Yes, Flavia, I think about this a lot. Whenever I enter the shelter and hear the deafening barking of the dogs I want to cry. I can't speak to the design of other shelters, but ours is 2 rows of kennels facing each other, which means, at the minimum, each dog has the view of at least 6 other dogs, whatever humans walk past, not to mention the scent and sound of a couple hundred. I am truly grateful they have a roof over their heads and food to eat, which I know is expensive, but I feel like the toll on the animal is high.

Karla, thank you for sharing your experience. What you described raises an important question for me: Are we evaluating animal welfare broadly enough?

Providing food, shelter, medical care and physical safety is essential, but I wonder whether we also need a more systematic way of protecting and monitoring an animal's emotional well-being throughout the sheltering and fostering journey.

For example, could shelters routinely look at sensory stress, decompression time, meaningful human interaction, enrichment, important social bonds, and behavioral changes-not just physical health?

I would even love to see some form of an "emotional welfare record" that follows an animal from intake through shelter, foster care and adoption: What makes this animal feel safe? What causes fear or stress? What relationships are important to them? How are they coping with each transition?

I don't want this discussion to stop at identifying the problem. I would love for those of us working in rescue, sheltering and fostering to share practical solutions that could improve emotional welfare even when resources are limited.

What changes have you seen-or would you like to see-in your shelter that could reduce the toll you described?

on the other side I also think that we could consider evaluating behavior together with the animal's emotional state, through a more comprehensive and rigorous assessment, to help us distinguish persistent behavioral concerns from behaviors caused or intensified by stress. this could save many dogs from euthanasia.

What is your opinion?

Yes, Flavia, I think about this a lot. Whenever I enter the shelter and hear the deafening barking of the dogs I want to cry. I can't speak to the design of other shelters, but ours is 2 rows of kennels facing each other, which means, at the minimum, each dog has the view of at least 6 other dogs, whatever humans walk past, not to mention the scent and sound of a couple hundred. I am truly grateful they have a roof over their heads and food to eat, which I know is expensive, but I feel like the toll on the animal is high.

Karla, thank you for sharing your experience. What you described raises an important question for me: Are we evaluating animal welfare broadly enough?

Providing food, shelter, medical care and physical safety is essential, but I wonder whether we also need a more systematic way of protecting and monitoring an animal's emotional well-being throughout the sheltering and fostering journey.

For example, could shelters routinely look at sensory stress, decompression time, meaningful human interaction, enrichment, important social bonds, and behavioral changes-not just physical health?

I would even love to see some form of an "emotional welfare record" that follows an animal from intake through shelter, foster care and adoption: What makes this animal feel safe? What causes fear or stress? What relationships are important to them? How are they coping with each transition?

I don't want this discussion to stop at identifying the problem. I would love for those of us working in rescue, sheltering and fostering to share practical solutions that could improve emotional welfare even when resources are limited.

What changes have you seen-or would you like to see-in your shelter that could reduce the toll you described?

on the other side I also think that we could consider evaluating behavior together with the animal's emotional state, through a more comprehensive and rigorous assessment, to help us distinguish persistent behavioral concerns from behaviors caused or intensified by stress. this could save many dogs from euthanasia.

What is your opinion?

Yes, Flavia, I think about this a lot. Whenever I enter the shelter and hear the deafening barking of the dogs I want to cry. I can't speak to the design of other shelters, but ours is 2 rows of kennels facing each other, which means, at the minimum, each dog has the view of at least 6 other dogs, whatever humans walk past, not to mention the scent and sound of a couple hundred. I am truly grateful they have a roof over their heads and food to eat, which I know is expensive, but I feel like the toll on the animal is high.

