that their dog exhibited a behavioral problem, the most common being fearfulness, and that these problems were the main reason cited for returning the dog back to the shelter (Wells and Hepper, 2000). Other studies from around the World have replicated these results, proving that pet behavior is an important variable in adoption outcomes (Vitlic, 2009). Linda Marston refined this idea in her Thesis titled “Factors Affecting the Success of Canine Adoptions from Animal Welfare Shelters,” where she described the important role of emotional attachment in the human/canine relationship. If securely attached to the dog, the caretaker may perceive behavioral problems as being less important when deciding whether to keep the animal. Further, obedience training and gentle physical interaction affected the attachment level of the owner to the dog. They led to higher attachment levels and fewer perceived costs of owning an animal (Marston, 2006). With limited time and resources, shelters often cannot commit to training animals prior to adoption or offer resources to adopters who run into behavioral problems down the road.
A separate but related issue is what owners perceive as normal canine behavior versus misbehavior. The Italians noted that both the “knowledge deficit and false expectations” that prospective keepers hold can represent “important risk factors for the relinquishment of an adopted dog” (Mondelli et al., 2004). A study in Colorado quantified this knowledge deficit when it found that, of the people who surrendered their dog to an animal shelter, 53% wrongfully believed that animals will misbehave out of spite (Salman et al., 1998). The researchers claim that “This large percentage may contribute to owner misconceptions about the reasons for behavioral problems as well as their inappropriate ways to try to resolve behavioral problems” (Salman et al., 1998). Other researchers in Oregon found similar results, while suggesting that education has a key role to play in assuaging the problem. They recommend shelters to provide more information about animal health and behavior prior to adoption, ongoing counseling to potential adopters, and education on how adopters can influence others to make responsible pet ownership decisions (Neidhart and Boyd, 2002).
The age of the dog is an important factor in determining its rate of adoption. Lepper et al. found that the “likelihood of adoption in dogs decreased with increasing age. The odds ratio (OR) was 0.45 for 1 to 2 year old dogs, 0.33 for 3 to 5 year olds, and 0.019 for dogs older than 5 years” (Lepper et al., 2002). The tight relationship between age and adoption outcome is another widely replicated result. Mondelli et al. (2004), Salman et al. (1998), Wells and Hepper (2000), Neidhard and Boyd (2002), Marston and Bennett (2003), Lepper et al. (2002), and Diesel et al. (2007) all found age to be important to both probability of relinquishment and adoption speed of shelter dogs.
By managing these three issues –behavioral problems, owner expectations and preconceived notions of normal pet behavior, and age- BARK optimizes its rate of re-homing. First, it seeks to reduce the amount of behavioral problems that its dogs show by connecting new owners with a local dog trainer, Ronnel Golloso of K9 Agility Sports Group, Davao. We also plan on conducting group training sessions with recent adopters, so that they may learn proper techniques to correct misbehaviors and reinforce good behaviors. Second, the importance of managing owner expectations is given the nod by BARK staff in its Responsible Pet Ownership Debrief, whereby the staff explains to potential adopters what normal canine behavior looks like as well as the serious, life-long commitment that is adopting an animal. It hopes that this educational approach will both increase the satisfaction levels of adopters with their dogs and decrease the chance that those adopters later relinquish their pets to the streets. Finally, BARK targets those dogs that are adoption-friendly by taking on puppies. Younger pups are more likely to be quickly adopted than their older counterparts and are more easily trained.