Where Do They Come From and Where Do They Go? Socioeconomic Patterns in Dog Acquisition and Rehoming.

This research examines the ways people acquire dogs in the US as well as the ways the dogs leave the household and the way these differ by income level in seven geographically diverse study communities. A web-based panel survey was distributed and received 6318 responses. Individuals were asked a series of demographic and socioeconomic questions as well as how they acquired their current dogs, how previous dogs left their household, and where they left to. The results indicate that the likelihood of acquiring a dog through friends and family decreased monotonically as income increased, while the opposite was observed for adopting and purchasing a dog. The likelihood of giving a dog away to a friend or family member also decreased as income increased, as opposed to shelter surrender-a person earning over USD 100,000 annually was more than four times likelier to surrender to a shelter than a person earning under USD 15,000. The results suggest a stronger reliance on informal social networks in lower-income communities for both obtaining and placing dogs. As these dogs would otherwise end up in the shelter system, animal shelters may support low-income pet owners to help keep their dogs within their community of care.

Mapping veterinary care in Canada: An index of care accessibility.

Background: Access to veterinary care has been identified as the largest animal welfare issue in contemporary society. Access to veterinary care is complicated by several factors, including the cost of care, potential language differences between providers and clients, the number of care providers, and distance to a care provider. Each of these factors alone can impact an individual's ability to seek adequate veterinary medical care for their companion animal, with an additional burden when multiple factors are present. Procedure: A veterinary care accessibility score (VCAS) was created, consisting of key variables for Canada, that measured these factors and scored them in relation to the rest of the country at the census division level. Results: In this study, nearly 2 million households in Quebec and 700 000 in Ontario were in the lowest VCAS ranking. Further, nearly 75% of households in New Brunswick were in low-access census divisions. The ratios of care providers to the estimated numbers of pet-owning households and households were also derived. An estimated veterinary clinic employee shortage was calculated at a minimum of 6803 to simply bring every census division up to a weighted mean, although the actual shortage is likely higher. Conclusion: This research could be used by policymakers, funders, and the animal welfare community to prioritize investment and design targeted solutions.

Cartographie des soins vétérinaires au Canada : Un indice d'accessibilité aux soins. Mise en contexte: L'accès aux soins vétérinaires a été identifié comme le plus grand problème de bien-être animal dans la société contemporaine. L'accès aux soins vétérinaires est compliqué par plusieurs facteurs, notamment le coût des soins, les différences linguistiques potentielles entre les prestataires et les clients, le nombre de prestataires de soins et la distance par rapport à un prestataire de soins. Chacun de ces facteurs à lui seul peut avoir un impact sur la capacité d'un individu à rechercher des soins médicaux vétérinaires adéquats pour son animal de compagnie, avec un fardeau supplémentaire lorsque plusieurs facteurs sont présents. Procédure: Un score d'accessibilité aux soins vétérinaires (VCAS) a été créé, composé de variables clés pour le Canada, qui mesurait ces facteurs et les notait par rapport au reste du pays au niveau des divisions de recensement. Résultats: Dans cette étude, près de 2 millions de ménages au Québec et 700 000 en Ontario se retrouvaient au bas du classement VCAS. De plus, près de 75 % des ménages du Nouveau-Brunswick se trouvaient dans des divisions de recensement à faible accès. Les ratios de prestataires de soins par rapport au nombre estimé de ménages possédant des animaux de compagnie et de ménages ont également été calculés. Une pénurie estimée d'employés de cliniques vétérinaires a été calculée à un minimum de 6803 pour simplement ramener chaque division de recensement à une moyenne pondérée, bien que la pénurie réelle soit probablement plus élevée. Conclusion: Cette recherche pourrait être utilisée par les décideurs politiques, les bailleurs de fonds et la communauté du bienêtre animal pour prioriser les investissements et concevoir des solutions ciblées.(Traduit par Dr Serge Messier).

Identifying policy alternatives to enable the virtual establishment of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship.