Yes!!!  I've worked as a kennel manager of a county dog shelter and I am also the founder/Director of a non-profit dog rescue who utilizes foster homes. Shelters that are county run really lack the support from the commissioners in their county to do the proper enrichment and decompression that all dogs need. In fact I was reprimanded repeatedly for exercising and giving the dogs lots of enrichment items .  I was told "let the volunteers do the walking and playing, you're here for the cleaning, vetting and all other aspects of running a shelter".  And sadly I see and hear this a lot. By the end of the day at my shelter, I wanted my dogs to be tired, and mentally fulfilled so when the doors were locked for the night, they actually got a great nights sleep. As a non-profit director, when I pull dogs from shelters, they go into their foster home and they get a good month of decompression before we even consider making them available for adoption.  Even going in to a home , the change is stressful and if this was a dog/cat on the run for weeks or days, we don't know what challenges they encountered as they were loose looking for their homes. I look at each dog as an individual. Some dogs I rescue take 6 months before I feel like I'm seeing their true temperment.  I want my rescue dogs to go to their new homes and STAY!!!  When you are "flipping" dogs from shelter to adoptive home in a matter of a week or two, you have no idea what makes that animal tick. I've had dogs who were great for dog-dog introductions at the shelter. Then they go into their foster home and as soon as they catch up on that much needed sleep, all of a sudden we see that they really are very dog selective and sometimes prefer to be the only pet. So we are doing these animals a huge disservice by rushing the process. Now I do understand that we are in a crisis in the animal shelter world, and space is an issue for many shelters who are euthanizing for space immediately after the stray holds are up, because the volume coming in doesn't even touch the volume going out. Way too many great dogs are being killed for space when we never get to see who they really are. This is a  community problem. And I believe we need to start with Education and Prevention to the public regarding spay/neuter, cost of owning a pet, training, socialization, working through problems instead of getting rid of the dog at their first mishap. We are not going to get out of this crisis unless we take out the backyard breeders and puppy mills and start educating people on what it takes to be a pet household. It's a privilege not a right to own a pet and it needs to start with the parents in the home.  Dogs/cats have just as many needs mentally and physically as children and we need to normalize the commitment and work that goes into being a responsible FOREVER pet owner. 

Flavia, excellent question. I think about this a LOT because I am highly attuned to emotions. I am also an animal communicator--naturally gifted, and still in training.  I'd love to see rescues partner with animal communicators so we can give cats agency--as much as is practical. By that I mean, actually ASKING them and giving them a say in what happens to them. Radical, I know. But the most compassionate position possible

HI Flavia,

The short of it is: no, we do not. I work at a public shelter where we are constantly over capacity and seeing large adult cats crammed into a kennel with no communicating portal where they have no room to move with a tiny litterbox where they can't even sit and barely even room to put food and water breaks my heart every time. 

Hi Flavia,

I have worked in Tech and then transitioned to rescue work and have bounced inbetween the 2 for the last 11 years or so.  I believe the solution youre looking for is based in asynchronous telemedicine.  I have felt this way since I started in rescue in the Central Valley while living in the Bay Area and I had an idea for this type of platform for animal shelters/rescues/vets/fosters etc. I have been working on this idea for 8 years and now its finally ready, I would love to connect with you to show you how it works and what it can do for your organization and answer these very valid questions you have.  I sent you a connection request, would love to hear from you!

Yes! You are speaking to something that many people have worked on in rescues and shelters. It's about creating structures of assessment, documentation and communication from intake to adoption that helps with matchmaking.  Ideally every very team would have tools - from good surrender paperwork with behavioral background information to foster notes to onsite animal care notes - that give everyone information about the animal. This helps not only to create the proper pathway for that animal through the shelter, but also helps to find a "good fit" home with an adopter.

When I say matchmaking this could include: finding the right foster home or type of fostering situation for what the animal needs, finding the right pathway, and knowing enough about the animal to get them set up well in his/her new adopted home. This should not be about creating barriers. It's about assessing and getting to know the animal and what the animal's needs are - and using language to communicate this in a positive way! There are no "vengeful cats" or "bad dogs", and often a "mean, aggressive" animal is a scared one who needs specific care and understanding.

HASS has a great doc called Intake to Placement: Basic Matchmaking Process Improvements that speaks to this. Here is a link. https://resources.humananimalsupportservices.org/hubfs/Basic%20Matchmaking%20Process%20Improvements.pdf?hsLang=en

You can offer training for your existing employees in things like Fear Free, or Shelter Behavior Hub (these courses can be transformative for dogs and cats in shelters!) https://www.shelterbehaviorhub.com/ The more that people understand the animals themselves and understand how best to help animals through the shelter system, the more we can accomplish together.

