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Ciara Villarreal

ENGL 1302-231

Dr. Sharity Nelson

9 February 2024

Animal Adoption and Abandonment Issues: An Annotated Bibliography

Bernete Perdomo, Eva, et al. “Amelioration of Pet Overpopulation and Abandonment Using

Control of Breeding and Sale, and Compulsory Owner Liability Insurance.” Animals,

vol.11, no.524, 2021, pp. 1-10, Academic Search Complete,

https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020524.

This article focuses on the negative aspect of abandonment in the animal adoption

market. To support its claim of that there is clear issues in abandonment, they give the

reader four types of impacts to society. These include animal welfare, ecological impact,

public health and safety,and economic. In these points they summarize how the

consequences affect society and mention that there is not a proper system to prevent

people from continuing to abandon animals (2). The article also mentions the supply and

demand of the pet market. The supply entering the market, animals, is way higher than

they actual demand, therefore leading to the overpopulation and possible euthanasia (2).

To prevent further damage to animals and society, with the overpopulation of animals to

adopt, the authors present a system to control the breeding aspect in the market, increase

liability towards owners, and a introduce a fostering system (4).

Kay, Alleigh. “Factors Influencing Time to Adoption for Dogs in a Provincial Shelter System in

Canada.” Applied Animal Welfare Science, vol.21, no.4, 2018, pp. 375-388, Academic

Search Complete, https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020524.

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This article focuses on preventing the negative effects that come with the overcrowding

of animals in animal shelters. The negative effects mentioned include substandard animal

welfare, high risk in spread of infectious diseases, euthanasia, and a rise in animal stress

(375). The author, Alleigh Kay, plans on performing a study that analyzes characteristics

of animals that increase the chances of them being adopted to decrease the likely hood of

animal staying at a shelter for an increased time period (376). Some of the data included

in the study was dogs available for adoption, adopted dogs, in shelter dogs, escaped or

stolen dogs, dogs that experienced unassisted death or that were euthanized (376). All the

dogs documented in the study had data including their age, breed, coat color, how they

ended up in the shelter, sex, reason why previous owner surredered, date they arrived at

shelter, first date they left shelter, and their current status in the shelter (377). All data

from the shelters included were the branch they were, the type of shelter, the population

of humans around the shelter, and how many dogs they could hold at a time (377). Kays

study showed that the younger dogs were typically in the shelter for a shorter period of

time, therefore Kay provides a simple solution such as shelters giving promotions

dedicated to giving an adopter benefits when choosing to adopt an older dog (384). Dogs

that were surrendered due to their health problems had low odds of being adopted due to

there being a high cost in care (385). Over all the author concludes that shelters should

focus on creating programs and promotions to shorten a dogs’ time in a shelter (387).

Mikkola, Salla, et al. “Aggressive behaviour is affected by demographic, environmental and

behavioural factors in purebred dogs.” Scientific Reports, vol.11, no.1, 2021, pp. 1-10

Academic Search Complete, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88793-5.

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This article focuses on the factors that lead to aggressive behaviours in dogs, specifically

finnish pure bred dogs. Factors include age, size, sex, and breed in dogs. Additionally the

environment also affects the behavior of a dog. Houses which had only one dog rather

than many, housed the more aggressive (2). The area in which a dog lived, such as rural

or urban, also had some factors in the dogs behavior. Time spent with owner also affected

the way a dog behaved. Data that was used in the study came from an online

questionnaire completed by owners totaling up to 13,700 dogs. Then study found that

there were apparent findings such as age, sex, fearfulness, bread, amount of dogs in

family, size, and the owners overall dog encounters. All these affected the dogs

aggressive behaviour. Those of older age, male sex, smaller size, and fearful dogs had

higher chances of being aggressive. The behavior wavered between breeds. For example,

Rough Collies were found to have more hostile behavior than a Labrador Retriever. Dogs

that lived with no interaction towards other dogs and dogs with a first time owner also

housed higher hostile behaviors (2).

