Animal Welfare Professionals

What ways have you found that reduces the number of animals returned from adoption to your organization?

Home Visits prior to adoption!

I can see some good things about home visits.  For one, it makes it more likely that the potential adopter is committed to keeping the pet.  For two, it may help in matching situations--knowing which animals would be more appropriate for the adopters' situation.

However, there are some reasons why I really don't like home visits.

One, I think it throws up an unnecessary barrier at people who want to adopt.  So many people are well-meaning in their intent but don't have time to schedule a home visit, or feel like they'll be judged if their house is a bit messy...I mean, my house is messy, but it doesn't mean I don't take good care of my pets.

Two, it increases length of stay in your program.  It's simple math that the quicker animals find homes, the more animals you can save.

Three, it puts a workload on people who might be doing other things, whether it be AC officers who could be responding to calls, or volunteers who could be doing other things to increase adoption retention, like coaching through a behavioral problem or just general follow-up.

I've adopted from groups with a home visit and without.  I've returned none of the animals I adopted, and the home visit for me just felt like a hoop to jump through.  In particular, I dislike feeling like a rescue deigns to grant me the permission to adopt an animal from them...I mean, unless you are rescuing litters of healthy and socialized Golden Retrievers, do you really have a program chockful of super-desirable animals so much that you want to be super-choosy about which applicant gets one?  What is it about the home visit that is so magical, that can't be replaced by a brief-ish written application and a conversation, either on the phone or in person?  If it's a fence-jumping dog, I'll send you pictures of my fence and then that should suffice...but a home visit for each and every animal?  Not only does it seem impractical, I think it's not a magic guarantee that the adoption will be successful for the life of the pet.  Stuff happens, and sometimes people do need to return animals.  If I do a home visit and three years later you get terminally ill or your spouse is laid off or something like that...you may need to return the pet.  There is no way to predict if that will happen by a home visit, or any other means! 

I just feel like a rescue or shelter can and will have returns, no matter how tight the screening process may be.  Given that, an excessively tight screening increases your LOS, makes applicants feel bad, and reduces your pool of potential adopters.  I know that some purebred dog rescues are known for their tight screening process and I've got to say, that gives people who want to adopt but for whatever reason want or even need a purebred dog a GREAT reason to turn to a breeder, and not necessarily a good breeder, either.  They say, I wanted to rescue, but you turned me down for having kids/renting/not enough experience/whatever.  And then, even more unfortunately, the rest of us get tarred with the same brush!

I always preface the home visit appointment with, "You don't need to clean your house.  That's not what we care about." 

I also figure if people don't have time to schedule a home visit they probably won't have time for my dog, either.

I know that most shelters do not do home visits (probably all of them) and I see dogs getting returned several times or ending up on the classified ads section of the local online newspapers.  Yes, you can certainly "save more" and have the current adopted dogs recycled numerous times, if numbers are the major consideration.  Or you can give each animal you commit to when you rescue it the best chance of having a forever home (barring catastrophic events such as human illness, etc.).

Yes, people who probably shouldn't have an animal in the first place and don't want to go through the inconvenience of a home visit will go to a breeder for their animal ............... which will then end up in a shelter or turned into a rescue group.  There's nothing we can do about that.  It doesn't negate the responsibility we have to each and every animal we take in.

I believe a multi-faceted approach including personalized and honest adoption counseling as well as support post adoption help prevent a great deal of returns. Having someone who can assist adopters with concerns via phone (or e-mail if needed) can help improve or rectify certain behaviors/situations which may otherwise lead to a return if left unaddressed. Follow up calls (or e-mail if needed) can also be helpful in determining if there are any concerns, even if the adopter does not indicate they are problematic to the point of return. Simply reaching out can leave a lasting impression on the adopter, so they are more likely to reach out for help if it does get to that point.

Nothing is going to be guaranteed, but certainly making it known that there is non-judgmental help available makes a big difference!

There have been quite a few scholarly studies done on why people relinquish animals to shelters. Adoption returns is a subset of this larger phenomenon. Most people in the field today seem to think that the Open Adoption approach works very well to reduce returns, because it uses trained adoption counselors to match prospective adopters with a pet that will be suited to their personality and lifestyle.

A recent study by two eminent scholars in the field showed that animals who are returned by adopters actually have a higher subsequent live release rate than the general shelter population:  http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/8/4/45/htm. So an adoption return in most cases just means that the fit between animal and adopter was not quite right -- it doesn't mean that the pet or the adopter has anything wrong with them.