WEBVTT

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It's Maria's MutS and Stuff. What
a great idea on I Art Radio.

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Welcome to Maria's MutS and Stuff and
with me today's the executive director, Stephanie

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Fyler of Shelter Animals Count, the
national database. So Stephanie, I'm very

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intrigued and I can't wait to chat
with you and thank you for making some

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time today. Absolutely, we're thrilled
to be here. Absolutely. So,

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Okay, so let's talk about this. So, Shelter Animals Count. You've

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been around for a long time.
You're a neutral, independent nonprofit. What

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exactly are you? I mean,
I know, but let's tell my listeners

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what are you? Yeah? Absolutely, So. We were founded in twenty

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twelve when all of the national animal
welfare organizations came together and identified the long

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need for having animals sheltering data.
We were operating a lot on assumptions and

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estimates and guesses and anecdotal detail,
and knew we needed some more fact based

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insights, and so it was really
a collaborative effort where everyone came together to

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form this independent, neutral nonprofit organization
solely focused on collecting animal sheltering statistics to

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enchance and increased life saving God it. So now are there I mean,

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obviously there's like a big group of
like I saw, like the Humane Society,

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the ASPCA, But do are you
open to others like coming aboard or

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is it just with these very specific
large organizations. Yeah, that's a great

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question. So these specific large organizations
were who helped find, found and create

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and also fund the organization. But
we actually accept and try to get data

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from all fourteen thousand animal shelter and
rescue organizations both countries. And then also

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we do now in early twenty twenty
one, we started collecting services data for

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community services. So that also allows
human service providers who provide things like pet

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food and crasis housing, et cetera, to also have the services that they

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provide to animals counts for our own
animals, right right. And then we

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we're currently in all fifty US states, also US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico,

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and we are expanding into Canada as
well. Wow, that's incredible.

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That is so cool. Yeah,
so a lot of growth has happened in

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the past few years for sure.
Yeah. Yeah, so, and and

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I'm sorry that I should know more
about this, but that's why I'm so

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happy to talk to you because you
know, knowledge is power, you know,

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and the more we know, the
more we can help animals, you

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know, in shelters. So the
research that you do, do you release

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information like I know, I became
aware of you when with the latest information

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about fewer dog transfers which than before, which we'll get to, but like

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how often do you put information out
there? Yeah, so we have we

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deliver information in a variety of ways. On our website, we have interactive

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dashboards that people anyone from the public
can go on and short and filter by

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species and here and organization types,
et cetera. And those are updated monthly,

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and then every quarter we release a
quarterly report that compares that quarter or

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year to date really compared to at
least the past three years. Sometimes we

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go back further and those are static
reports based on the data we have at

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that snapshot in time. And then
throughout the year we also released other things

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like species diving deeper into species and
diving deeper into organization types and regions and

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et cetera. But then we also
started doing this year the more surveying of

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shelters for things like with checks.
So when for example, when we did

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one of our actually our Q one
report. We had noticed that the rate

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of doggies in Asia had started to
increase, and so we wanted to really

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understand why, and so we surveyed
our members to give us what was happening

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in their individual organizations and try to
understand if there were any differences between rural

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and urban, any differences with different
parts of the country, large for small

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organizations, et cetera. And so
all of those things we share throughout the

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year, which also includes some of
the data on transfers going down. Wow

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wow wow, Okay, wow,
that's really I mean, that's that's fascinating

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and it's excellent because the bottom line
is we want to get animals adopted.

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So it's good that you are always
releasing all of this information. And again,

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it just kind of brings home because
it really gets me so aggravated and

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I'm sure you more than me when
people say that shelter pets are damaged,

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because we know that they're not.
You know, they just happened to find

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themselves there. So now the latest
thing is that fewer dogs are being transferred,

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and cat transfers have been pretty similar
than they have been steady like the

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past couple of years. Why do
you think it's happening with dogs? Is

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it because of the economy, Is
it still like the pandemic that's sort of

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I guess affecting adoptions, or I
mean, is there a reason did you

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find? Yeah, that's an interesting
thing. I've been an animals sheltering probably

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almost two decades now, and in
my entire career it was always cats,

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cats, cats. We have too
many cats. Cats are most at risk,

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right, and we've really seen the
past few years is that completely flip

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flap where cats are actually doing really
well in shelters when it comes to their

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outcomes and the balance with outcomes in
and tapes, et cetera. Where dogs

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we're seeing a very different experience.
And so the transferation was kind of an

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interesting one because we really saw in
twenty nineteen pre pandemics. We have to

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really look now almost five years ago
and look at what was happening prior to

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the pandemic, And in twenty nineteen
we saw a complete balance of the number

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of animals entering shelters, which is
in the millions, compared to the number

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of animals leaving was almost one for
one. It was it was a complete

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balance. There was not any animals
leaving or sorry any animals staying behind.