O’Connor, Rachel, et al. “Exploratory Study of Adopters’ Concerns Prior to Acquiring Dogs or

Cats from Animal Shelters.” Society & Animals, vol.25, no.4, 2017, pp. 362-383,

Academic Search Complete, doi 10.1163/15685306-12341451.

O’Connor et al. focus on expectations that adopters want from a relationship with an

animal they are willing to adopt. They focus on traits such as behaviors and other

particular traits that are not wanted in an animal. O’Connor et al. want to understand such

desired traits to better the companion-animal relationship (362). Society uses animals for

many reasons, such as psychological needs, companionship, aid in lecturing children, and

emotional needs. To meet the requirements one wants in an animal, it is crucial to address
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wants and needs before someone adopts an animal. If a caretaker finds that their

expectations are not fulfilled, it is likely that they will return the animal to the shelter

(O’Connor et al. 363). In their study, O’Connor et al. used one-on-one interviews,

applications to adopt, and “Meet Your Match” (364). Interviews consisted of questions

that would allow the shelter to gain an understanding of the adoption, preferences, and

previous animal adoptions. The study showed that the participants mainly showed

concerns about the animals' behavior, their history, adaption, aggression, dependency, and

incompatibility. They also worried about their own living situations and allergies

(O’Connor et al. 369-377).

Powell, Lauren, et al. “The impact of returning a pet to the shelter on future animal adoptions.”

Scientific Reports, vol.12, no.1, 2022, pp. 1-7, Academic Search Complete,

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05101-5.

This study focuses on the impacts brought upon both animals and owners when an animal

is returned to a shelter (Powell et al. 1). Powell et al. state that returns to shelters

typically occur due to an animal's behavior or general incompatibility in the relationship.

This experience can cause an owner to refrain from participating in an adoption again,

this may be due to new discoveries in their households and/or bad experiences with the

animal. Powell et al. found that the majority of returned animals were adults, male, had

poor behavior and did not fit in well with the environment. They also found that a small

portion of owners who returned an animal were willing to adopt another animal (Powell

et al. 2). In conclusion, Powell et al. found that the likelihood for an owner to adopt after

a return depended on the initial reason for the return. Those who returned for health
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reasons were more likely to adopt again compared to those who returned due to

animal-related issues.

R. Dinwoodie, Ian, et al. “Selection Factors Influencing Eventual Owner Satisfaction about Pet

Dog Adoption.” Animals, vol.12, no.17, 2022, pp. 2264-2278, Academic Search

Complete, https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12172264.

In this article, Dinwoodie et al. study the process of adoption to find how important some

parts of the process are in the overall adoption.

Stull, C.L., and K.E. Holocomb. “Role of U.S. animal control agencies in equine neglect, cruelty,

and abandonment investigation.” American Society of Animal Science, vol.92, no.5, 2017,

pp. 2342-2349, Academic Search Complete, doi: 10.2527/jas.2013-7303.

Stull and Holocomb focus on abandonment investigations and how the government deals

with animal neglect and cruelty cases. The overall study found that agencies that were

assigned to deal with such cases tended to be underfunded and would typically only seize

the animals.

Bradley, Janae, and Suchithra Rajendran. “Increasing adoption rates at animal shelters: a

two-phase approach to predict length of stay and optimal shelter allocation.” BMC Veterinary

Research, vol.17, no.1, pp. 1-16, Academic Search Complete,

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-020-02728-2.

Thompson, Carol Y., and Robert L. Young. “Cooling out the Mark in Companion Animal

Adoption.” Society & Animals, vol.22, no.4, pp. 333-351, Academic Search Complete, DOI:

10.1163/15685306-12341329.
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Powell, Lauren, et al. “Characterizing unsuccessful animal adoptions: age and breed predict the

likelihood of return, reasons for return and post-return outcomes.” Scientific Reports, vol.11,

no.1, pp. 1-12, Academic Search Complete, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87649-2.

- Need to finish source research

- Need to add the reason for choosing sources.

- Fix some citations