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Looking forward through tough times
18Apr’24
Looking forward through tough times: The hopeful vision of Dr. Emily Weiss
Throughout Dr. Emily Weiss’ career, she’s applied scientific research to improve animal shelter practices. If you’ve ever learned about open adoptions, removing barriers to rehoming, shelter dog behavior, or matching adopters pets, chances are you’ve seen or used Dr. Weiss’ research. She’s also been a key figure in asserting the critical role of using data in all aspects of animal shelter policies practices.
In a recent blog published by the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement, Dr. Weiss said, “We have been here before … and we have the tools to continue improving trends.” We caught up with Dr. Weiss to hear what she thinks we can be doing in this time when things feel so challenging.
Here is our interview with Dr. Weiss. You can view the Shelter Animals Count Intake and Outcome Dashboard to learn more about the changing landscape of animal shelter and rescue intakes and outcomes. You can also sign up to register your data with staff to help us reach our goal of ensuring every animal is counted!
In your recent blog, you’re encouraging animal welfare professionals to dig deep to get back to a sense of optimism about the work. I believe you said we need to get rid of the notion that we’re falling down a bottomless hole. Given that so many shelters are at capacity and workers are feeling intense feelings of worry and stress, where should they start?
Dr. Weiss: Everything needs to start and end with data. Ask yourself, “Why? And “How do I know?” Another way of asking this is, “Why am I doing this particular thing and is it working?” You have to ask yourself those questions daily and weekly and then pivot. Start with your data and ask yourself why your animals are getting stuck in the shelter. Then consider how you know this and what you can do about it. Start with the data and pull one little string. There is hope.
Start a program based on the data. The first week it’s implemented, look at your data. If it’s working, keep going and look at your data again the next week. There are a lot of good ideas that end up working and there are a lot that do not. Give yourself measurable goals for progress. For example, set a goal of 20 adoptions and a 50% RTO rate next week. Then figure out what you have to do to make it happen.
Dr. Weiss: What I’m seeing today is similar to what I saw in the early 2000s — a learned helplessness based on “us” vs. “them.” Right now, we are in this stuck place where animals are staying longer and we simultaneously believe nobody wants the animals in our care. I don’t see marketing the way I used to. I don’t see forward-facing positive messaging the way I used to. We need a mindset shift towards pathway planning and better marketing. When animals come in, we miss great opportunities to pathway plan so they move quickly through the system. It’s such a lost opportunity when a dog comes in soft and wiggly and smiling, laying on its back, and nobody collects that information. Get that information, document it objectively, and move forward to get that animal on the adoption floor as quickly as possible.
We also need to embrace a greater sense of urgency on a daily basis. That means we look at our entire population each day and ask, “Who can we get on the adoption floor?” “Who can we reunite?” We need to establish daily goals to get animals to live outcomes as quickly as possible.
We also need to embrace a greater sense of urgency on a daily basis. That means we look at our entire population each day and ask, “Who can we get on the adoption floor?” “Who can we reunite?” We need to establish daily goals to get animals to live outcomes as quickly as possible.
At the individual shelter level, there may be limited awareness and familiarity with utilizing data effectively. How do we change that? How can we encourage shelters to better utilize and understand their own data?
Dr. Weiss: For a shelter that really wants to change, step one is just taking a moment to look at your own data, since your data will be more relevant to you than, say, state- or national-level data.
Once you can read and understand your own dataset, you can compare it to the national SAC database and ask yourself, “Where are we compared to the national data?” You need to understand your intakes, outcomes, length of stay, etc. and figure out where and how your animals are getting stuck. Each of these metrics is incredibly powerful to look at.
You learn by looking at your data often and looking at different variables and trends. You want to know where animals are getting stuck. Which are being euthanized? Are they being euthanized due to age, illness, their breed, or something else? How long from intake to adoption?
Then — and only then — can you decide how to fix it.
What changes are needed for animal shelters and rescues to better compete with breeders in today's pet acquisition market? Can you explain why this is important to understand?
Dr. Weiss: I fear our industry is alienating more and more potential adopters. We must urgently embrace a client-focused approach of welcoming anybody who connects with us in any way. We need welcome kiosks at shelters with staff and volunteers to welcome people and provide friendly, prompt customer service. We need shelters to make it much easier for people who are looking at pets to get them.
It’s also important that we help people sort through the dozens or hundreds of pets in our shelters and find those that will fit in their life and with their existing human and animal families. When we developed Meet Your Match, we wanted to redefine the role of animal shelters as matching centers. So the shelter that formerly waited for someone to come in and then decide if they were good enough to adopt or not to a place where they focused on getting the best possible match between adopters and pets. Our goal was also to increase the bond between pets and people during the counseling process. While implementing a full-fledged program like MYM may not be a good fit for organizations struggling with staff shortages, implementing good client services is just the type of thing that can turn things around.
Thank you so much for your words of wisdom, Dr. Weiss. In closing, can you share a few words of advice for animal welfare professionals who feel hopeless and afraid that things are just going to get worse for shelters?
First – let’s remember we are here in this field to…shelter. While I recognize it is hard, and sometimes absolutely gut wrenching work, if we can focus on celebrating that we exist to serve the at risk animals in our communities, that alone can help shift from a feeling of sadness, to a feeling of hope. The data will help. Even when things really are going to sh*t, examining the data leads to curiosity, creativity and potential solutions. I promise!
Things have been much worse – it really was like a bottomless pit. Then the field began to embrace data, and the scientific community began to focus on addressing the challenges in sheltering. Solutions have been developed and we have many of the answers to the challenges occurring in shelters. And… where we do not have the answers, we now have the tools to find those answers. From examining your shelter data and your community data, we can identify the Why, and then apply solutions. We got this!
Things have been much worse – it really was like a bottomless pit. Then the field began to embrace data, and the scientific community began to focus on addressing the challenges in sheltering. Solutions have been developed and we have many of the answers to the challenges occurring in shelters. And… where we do not have the answers, we now have the tools to find those answers. From examining your shelter data and your community data, we can identify the Why, and then apply solutions. We got this!
Check out the 2023 Shelter Animals Count Annual Report and all of our other reports and learn about becoming a participating shelter or rescue and why it matters!
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