Every year the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) publishes updated guidelines for standards of care in shelters. This is a great place to start to address the basic humane standards of care. You can build from here. But following these guidelines will help animals in your care be happier and healthier. Let's not forget that physical health is directly tied to emotional health, especially for animals like cats, where the slightest stress can trigger medical issues. Addressing behavioral health will help an animal's overall health and help move them through the system faster. https://www.sheltervet.org/guidelines-for-standards-of-care-in-animal-shelters

I also recommend reaching out to animal behavior people in your area. There may be someone who is willing to volunteer their time to set up a few behavioral tools or processes to help with this. Be looking for folks with various credentials and certifications through IAABC or ABS or anyone who has taken the UW-AAB course. This all involves legitimate training and understanding of animal behavior. 

All it takes is one person to take one step at a time in order to get something started and growing. Start with small wins and people will start to see that it's working. Find others with varying skills to help. Lay one brick at a time and soon you will have a foundation on which to build an entire structure. It will matter to every single animal that is impacted by what you're building and every person who comes in contact with that animal. It takes a village and a lot of stubborn hope! But it eases suffering and results in lifelong homes.

Yes! You are speaking to something that many people have worked on in rescues and shelters. It's about creating structures of assessment, documentation and communication from intake to adoption that helps with matchmaking.  Ideally every very team would have tools - from good surrender paperwork with behavioral background information to foster notes to onsite animal care notes - that give everyone information about the animal. This helps not only to create the proper pathway for that animal through the shelter, but also helps to find a "good fit" home with an adopter.

When I say matchmaking this could include: finding the right foster home or type of fostering situation for what the animal needs, finding the right pathway, and knowing enough about the animal to get them set up well in his/her new adopted home. This should not be about creating barriers. It's about assessing and getting to know the animal and what the animal's needs are - and using language to communicate this in a positive way! There are no "vengeful cats" or "bad dogs", and often a "mean, aggressive" animal is a scared one who needs specific care and understanding.

HASS has a great doc called Intake to Placement: Basic Matchmaking Process Improvements that speaks to this. Here is a link. https://resources.humananimalsupportservices.org/hubfs/Basic%20Matchmaking%20Process%20Improvements.pdf?hsLang=en

You can offer training for your existing employees in things like Fear Free, or Shelter Behavior Hub (these courses can be transformative for dogs and cats in shelters!) https://www.shelterbehaviorhub.com/ The more that people understand the animals themselves and understand how best to help animals through the shelter system, the more we can accomplish together.

Every year the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) publishes updated guidelines for standards of care in shelters. This is a great place to start to address the basic humane standards of care. You can build from here. But following these guidelines will help animals in your care be happier and healthier. Let's not forget that physical health is directly tied to emotional health, especially for animals like cats, where the slightest stress can trigger medical issues. Addressing behavioral health will help an animal's overall health and help move them through the system faster. https://www.sheltervet.org/guidelines-for-standards-of-care-in-animal-shelters

I also recommend reaching out to animal behavior people in your area. There may be someone who is willing to volunteer their time to set up a few behavioral tools or processes to help with this. Be looking for folks with various credentials and certifications through IAABC or ABS or anyone who has taken the UW-AAB course. This all involves legitimate training and understanding of animal behavior. 

All it takes is one person to take one step at a time in order to get something started and growing. Start with small wins and people will start to see that it's working. Find others with varying skills to help. Lay one brick at a time and soon you will have a foundation on which to build an entire structure. It will matter to every single animal that is impacted by what you're building and every person who comes in contact with that animal. It takes a village and a lot of stubborn hope! But it eases suffering and results in lifelong homes.

We absolutely should be listening to our foster homes and our animal care volunteers and everyone who has contact in caring for the animals! This helps us provide the animals with the care they need - and find the homes that works best for them. It sounds like you have not had this experience, and I am very sorry for that. It takes all of us listening and contributing to get these animals through. I'm also sad to hear that many people are having the experience of a lack of kindness or understanding towards the animals. This is not how it should be. While we will never be working in an ideal world, we should still be aiming to ease suffering and offer an empathetic eye and ear. 

Organizations should also be providing good training for any staff and volunteers working directly with animals.  Considerate approach, reading body language, effective enrichment, identifying what may be missing in an animal's environment, identifying different levels of distress, and reducing stress. I have known dedicated volunteers to help provide this sort of training to staff and volunteers and to help create tools to use. Fear Free training is free for anyone working or volunteering in a shelter, and it's a great place to start. 

