Animal welfare groups are impacting positively within the urban animal management environment, are getting a strong message out to a larger demographic and have developed rewarding partnerships along the way [The relevance of animal welfare in Urban Animal Management]

Animal welfare organisations have a role in the community that include canvassing support for welfare change through local, state and federal government, education, inspectorate services, shelter and pound management and influencing public opinion regarding animal welfare.

Animal welfare shelters have a major role in receiving surrendered animals from all community sources and assessing the suitability of the animals for rehousing ; to find an appropriate home that meets both the needs of the animals and the new owner.

Relationship between animal welfare and animal management

In 1992 it was reported that the funding of most shelters generally prohibits anything but reactive management "mopping up today's problems only to face the same ones tomorrow" - and the same can be said now. In 1992, some challenging questions were asked internally in at least one animal welfare organisation, and it would be reasonable to think that these questions also stand today.  [Animal Shelter Management, Animal Control and Animal Welfare]

In particular:

• Not enough people have questioned the management of shelters.


• A welfare shelter is a very complex environment.


• Animal control is arguably more complex than commonly recognised.


• The pressure on the shelter is inversely proportional to the priority given to animal management by local government.


• The pressure on animal control is related to human population and socioeconomic trends.


• Animal welfare and animal management are directly related, i.e. animal welfare benefits from adequate animal management.

Animal shelters, animal welfare and animal management are interdependent and simple solutions are unlikely to solve what is a complex problem [Unwanted pets].

Understanding the drivers of animals entering shelters

Detailed surveys of individual shelters are necessary to understand the primary drivers for cats and dogs entering shelters. [Tracking cat admissions to Melbourne shelters  and Shelter Shakeup-the outcome].  Several studies have found that animals enter into shelters for many reasons, and in one US study the author found 71 reasons for owner relinquishment.  In addition, a sizeable proportion of cats can be admitted to shelters by animal management because they are not owned.

The literature has repeated calls for addressing the issues of shelter populations by gathering statistics for an individual shelter, and principles for solving the problems of shelter animals have been developed. [Populate or perish]

Complex issues

Animal welfare agencies recognise that there are important and sometimes interrelated complex issues to address, such as animal hoarding; the link between domestic violence and animal abuse; and compassion fatigue amongst shelter workers.

Cruelty to animals and family violence; Compassion, Enthusiasm Fatigue; Animal hoarders in Australia; Perpetration induced traumatic stress in Animal Care Workers