Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello, so currently when an animal is brought to our organization whether it is an owner surrender or a stray, we have a relinquishing rights paragraph towards the end of the paperwork which requires a signature after. It is something that has not been changed in years. For strays it states: I relinquish all rights to this animal, therefore, the DRHS has all rights to decide on the best outcome for this animal.  I will not call or have anyone else call on my behalf to find out the outcome.  The DRHS has all rights to either put this animal up for adoption, euthanize animal, or transfer to another organization, which ever they see fit.For owner surrendered animals it states: As owner of the above described animal, I surrender this animal to the DRHS.  I relinquish all claims and rights to this animal, therefore, the DRHS has all rights to decide on the best outcome for this animal.  I will not call or have or anyone else call on my behalf to find out the outcome.  The DRHS has all rights to either put this animal up for adoption, euthanize animal, or transfer to another organization, which ever they see fit.

It has always been if someone would call wanting some sort of status update that we wouldn't be able to communicate that with them. We would say something like "Unfortunately we cannot give you that information, however, when or if he/she goes up for adoption they will be listed on our website as an available adoptable animal".............. Is this appropriate? I am going back and fourth about being 100% transparent or where do we draw the line? We are a 501c3 non profit open admission no kill organization. I would love some feedback or some reccommendations as far as how to handle these sort of situations OR if other shelters do the same or don't do the same?!? Hmmmm...

Great question Amanda because we find ourselves in that same situation.  We are a small, private nonprofit as well and have been in operation for the past 5 years.  We have done this several ways from providing 0 feedback to anyone to spending way too much time giving feedback.  What we have decided works best for us is a case by case basis and a determination as to how much the person surrendering (whether stray or owner) cares AND how much of a donation they have given us.  We do state on our paperwork that we are not obligated to give any follow up so that covers us in terms of what we say we will/will not do, but, as we have worked through so many intakes, we have seen and learned enough about those who really, really care and appreciate to the fullest extent what we do. 

Just today we provided a personal follow up to a couple who surrendered a stray cat to us and from start to finish they respected everything we asked them to do.  We knew a follow up to them was going to be easy (not asking another handful of questions we would need to answer).  They made a nice donation upon intake and we know that because of our follow-up, they will most likely continue to donate to our rescue even without an intake.  This is key in terms of how to increase revenue for us and something we have to pay attention to if we want to continue to stay in operation.

I hope this is helpful - in my opinion, this is a very gray area and one that requires thoughtful direction and support from both management and the board of directors as well as staff. 

Very helpful, because we have done this as a case by basis as well. My issue with being 100% transparent with absolutely everyone is that we would be providing, like you said, way to much feedback where my staff would be dealing with constant phone calls on top of our high volume of traffic and phone calls already on a regular basis. Thank you very much this will help me when making my argument and coming up with some sort of Policy surrounding those certain situations. Do you have a policy implemented at your organization that surrounds those situations?

Hi Amanda, we don't have a policy in writing, but it is something we should have.  For us, this is what works really well, case by case.   I would encourage your organization to try it, tweak it along the way, and then come up with a final policy.

Amanda, 

My facility has basically the same wording. We are a non-transparent 501c3 non-profit with intake by admission only. We are not no-kill but say that we don't euthanize for time or space. We have pretty much the same wording on our surrender information, and do the same thing where if people call in, all we can tell them is if the animal is available for adoption or not available for adoption. I don't know who made the rules, they've been around longer than I've been here. 

One thing at the American Pets Alive conference that was talked about in reducing euthanasia rates was for one, having a pet resource center in place that has other options for pet owners rather than relinquishing their pet. Another thing was that when a euthanasia decision had to be made, and it was an owner surrender, someone has to make a phone call to that person to let them know of the decision. Kristen Auerbach I believe talked about that in one or more of her presentations. I get that, and I like the idea of it because it's just one step closer to becoming totally transparent with people and getting closer to that no-kill equation. I guarantee that if my shelter had to call all the owner - surrendered animal's former owners and let them know we are going to put your animal down, we would see a drastic reduction in euthanasia. But we are "old school" and do things in an antiquated way. So I hope that helps out a little bit. 

Thank you Casey!

Do you have a lawyer? If so, you could always run the language by him/her. As to whether to leave people hanging after they've surrendered a pet, one thing that I've heard that some shelters do is ask if people can foster their animal while the shelter helps them find an adopter or rescue placement. The owner is involved in finding a new home for the pet and they know what happens to it. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has tried this and if so, how it went. 

Thank you Casey!

Our group is a municipal shelter. We are open intake for strays and managed intake for owner surrenders. Our stray and owner surrender forms state pretty much the same thing as well. The way I look at it with stray turn ins is they are doing what they feel is right by the animal, most of the time, sometimes they just don't care. We have so many people who have found strays and want to bring them in to give their owners a chance to locate and reclaim them. After our mandated hold is completed (5 days) most people who found the stray either come by or reach out to check on the animal and have found an adopter or would like to adopt the stray themselves, which has greatly worked out in our favor!