Getting feedback from volunteers and foster homes requires a few simple structures in place. For instance, somewhere for onsite animal care people - staff and volunteers - to make behavioral observation notes on the animals they are interacting with. This is usually placed on the animal's clipboard or care card attached to each enclosure. It allows the assigned volunteers and staff to make notes on the daily interactions with that animal, observations on behaviors, treat preferences, favorite spot for scritches, favorite toys, any behavioral concerns, etc. I've seen various designs for these in various shelters, and they don't have to be complicated. There should also be a spot where volunteers can record any medical/health observations and concerns.

For our foster homes there should be regular updates and feedback on the animal from our foster homes while they are in care. At my org we create behavioral plans for any foster animal that is especially  struggling or undersocialized or having difficulty. Our foster homes implement it with our coaching and guidance - it's very effective.  We also have a foster adoption profile form that our foster homes fill out for each animal - because our foster homes know these animals so well! This includes key observations and knowledge of the animal that are pertinent for adoption (personality traits, interactive behavior traits, experience with children & other animals, etc) as well as what the foster home thinks this animal needs most to get a good start in their new home. These profiles are very effective at not only helping potential adopters get to know the animal when they are just meeting them for the first time. It also helps our adoptions team match animals to "good fit" homes. When we are adopting cats from the foster home directly we rely on our foster people to conduct meet and greets with the cat and to share what they know about the cat with potential adopters. We also check in with the foster person to see how the meeting went and get their feedback before proceeding. It's a team effort.

It is appropriate for staff members to put limits on who is making notes for onsite animals (depending on roles). It's also best if there are protocols in place for the language being used to describe animals. We want to make sure we are doing this in a way that is functional and benefits the animal. For instance, it's important to use non-judgmental and not "loaded" terms when referring to our animals. We avoid terms such as "a bully", "hyperactive", "spicy", etc.  When we are being empathetic and looking to see things from the animal's perspective it is easier to help people understand the animal in terms that best represent them. "This girl enjoys four feet on the floor but loves cheek scritches", "While this cat wants to get to know you first before she completely relaxes, with a little patience she will soon be jumping in your lap for snuggles." "This boy is all about adventure and activity! Harness walks may be in your future" We also designate certain cats as not "starter cats". The ones that require a little more cat savvy or experience reading body language (and no, these aren't usually the shy ones! :D)

Staff can also learn and provide training on how to use objective language when describing interactions with an animal. It is much more useful to say "the cat saw me approach the enclosure, immediately shrunk away from me, backed into a corner and froze, licking her lips" than "this cat doesn't like people" or "this cat hates it here". And sure, the cat may not be enjoying it's time here, but it doesn't give us anything to work with. Objective language helps everyone know exactly what happened, the behaviors observed,  what triggered the behavior, and avoids generalizations, judgments or even inaccurate statements. As behaviors are tracked this specifically, it's easier to see the progression and the improvements being made (or not made). I also use tools to assess behavioral progress for an animal in foster care. They use objective language so that I can assess from afar without ever seeing the cat.

While ultimately the care decisions and pathways belong to the organization, we should be listening to the various people who are providing care and assistance to the animals along the way.  We are all working together. I think it is especially tough for overwhelmed organizations in low resource areas. It's exhausting work. And even in the private orgs there are never enough resources or funding or staff. But we each have a part to play and it doesn't have to be huge. Even small steps will get you up the mountain. And if we are climbing together we can ease each other's burdens, share snacks, and it's just more fun. ;)

Yes! You are speaking to something that many people have worked on in rescues and shelters. It's about creating structures of assessment, documentation and communication from intake to adoption that helps with matchmaking.  Ideally every very team would have tools - from good surrender paperwork with behavioral background information to foster notes to onsite animal care notes - that give everyone information about the animal. This helps not only to create the proper pathway for that animal through the shelter, but also helps to find a "good fit" home with an adopter.

When I say matchmaking this could include: finding the right foster home or type of fostering situation for what the animal needs, finding the right pathway, and knowing enough about the animal to get them set up well in his/her new adopted home. This should not be about creating barriers. It's about assessing and getting to know the animal and what the animal's needs are - and using language to communicate this in a positive way! There are no "vengeful cats" or "bad dogs", and often a "mean, aggressive" animal is a scared one who needs specific care and understanding.