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Well, then the pandemic happens in
twenty twenty, which we all know,

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the communities rallied around their shelters and
rescues and started without being the animals,

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which is great, but also at
that same time organizations either chose to or

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were forced to close their operation or
limit their operation because of mandates. So

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what happened was we saw a temporary
spike in adoptions, but then really what

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started to become this imbalance of the
animals within our systems. So in twenty

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twenty we actually saw a positive trend
where we had more animals leaving shelters than

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were entering. And sometimes it's like, well, how is that possible?

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It's because in January one, we
don't start with zero animals. We started

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with However, many animals were still
in shelters from the year prior. So

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in twenty twenty we saw that twtal
shelter population decrease, which was great.

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Then in twenty twenty one, oh
I should also add in twenty twenty,

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what happened when these brick and mortar
shelters started to have to close or limit

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their operation. Foster based Rescues largely
came in and started to fill some of

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that gap, and so the fosters
started to fill up as the shelters were

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starting to empty, and so in
twenty twenty one, animals started coming in

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more, and we started to feed
more animals entering shelters than we're leaving,

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and that's the any outcome. And
then twenty twenty two we saw the same

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thing happened. In twenty twenty three, we saw the same thing happened still.

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But really what really caused a lot
of this issue with the transfer system

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is when rescues came in in twenty
twenty and started bringing in a lot of

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animals that would traditionally have gone into
brick and mortar shelters. They build up

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and because they functioned differently than brick
and mortar shelters, they're usually lower volume,

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higher touch process, usually longer stay, and sometimes by design, if

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they're focusing on kavior medical issues,
and they were not able to outcome them

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at the rate that we needed for
that transfer system, and so it created

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this bottleneck, and that's all the
next started at twenty twenty. We didn't

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really feel it until twenty twenty one, and then it has now persisted into

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year three following the pandemic, which
is why the system has essentially felt for

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dogs right right. And I mean
I don't know. I don't know that.

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I don't know if there is an
answer, Is there an answer to

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why? I mean, because I
don't know. I just remember, like

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when the pandemic happened, and it
was a big thing like, oh,

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you're going to be home, you're
working from home, you know, adopt

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a pet, adopt, adopt,
and I felt like, oh, yay,

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you know, and then I started
to hear after that that people were

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returning pets and whether it was because
they couldn't afford it or they lost their

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job as a result of the pandemic. I mean, I don't know,

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is that part of the reasoning.
I mean, I don't even, Like

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I said, I don't know if
there's an answer to it or or why.

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But it's just I don't know,
is there an answer? Yeah,

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So that was one of the interesting
things in twenty twenty one. There was

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a headline that really just spread that
people were surrendering their pets to shelters and

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record number now that people were returning
to the new normal, and that fortunately

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was not supported by the data.
Unfortunately, it's still the narrative we here

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three years later, but were what
we were seeing is that during in twenty

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twenty one, in particular in twenty
two for that matter, the number of

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pets that were being surrendered actually did
not increase. But what we were seeing

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was that the reasons that they were
surrendering them was shifting, and so they

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were shifting more towards those economic based
reasons. And you can also see generally

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these trends follow what's happening in the
communities. The shelters are always a magnifying

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glass of what's happening to people in
families and communities. And so where the

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areas where there were rent tykes and
unaffordable housing, and especially unaffordable pet friendly

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housing and especially related to dogs in
size and breed, those areas were definitely

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impacted the most all during that time. We have to remember the the eviction

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moratorium was lifted, right, so
people found themselves now having to in a

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lot of cases have find housing with
pets that they were more secure previously.

