Читать книгу Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters - Группа авторов - Страница 68

Overcrowding is one of the most potent emotional and physical stressors recognized in housed animals (Griffin and Baker 2002; McMillan 2002). It increases both the number of susceptible animals and asymptomatic carriers in a given group, thus increasing the likelihood of disease transmission between group members through both direct contact and contaminated fomites. Overcrowding also increases the magnitude of many stressors in the shelter environment including noise, air contaminants and infectious agents, and compromises animal husbandry, inflating the risk for serious outbreaks of disease in the population. With too many animals to care for, shelter staffs' ability to provide proper care to animals and good customer service to the public becomes overwhelmed. In turn, this can negatively affect adoption rates since potential adopters often find an overcrowded and dirty shelter to be an overwhelming and uninviting environment, further compounding the shelter's crowding problem.

For all these reasons, shelters must limit the number of animals they house to the number for which they can provide reasonable care. A shelter's capacity for care is not simply a matter of space available for animals, but also of the shelter's ability to provide proper care to meet their physical and emotional needs. Though there is no single, simple formula available to determine the number of animals that a given facility should house, an assessment of housing capacity in relation to an organization's staffing, resources and population statistics can be used to estimate its capacity for care. At times, unexpected intake may result in temporary conditions of overcrowding, but a good wellness program dictates that protocols must be in place to alleviate overcrowding and maintain a modestly populated environment for the health and protection of the animals and staff within the organization's capacity for care. The ASV Guidelines for Standards of Care caution that “Every sheltering organization has a maximum capacity for care, and the population in their care must not exceed that level” (ASV 2010).

First and foremost, employing sound population management strategies and operating within the organization's capacity for care are crucial to prevent crowding, reduce euthanasia, and optimize positive outcomes. As a part of daily walk‐through rounds for routine animal surveillance, thoughtful consideration should always be given as to why each individual animal remains in the shelter and what could be done to optimize or hasten a successful outcome for that animal (Hurley 2004). Ideally, overcrowding is prevented or reduced by decreasing the average length of time animals remain in the shelter, combined with limiting or diverting intake. Programs to increase and speed up adoption, redemption, transfer (to rescue or foster care) as well as return to field programs for neuter‐return of community cats help to minimize euthanasia for space in open‐admission shelters and maximize intake in limited admission shelters.

In some instances, when all other options have been exhausted, euthanasia may need to be performed in consideration of the population in order to alleviate overcrowding or prevent disease outbreaks from spreading out of control. Fortunately, as managed admissions have been embraced by many municipal or public shelters, this has become increasingly less common. However, when necessary, thoughtful euthanasia decisions, though always difficult, are a crucial part of the responsibility of every shelter. Euthanasia may be necessary at times for individual animals that are suffering from irremediable physical or behavioral disease or that pose a risk to public health or safety. Once a carefully thought‐out decision is made to euthanize an animal, the procedure should be performed without delay. For example, aggressive dogs that cannot be safely rehabilitated within the resources of the organization or safely rehomed should not be held beyond their legal holding periods. Instead, they should be humanely euthanized as soon as possible to prevent undue stress and anxiety on the dog and risk for the shelter staff, public, and other animals. No matter what the underlying circumstances are surrounding the euthanasia of an animal, these decisions are always challenging. Delays in action, however, often prolong the suffering of sick or emotionally troubled animals, contribute negatively to population health and prolong the stress of individual animals in the shelter.