Factors that Influence Intake to One Municipal Animal Control Facility in Florida: A Qualitative Study

Animal shelters try to save homeless dogs and cats by returning lost pets to missing owners, adopting animals to new homes, and by reducing intake. We mapped the annual intake of one county animal shelter to discover where the homeless animals came from and selected one area of high-intake for stray adult dogs to study. We performed field interviews and reviewed available census and child-maltreatment data to create a theory about why so many stray dogs came from this study area. The study-area residents experience multiple socioeconomic challenges secondary to poverty including: interpersonal violence; housing instability; and lack of access to reliable transportation and communication services. Such factors lead residents to view domestic dogs not only as pets, but also as commodities that can add income to households, and often as burdens that results in pet abandonment. The community-specific data collected in this study can drive creation of strategic solutions for preventing pet abandonment and serve to reduce intake of stray dogs to the local animal shelter