Study
“Playing the Cards You’re Dealt: Implementing Feline Lifesaving Programs and Practices Despite Restrictive Ordinance Provisions,” published in the Journal of Shelter Medicine and Community Animal Health, 2024. Complete article available online here.
Overview
For this study, researchers examined feline intake and outcome data from St. Tammany Parish (Louisiana) Department of Animal Services over nine years (January 2015 through December 2023, a total of 16,274 records in all).
Key Points
Following the implementation of several programs and practices aimed at increasing feline lifesaving (e.g., trap-neuter-vaccinate-return, or TNVR, and managed intake), live outcomes for cats increased from 26.4 to 95.4% of admissions and euthanasia rates decreased from 71.1 to 3.0%. Most of these improvements took place even while some ordinance provisions limiting the options for feline lifesaving were still in place (e.g., a requirement to impound at-large cats).
Although relatively little TNVR was implemented prior to the ordinance change, other programs intended to improve feline lifesaving were. A Wait ‘til 8 program, for example, encouraged residents finding unweaned kittens to foster them until they were eight weeks of age. These young kittens are generally at high risk for euthanasia if brought to a shelter [1]; however, if admission can be delayed, the shelter is much more likely to have the capacity to provide appropriate care—and therefore increase the likelihood of a live outcome. Such programs are important complements to TNVR programs [2], and the shelter’s willingness to experiment with a suite of programs and practices resulted in thousands of lives saved (as demonstrated via their careful record keeping).
It is important to note that St. Tammany’s increase in live outcomes was not simply the result of their managed intake policy (designed to match admissions to the shelter’s capacity for care at a given time). As the authors note, “except for 2020 (due to pandemic-related restrictions on all shelter admissions), feline intake remained relatively constant over the study period” [3]. In other words, the shelter was able to greatly increase live outcomes despite feline admissions remaining steady.
Seven years into the study period, several ordinance provisions were revised to make it easier for the shelter to provide live outcomes for cats (e.g., “removing an apparent requirement to impound at-large cats” [3]). Although these changes produced relatively little change in the shelter’s live-release or euthanasia rates, the authors note that they were “important in that they provide a backstop of sorts, likely preserving some of the gains made prior to their approval should future shelter leaders choose to apply administrative discretion differently” [3].
This community case study illustrates the potential for animal shelters to substantially improve feline lifesaving regardless of possible legal impediments.
In 2017, the American Bar Association approved a resolution “support[ing] the adoption of laws and policies supportive of TNVR programs with the intent of decreasing community cat populations and improving public health and safety” [4]. This study demonstrates the ways in which shelter leadership can use their discretion to improve feline lifesaving even while operating within a legal framework unfavorable to community cats and TNVR.
See related Issue Brief:
References
Cotterell, J.; Rand, J.; Barnes, T.; Scotney, R. Impacts of a Local Government Funded Free Cat Sterilization Program for Owned and Semi-Owned Cats. 2024.
Kreisler, R.E.; Pugh, A.A.; Pemberton, K.; Pizano, S. The Impact of Incorporating Multiple Best Practices on Live Outcomes for a Municipal Animal Shelter in Memphis, TN. Frontiers in Veterinary Science 2022, 9.
Mauro, K.; Wolf, P.J. Playing the Cards You’re Dealt: Implementing Feline Lifesaving Programs and Practices Despite Restrictive Ordinance Provisions. Journal of Shelter Medicine and Community Animal Health 2024.
ABA American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section Report to the House of Delegates: Resolution 102B; American Bar Association, 2017.
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