Education

Project: Educational Materials for Animal Shelter Workers

My interest in the care of physiologically compromised animals in shelters stems from my experiences working in a shelter in southern California. As an undergraduate student in the UC Davis Department of Animal Science I pursued this interest by conducting an American Humane Association funded survey of how shelters handle these animals; a paper summarizing this work is in preparation.  

My master's project, funded by the Kenneth A. Scott Charitable Trust, involves the creation of an educational CD ROM to assist animal shelter workers in better identification and decision making for injured and sick animals.  Every day, shelters across the country receive sick and injured dogs and cats. These include animals that have been hit by cars, animals that have been neglected, abused, or subjected to severe acts of cruelty, animals that have been abandoned or relinquished due to minor or major infections and diseases, and animals that have been injured. 

Our survey data showed that physiologically compromised animals are sometimes not afforded appropriate veterinary care due to a variety of factors, including limited budgets and minimal veterinary support. Further, because of inexperienced or untrained staff, there is a potential for injured or sick animals to suffer through the legally required holding ("stray") periods without their injuries or illnesses being recognized and treated. In addition, if animals with communicable illness are not diagnosed and are housed in the same area as the general population, there is serious potential for disease transmission to healthy animals. 

More than 93% of shelters responding to our survey either agreed or strongly agreed that it would be useful to have training materials for employees to reference while handling and making decisions regarding sick and injured shelter animals. The goals of our educational CD ROM are to improve the quality of identification and subsequent assessment of those shelter dogs and cats in need of veterinary care, to more efficiently use veterinary resources by turning shelter employees into "veterinary assistants," to minimize the potential for injured and sick animals to suffer in the shelter setting and, to provide a framework for positive decision making with respect to the handling and treatment of these dogs and cats.