Owner surrenders on the other hand, we take it case by case with releasing information about the animal(s). I once held a grown man as he sobbed while he turned in his 2 senior dogs. He thought because of their age we would put them to sleep, which we would not do unless medically necessary. He contacted me via email for 2 weeks until I placed them in a home together. Even now when I receive updates on the 2 (who are still kicking 5 years later!!!) I send them to the previous owner and he is always grateful.

While sometimes the follow ups do get to be a hassle, we tell people to follow the animal on our website. While many email/call numerous times, most only reach out when the animal disappears from the site, meaning rescue has stepped up, the animal has been adopted or reclaimed, and in some cases the animal has been euthanized (severe medical cases and/or aggression to people or other animals).

I hope this helps!

Helped a lot. Thank you!!!

My shelter is a managed admissions shelter that asks everyone surrendering an animal (stray or OS) if they want a call-back if we cannot place their animal; if they want a call back, they have 24 hours to reclaim the animal. We also have a STAR program: for a donation of $75 or more, we will feature the animal on "Social media, Television And/or Radio" (STAR) to help them get adopted faster; people who sign up for STAR can call to check on their animal, and if they change their mind and want to reclaim while the animal is in our care, there is no reclaim fee. We also inform them when their animal is adopted. https://www.kyhumane.org/services/pet-surrender#star  

I think there are two requests that shelters often get when it comes to "updating" finders and previous owners.

1.  What is the status of the animal I relinquished and/or brought in?

2.  Can you call me if no one comes in to reclaim this animal I found and brought to you?

Let's tackle #1 - What is the status of the animal I relinquished and/or brought in? 

If someone is calling in and asking that question, what is the harm in updating them vs what is the harm in telling them "we cannot/will not tell you the outcome of the animal"?  If you tell them what happened or what the soon-to-be outcome may be with the animal, they at least have received the information that they have requested so they feel informed.  Unless your shelter has some strict rules stating that someone who turns in an animal cannot come back and reclaim it, then it also gives them the power of choice.  They feel empowered to do something if the answer they get is not what they had hoped for.  That may be to come back for the animal or find someone else who might be able to come in for that animal. 

If instead the message you relay to the community is "we cannot/will not tell you" then that feels like you are hiding something...whether that is your intention or not.  It also removes all opportunity for empowerment.  And while we would all like to see people be responsible and empowered BEFORE they bring us an animal, the bottom line is that we live in world of procrastinators.  That doesn't mean that those people calling in and asking about the animals in your care don't give a shit.  They cared enough to call and ask.  They care.  And maybe enough so to do something about it and prevent that animal from having a bad outcome. 

That said, if the question you are getting is "will YOU call me with updates on this animal?" I think that is perfectly okay to say NO and to say that the reason why this is not possible is because it's imperative that we use all of our staff's limited time to life-saving.  If we had to call and give updates on all 10,000 of the animals coming in, we would never get anything accomplished.  But if THEY want to call us and ask for an update, I'm okay with that.

#2 - Can you call me if no one comes in to reclaim this animal I found and brought to you?

Well, this is a tough one.  One would think that the right thing to do would be to say YES, as it would provide another outlet for an animal.  But this one has come back and bit us in the butt so many times that we removed this option.  The reason?  When finders bring in animals, there often has been some kind of bond formed...whether that bonds was days or even just hours old.  The finder may also feel some kind of guilt with leaving the animal at the shelter and they worry about what will happen.  In either case, we have found that finders will often express interest in adopting a pet they bring in and want to be called if no one comes in to look for it.  In the past, we even went as far as having a special stamp made that read, "Finder will Reclaim".  Before that, we would write their name/phone number on the kennel card with a note that they'll adopt the animal if an owner did not come forward.

And guess what happened?  In 9 out of every 10 calls we made back to the finders, there was a loss of connection after that 5 day stray hold had expired.  Suddenly there were barriers to why the finder could come back in and adopt/reclaim the pet....or delays.  We would hold onto animals for days or even a week waiting for a finder to follow through and the odds were stacked against them ever coming back in. 

Not only were the odds stacked against us, but labeling the pets in our shelter as possibly "adopted by a finder" deterred other adopters from looking at them because they assumed them to be "safe" or already spoken for.  So in this situation, we found it hurt more than it helped to offer this to our customers.  What we did instead was to say, "If you really want to keep this animal you found, let us take a photo of it, we will put it on our lost/found site, you keep it in your home and if no one calls us after 5 days, then you can keep it as your own adopted pet. 

I hope this helps, sorry so long-winded!

Shelly Simmons

Division Manager, Greenville County Animal Care

misimmons@greenvillecounty.org