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And then a lot of time,
really in the past couple of years,

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a lot of landlords have changed housing
policies to restrict more pet pet families than

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they have previously or make it cost
prohibitive, and so that was happening.

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At the same time, our economy
is doing what it's been doing the past

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couple of years, and it's really
been a perfect storm. But I will

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say in twenty twenty three, what's
really interesting is we have well, actually

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really over the past three years,
we started to see owner surrenders go down

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and straight go up. And so
it could be that because shelters are so

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full and having to change their practices
on policies on admitting new animals. There's

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a theory that a lot of the
stray increase are really not animals who have

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pet or people who are looking for
them. They're really not strays. They're

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either being turned in and set them
being told that they're strays to avoid waiting

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lists or other things preventing them from
entering a shelter through a traditional owner surrender

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process, or they're truly stories that
are picked up but their owner doesn't intend

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to replace them, either because they
don't think they can afford it, or

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this is you know, it's just
too much for what else they have gone

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down. There's a whole host of
possible reasons, but we do know that

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true owner surrenders as they are identified
today have been decreasing over the past three

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years and they're now at the lowest
and they've been, which is since the

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pandemic, which is actually encouraging and
great news. It is you know,

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it isn't it is that they're one
lens. If we truly do have an

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increase of strays right that kind that
help women, that actually further bottlenecks the

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shelter system because now they're having to
be held for a straight hold time sure

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where they could be otherism moved through
the process. So it's complicated and we

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haven't yet fully identified the root cause, but it could be a variety of

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these things. But in general,
the fact that people are continuing and really

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always have in recent years that we've
been following this, continuing to be dedicated

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to keeping their pets as part of
their family and seeking out resources to be

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able to keep them in the homes
is all very great, true, true

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and true. And I think you
know, there are so many different I

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mean, I just know many times
that there's a you know, a pantry

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food drive. It's also for pet
food. It's not just for people or

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you know, and I think a
lot of communities do have the resources to

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help people, so they can you
know, you can hold on to your

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apartment, and you can hold on
to your pet as well, because pets

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are family as we know. So
what can people do? I mean,

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I know they can definitely because your
research is I mean, it's goal.

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It's golden because you're right, I
mean the fact, like that whole narrative

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that I just I had said to
you about animals being surrendered after the pandemic

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even though it never really ended ended, You're right, It just I don't

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know where that came from, but
it it was almost like, oh,

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yeah, I guess it's true when
it really wasn't right. You know.

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So, how can like someone who's
listening right now and wants to help out?

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Now I know you are a non
profit, so they can definitely go

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to Shelter Animals count dot org and
they can make a donation, right that

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would help? Like what else can
people do if they want to get involved

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and help? Absolutely so? And
actually we are funded primarily through grants in

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national organizations who who need the stated
to do their work, and so what

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I would really encourage people who want
to do to help is to support their

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local shelter. They do not need
to donate to us at all. We

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really encourage them to donate to the
Boots from the ground. And really,

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unfortunately the message is still the same. It's not new, and there's sometimes

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people are disappointed that we don't have
a new thing that we need we want

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us to ask for. But the
top four things that people can do are

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adapt, foster, volunteer, and
donate and that to all or any or

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one organization that they feel really closely
aligned with, because truly, every single

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shelter is in crisis right now and
they're struggling with more animals in their care

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than they have been in more than
five years, and with fewer staff,

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fewer donations, fewer volunteers, and
fewer fosters than ever. And so it's

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really that perfect storm of everything going
wrong at once, and the easiest way

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to change that is through those four
categories of adapt, foster, volunteer,

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and donate. That's perfect. Well, Stephanie, thank you so much.

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Thank you for all your knowledge and
all your information, and keep doing what

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you do. And I would love
to talk to you again because you know

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I'm fascinated with all of this information
and and I know my listeners are as

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well, So again, adopt,
foster, volunteer, or donate very simple

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things that anybody can do. So
Stephanie Fyler, thank you so much.

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From Shelter Animals Count, the National
database. Thank you for all that you

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do, and keep keep keep at
it because we need you and we need

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all of this information. So thank
you, thank you. We're happy to

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be here. And yeah, check
out our website at Shelter Animals Count dot

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org and you can dig into the
information yourself and check out what's going on

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in your own are yet