Report shows nationwide success in saving cats

OTTAWA, July 25, 2018 /CNW/ - Humane Canada is thrilled to announce the release of our final report on a nationwide pilot program to save the lives of shelter cats, which reveals tremendous successes in achieving better welfare and outcomes.

Humane Canada brought the Capacity for Care Pilot Program to six Canadian member shelters, launching the pilot in 2014 and wrapping it up at the end of 2017. This report outlines the results from all six shelters, demonstrating the program's success in lowering euthanasia and reducing stress-related illness for cats.

"We are very proud to have brought this innovative pilot program to Canada," says Derek deLouche, Acting CEO of Humane Canada. "As you can see from the numbers, this program works – and we aim to bring it to many more shelters across Canada."

Capacity for Care was developed by the team at the University of California Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program, based on a concept outlined in the Association of Shelter Veterinarians' Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters. The Canadian pilot was spearheaded by Humane Canada and funded by the Summerlee Foundation.

"Canadian shelters have led the way on this initiative, and they have proven its value in saving the lives of cats and improving their overall welfare," says Dr. Kate Hurley, DVM, MPVM, Program Director of the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program. "We're very impressed by the results we're seeing in Canada – both for the cats and the humans who work with them."

• The average decrease in the number of sick cats was 48%, and the range was 30% to 87%, depending on the shelter.
• The average reduction in euthanasia was 34%. It was as high as 55% at Edmonton Humane Society and 63% at Guelph Humane Society.
• Length of stay decreased by an average of 20% at the six shelters.

The case studies in this final report describe the overall experience of each shelter as they changed their operational procedures for sheltering cats and the remarkable benefits this brought to their organizations.

As a next step, Humane Canada and the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program team have just piloted an online version of the program, called the Capacity for Care Online Boot Camp. To date, three new Canadian shelters have completed the program, and the outcomes look promising.

ABOUT CAPACITY FOR CARE
Capacity for Care (C4C) is a management model that helps shelters better meet the needs of the animals in their facilities. It creates the conditions necessary to provide shelter animals with five essential freedoms, thereby improving the welfare of individual animals. The "Five Freedoms", as they are known, are freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from fear and distress, freedom from pain, injury or disease and freedom to express normal behaviour. A fundamental premise of C4C is improving the flow of cats through the shelter in order to reduce their length of stay and get them more quickly into adoptive homes or other locations where their needs may be better met than in the shelter. Learn more here: www.humanecanada.ca/capacity_for_care

ABOUT HUMANE CANADA
Humane Canada convenes Canada's largest animal welfare community, representing humane societies and SPCAs from coast to coast. As the nation's voice for animal welfare, we drive positive, progressive change to end animal cruelty, improve animal protection and promote the humane treatment of all animals. www.humanecanada.ca

ABOUT THE UC DAVIS KORET SHELTER MEDICINE PROGRAM
The UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program is a privately-funded program that aims to advance shelter medicine as a veterinary specialty through research, specialty training and education, and performance of veterinary service in animal shelters, and to improve the quality of life of animals in shelters through improvements in veterinary preventive medicine and management of disease. www.sheltermedicine.com

SOURCE Humane Canada

For media interviews or further information, contact: Luna Allison, Communications and Marketing Manager, Humane Canada, (Canadian Federation of Humane Societies), 613-224-8072 ext. 12, [email protected]