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Shelter Capacity: It's not just about number of kennels
14Jun’24
Shelter Capacity: It's not just about number of kennels
7 things you should know about capacity for care
"A crisis doesn't start on day 30, but on day one. Start taking action today. Every night an animal spends in the shelter just makes it harder the next day."
Here at Shelter Animals Count, we’ve been sharing our population balance calculator – a simple measurement of total outcomes divided by total intakes — to better explain why shelters can still be full, even. You can calculate this on a daily basis or over a longer period of time. Here are a couple of examples:
“On Friday, 84 dogs entered the shelter and 65 left the shelter.” If we divide 65 into 84, we see that 78% of the the number of dogs that entered left and 22% did not leave. This creates a population imbalance. If more animals enter each day than leave over a period of days or weeks, a shelter will quickly become overcrowded and have nowhere to place incoming animals.
In shelters across the U.S., we are seeing the impacts of this imbalance between intakes and outcomes. Put simply, adoptions, transfers, and return-to-owner outcomes are too low, relative to the number of pets entering organizations. In our last Dogs and Data webinar, we showed you how the long-term impacts of this imbalance have contributed to an ongoing capacity crisis. In our recent webinar, Where Have All the Dog Adopters Gone?, we showed you the latest data about why animal shelters are collectively facing a capacity crisis.
In this blog we’re going to share seven things every shelter needs to know about capacity and the measures you can take to get your capacity or keep your capacity to a manageable level. If you find this information helpful, join us for our monthly Dogs and Data calls co-hosted with Pedigree Foundation. Register and join us on June 21 when we talk about the downward trend in transport and how it’s contributing to shelters struggling to maintain their capacity for care.
“On Friday, 84 dogs entered the shelter and 65 left the shelter.” If we divide 65 into 84, we see that 78% of the the number of dogs that entered left and 22% did not leave. This creates a population imbalance. If more animals enter each day than leave over a period of days or weeks, a shelter will quickly become overcrowded and have nowhere to place incoming animals.
In shelters across the U.S., we are seeing the impacts of this imbalance between intakes and outcomes. Put simply, adoptions, transfers, and return-to-owner outcomes are too low, relative to the number of pets entering organizations. In our last Dogs and Data webinar, we showed you how the long-term impacts of this imbalance have contributed to an ongoing capacity crisis. In our recent webinar, Where Have All the Dog Adopters Gone?, we showed you the latest data about why animal shelters are collectively facing a capacity crisis.
In this blog we’re going to share seven things every shelter needs to know about capacity and the measures you can take to get your capacity or keep your capacity to a manageable level. If you find this information helpful, join us for our monthly Dogs and Data calls co-hosted with Pedigree Foundation. Register and join us on June 21 when we talk about the downward trend in transport and how it’s contributing to shelters struggling to maintain their capacity for care.
1. What is Capacity for Care?
Capacity for Care (C4C), as defined by the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at UC Davis, refers to an organization’s ability to “meet the needs of every animal admitted to the shelter.” When calculating C4C, UC Davis advises shelters to consider the available number of safe. species-appropriate housing units, population balance, length of stay, and staffing levels.
When considering the importance of operating at or below capacity, Dr. Kate Hurley, DVM asks animal shelters to consider the last time they operated within their capacity for care. “What did it feel like? What was different about your job? What were you able to do that you cannot do today?” she asks.
She says that thinking about this may initially be painful, especially if you are currently overcrowded, but that ultimately, thinking about the goal can give us motivation to take action.
2. Is C4C calculated as one kennel per animal?
The C4C calculations account for staffing, intakes, outcomes, and actual kennel capacity. It’s intended to be used as a predictive tool to assist you in developing a coordinated intake strategy and ramping up outcomes and volunteer programs during the busiest times of year when you’re most likely to be above capacity. If you simply want to determine if you are operating above capacity, you can multiply your total number of kennels by 1.5. This is because in some cases, such as when you’re housing litters of kittens or intentionally co-housed dogs, there will be more than one animal per kennel. If you have 100 cat kennels, and you have 150 cats and kittens occupying those kennels, you may be well within a manageable capacity for care.
3. How do I know if I've exceeded C4C?
If your intakes have been exceeding your outcomes for a week or more, you’ve likely gone above your capacity for care. Humane Pro shares some of the signs of a rescue or shelter being above capacity in this online resource. Some indicators may include consistently housing three to five unrelated animals in a kennel; inability to provide 15 minutes of care per animal each day; animals living in kennels for weeks or months with no outcome pathway plan; or a measurable increase in safety incidents and deaths in shelter due to capacity.
4. How does foster factor into C4C?
- When we talk about kennel capacity, this does not include foster capacity. While every shelter has a limited number of animal housing units, the number of potential foster homes is virtually unlimited, if the shelter has the resources and staff to manage a high-volume foster program. At the beginning of the pandemic, more than 40% of America’s homeless pet population was housed in foster instead of kennels. If your shelter is operating at or above capacity, increasing the number of fosters is a key strategy to lower your shelter population.
5. How do I know how many staff I need?
- Wondering how to calculate the number of staff needed to care for the population of animals in your shelter. This guideline from the ASPCA shows you how to calculate the number of staff you need on any given day using the industry standard of 15 minutes of care per animal, per day. For example, if you have 100 animals in care, you would multiply 100 x 15 which equals 1,500 minutes. 1,500 minutes divided by 60 equals 25 hours of care. Three staff members working 8 hours (8 x 3) equals 24, roughly the number of staff hours required to care for 100 animals.
6. How should I communicate about C4C at my shelter?
Transparent and frequent communication with the public goes a long way toward gaining community support. Here is an example of an animal shelter informing the public that they are above capacity and asking for help. In order to be successful with this strategy, animal shelters and rescues should make it easy to help. For instance, an overcrowded shelter may inform the public and then invite them to show up in person to be an emergency foster caregiver. By removing the ‘red tape’ and making it simple for the public to be part of the solution, animal shelters can reduce their shelter population through pursuing live outcomes.
7. What are three things you can do when you're above your C4C?
“Exceeding capacity for care is ultimately an imbalance between intakes and outcomes, combined with a prolonged length of stay. There are three levers you can pull: First, increase outcomes even a little, decrease intake even a little, and decrease the length of stay any amount,” shared Dr. Kate Hurley.
Tell us about your efforts to achieve capacity for care at your shelter or rescue.
In part two of this blog series, we’ll cover the three levers you can pull to alleviate space crises and we’d love to feature your organization!