Adoption appointments kill dogs

Two studies prove that requiring adoption appointments leads to fewer and slower adoptions, especially of medium to large long-term dogs — and at regressive pounds, that amounts to a death sentence.

Some shelters have made pandemic-related closures permanent — closing their doors to people, including volunteers, rescuers, families looking for lost animals, and adopters, unless they make an appointment. For animals, however, visitors mean stimulation, walks, play, social connection, and finding homes.

Since the pandemic, for example, Orange County Animal Care (OCAC) in California, has required an approved application and an appointment before a potential adopter can meet a dog. Moreover, the adoption application is dog-specific; even those with appointments cannot meet other animals. Not surprisingly, despite declining intakes, killing dogs, including puppies, rose by 187% in certain categories, earning condemnation from the Orange County Grand Jury.

In response, pound leaders in 2023 temporarily opened the kennels to potential adopters without an appointment during certain limited hours. Although that is how most shelters operated throughout their history, including at OCAC, they called it a “pilot program.” The remaining hours continued to require an appointment.

Unrestricted kennel viewing significantly increases adoption rates

The first of two studies — “Comparison of the Number of Dog Adoptions in a Pilot Program That Restored Limited Visitor Access to Kennels” — compared the number of dog adoptions when families were allowed to visit without an appointment with the number of adoptions during hours that required an appointment.

Not surprisingly, allowing people to visit the kennels without an appointment led to increased adoptions. Moreover, adoptions didn’t just increase slightly during these periods; they skyrocketed by 82%. This was also true of large dogs, which pound managers argue are the most challenging to adopt — and are often killed in greater numbers. Despite limited hours when people could visit the kennels without an appointment — two days a week for a meager 2.5 hours each of those days — those hours accounted for 83% of large dog adoptions.

A link to the study, Comparison of the Number of Dog Adoptions in a Pilot Program That Restored Limited Visitor Access to Kennels, and an analysis of the study are available by clicking here.

Unrestricted kennel viewing increases adoption rates and lowers length of stay of long-term dogs

In response to continued pressure from citizens clamoring for reform, the “shelter” instituted “partial daily viewings” in 2024, allowing people to visit some of the kennels for three of the six hours a day it was open for adoption. The open-viewing kennels comprised 40-70% of the dogs available for adoption on any given day.

The second study, “The Effect of Kennel Viewing on the Adoption of Slow-Track Dogs,” examined the impact of this change. Specifically, it looked at the effect of requiring an appointment on the adoption rates of “slow-track dogs” — those who had been available for adoption for 10 or more days. In a result that should surprise no one, the adoption of these longer-term dogs increased by as much as 57% without an appointment. That translates to an average of about 44 fewer days in the shelter for a long-term dog compared to mandatory appointments.

The implications of these findings are substantial. At OCAC, for example, longer-term or “slow-track” dogs comprised as much as 72% of all dogs in the kennels at a given time (excluding dogs returned to their families). By increasing the visibility of these dogs, shelters can create more opportunities for meaningful adopter interactions, particularly for animals that may not stand out in online listings.

The study confirms that face-to-face engagement plays a crucial role in adoption decisions, as it allows potential adopters to form emotional connections with dogs who might otherwise be overlooked due to factors like age, size, or breed. Longer-term dogs tend to be bigger (72% were medium to large dogs) and older (67% were adults and older adults).

In addition to this analysis, the study, The Effect of Kennel Viewing on the Adoption of Slow-Track Dogs, is available by clicking here.

Appointment requirements kill dogs

Shelter and rescue animals facing death deserve the second chance many well-intentioned Americans are eager to give them. Shelter bureaucrats should not senselessly prevent them from doing so. This one change — ending pandemic-era closures by fully opening to the public without an appointment — will vastly increase adoption and significantly reduce killing.

While that conclusion is inescapable, a question remains: Do managers at ‘shelters’ with such policies care enough about animals to do so?

So far, the answer is “No.”