Читать книгу Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters - Группа авторов - Страница 88

Inadequate staffing to provide basic care (cleaning and feeding) often leads to breaches in shelter biosecurity. When this happens, exposure to infectious agents and disease frequency increases. Therefore, monitoring staff numbers is an important component of a comprehensive disease control program. The National Animal Control Association (NACA) recommends that staff spend a minimum of 15 minutes per animal providing basic care (NACA 2014). Using these recommendations, a shelter's capacity to provide basic care can be assessed by (i) estimating the amount of time that staff should be engaged in basic animal care daily; (ii) calculating the number of hours staff actually is engaged in basic care daily; and (iii) comparing the two estimates. Calculations are described in more detail in other sources (Newbury and Hurley 2013b; Scarlett et al. 2017d).

If staff time for basic care is insufficient or less than that which is suggested in the guidelines, the shelter should consider an investment in additional staff positions, cross‐training of non‐animal care staff, or a reduction in the numbers of animals in the shelter. If a shelter meets the guidelines, it should be noted that the recommended daily time per animal is a minimum estimate solely for feeding and cleaning. Other staffing‐related recommendations are also available (Newbury and Hurley 2013b). Shelters should strive to increase the available staff time per animal to maximize the welfare of the animals in their care. Since staffing needs can vary widely (e.g. by season, after a seizure of several animals, and with the changing physical and behavioral needs of the animals), shelters should evaluate the adequacy of staffing on a regular basis and as animal care needs change. Some shelters routinely utilize trained volunteers to assist staff in providing animal care and enrichment; when these volunteers are adequately trained and reliable and available to help with daily care, they may be counted toward the total amount of available animal care time for the shelter.