OBJECTIVES: This research seeks to identify an existing policy stream around the establishment of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) through telemedicine to provide evidence of, and advance policy alternatives for, states and countries looking to allow this practice responsibly. This is seen as an important step for access to veterinary care, particularly for cats. METHODS: The multiple streams policy framework requires identification of a centering event, problem stream, policy stream and politics stream in order to have the necessary conditions for policy change to occur. This research identifies that policy stream through thematic content analysis. State-level policies from across the entire USA that address the virtual establishment of a physician-patient relationship were analyzed to provide themes that could be applied to similar policies in veterinary medicine. RESULTS: Ten key themes were identified and further organized into four high-order concepts through the thematic content analysis. Detailed accounting of the specific policy alternatives is provided in the supplementary materials. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The themes and concepts presented provide evidence of a robust policy stream. This content analysis, and the supporting supplementary details, provide many options to guide states in the development of sound policies for the virtual establishment of a VCPR by drawing from the more matured field of human medicine.

Correlating Access to Primary Medical Care and Veterinary Care Providers: A Novel Application of Spatial Gravity Modelling.

Increasingly, health professionals are recognizing the need for a more holistic, or One Health, approach to wellness. Companion animals share the lives and homes of many Americans, and yet little research exists on the intersection of disparities of access to veterinary care and access to human health care. This research aims to fill that gap by exploring the use of a spatial model that identifies the relationship of supply and demand while also considering reductions as a function of travel time to a care facility. Four counties in Alabama were analyzed at the census tract level to determine the supply of primary care physicians and veterinary care providers. This research provides a unique application of the Enhanced Two-Step Floating Catchment Area model by independently examining access to each type of care and then comparing both access supply values at the census level. Results indicated a statistically significant positive relationship between access to both types of care, implying areas with lower access to primary care have concomitantly low access to veterinary care. Implications for practice include the introduction of this methodological approach, identification of future parameter specification research to improve the approach, and identification of an area of significant concern in the One Health framework. Further, the results can inform solution strategies such as offering integrated care interventions for both humans and their companion animal household members with direct use for policymakers aimed at increasing equitable access to health care across the One Health spectrum.

Critical Problems for Research in Animal Sheltering, a Conceptual Analysis.

Animal shelter research has seen significant increases in participation over the past several decades from academic organizations, private organizations, public entities, and even corporations that aims to improve shelter programs, processes, operations, and outcomes for the various stakeholders/participants involved in a shelter system (animals, humans, the community, wildlife, and the environment). These efforts are scattered through a huge variety of different research areas that are challenging to define and scope for organizations seeking to start new lines of research inquiry. This work aims to enumerate some of the most critical outstanding problems for research in animal sheltering in a conceptual framework that is intended to help direct research conversations toward the research topics of highest impact (with the highest quality outcomes possible). To this end, we define seven (7) key areas for research: animal behavior, adoptions and special needs populations, medical conditions, disease transmission, community, ecology, and wellness (one health), operations, and public-private-academic-corporate collaboration. Within each of these areas, we review specific problems and highlight examples of successes in each area in the past several decades. We close with a discussion of some of the topics that were not detailed in this manuscript but, nonetheless, deserve some mention. Through this enumeration, we hope to spur conversation around innovative methodologies, technologies, and concepts in both research and practice in animal sheltering.

Putting Access to Veterinary Care on the Map: A Veterinary Care Accessibility Index.

Access to veterinary care is a complex problem that sits at the intersection of a number of societal factors including income inequality, access to transportation, language and cultural differences as well as the spatial distribution of veterinary care providers. This research aims to create an index evaluating accessibility of veterinary care across the contiguous United States and thus fill an important gap in the literature. The location and number of employees of veterinary clinics were aggregated at the county level. Projected pet population and household counts were used to normalize the number of employees to provide a relative assessment of the distribution of care access. Existing US Census data was used as percentile rankings to identify counties which may experience additional, non-spatial, barriers to care. By combining the percentile rankings of each of the variables, an overall index was created, evaluating the relative accessibility of veterinary care in each of the counties of the contiguous US. This work can be used by organizations looking to improve access to care or by policymakers considering legislation that impacts this issue. It may also be of use to individuals in human health care as they consider the intersection of human wellness and companion animal wellness.