HASS has a great doc called Intake to Placement: Basic Matchmaking Process Improvements that speaks to this. Here is a link. https://resources.humananimalsupportservices.org/hubfs/Basic%20Matchmaking%20Process%20Improvements.pdf?hsLang=en

You can offer training for your existing employees in things like Fear Free, or Shelter Behavior Hub (these courses can be transformative for dogs and cats in shelters!) https://www.shelterbehaviorhub.com/ The more that people understand the animals themselves and understand how best to help animals through the shelter system, the more we can accomplish together.

Every year the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) publishes updated guidelines for standards of care in shelters. This is a great place to start to address the basic humane standards of care. You can build from here. But following these guidelines will help animals in your care be happier and healthier. Let's not forget that physical health is directly tied to emotional health, especially for animals like cats, where the slightest stress can trigger medical issues. Addressing behavioral health will help an animal's overall health and help move them through the system faster. https://www.sheltervet.org/guidelines-for-standards-of-care-in-animal-shelters

I also recommend reaching out to animal behavior people in your area. There may be someone who is willing to volunteer their time to set up a few behavioral tools or processes to help with this. Be looking for folks with various credentials and certifications through IAABC or ABS or anyone who has taken the UW-AAB course. This all involves legitimate training and understanding of animal behavior. 

All it takes is one person to take one step at a time in order to get something started and growing. Start with small wins and people will start to see that it's working. Find others with varying skills to help. Lay one brick at a time and soon you will have a foundation on which to build an entire structure. It will matter to every single animal that is impacted by what you're building and every person who comes in contact with that animal. It takes a village and a lot of stubborn hope! But it eases suffering and results in lifelong homes.

Yes! You are speaking to something that many people have worked on in rescues and shelters. It's about creating structures of assessment, documentation and communication from intake to adoption that helps with matchmaking.  Ideally every very team would have tools - from good surrender paperwork with behavioral background information to foster notes to onsite animal care notes - that give everyone information about the animal. This helps not only to create the proper pathway for that animal through the shelter, but also helps to find a "good fit" home with an adopter.

When I say matchmaking this could include: finding the right foster home or type of fostering situation for what the animal needs, finding the right pathway, and knowing enough about the animal to get them set up well in his/her new adopted home. This should not be about creating barriers. It's about assessing and getting to know the animal and what the animal's needs are - and using language to communicate this in a positive way! There are no "vengeful cats" or "bad dogs", and often a "mean, aggressive" animal is a scared one who needs specific care and understanding.

HASS has a great doc called Intake to Placement: Basic Matchmaking Process Improvements that speaks to this. Here is a link. https://resources.humananimalsupportservices.org/hubfs/Basic%20Matchmaking%20Process%20Improvements.pdf?hsLang=en

You can offer training for your existing employees in things like Fear Free, or Shelter Behavior Hub (these courses can be transformative for dogs and cats in shelters!) https://www.shelterbehaviorhub.com/ The more that people understand the animals themselves and understand how best to help animals through the shelter system, the more we can accomplish together.

Every year the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) publishes updated guidelines for standards of care in shelters. This is a great place to start to address the basic humane standards of care. You can build from here. But following these guidelines will help animals in your care be happier and healthier. Let's not forget that physical health is directly tied to emotional health, especially for animals like cats, where the slightest stress can trigger medical issues. Addressing behavioral health will help an animal's overall health and help move them through the system faster. https://www.sheltervet.org/guidelines-for-standards-of-care-in-animal-shelters

I also recommend reaching out to animal behavior people in your area. There may be someone who is willing to volunteer their time to set up a few behavioral tools or processes to help with this. Be looking for folks with various credentials and certifications through IAABC or ABS or anyone who has taken the UW-AAB course. This all involves legitimate training and understanding of animal behavior. 

All it takes is one person to take one step at a time in order to get something started and growing. Start with small wins and people will start to see that it's working. Find others with varying skills to help. Lay one brick at a time and soon you will have a foundation on which to build an entire structure. It will matter to every single animal that is impacted by what you're building and every person who comes in contact with that animal. It takes a village and a lot of stubborn hope! But it eases suffering and results in lifelong homes.