Feline-Ality™ in Real Life: A Program Evaluation

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Domestic cats are euthanized at high rates in shelters. Previous research suggests that appropriate matching between cats and their adopters increases adoption success and decreases euthanasia. The ASPCA’s Meet Your Match(®) Feline-ality™ program is designed to improve adoption success by matching cats with owners based on measures of cat personality and owner lifestyle and expectations. However, despite having been implemented in many shelters, there has not been a systematic review of the implementation process and efficacy of the Feline-ality™ program. This study will describe process and outcome evaluations of Feline-ality™, following its 2017 implementation at the Seattle Animal Shelter in Seattle, WA (USA). ABSTRACT: Domestic cats are euthanized at high rates in shelters, and appropriate matching between cats and adopters is believed to improve adoption success and reduce euthanasia rates. The ASPCA’s Meet Your Match(®) Feline-ality™ program, designed to match cats with owners based on personality and lifestyle, has been implemented in various shelters. This study is the first systematic evaluation of its implementation process and efficacy. Using a controlled interrupted time series design (CITS), the outcome evaluation examined and compared records for five years (2015–2019) from the Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS) and the Multnomah County Animal Shelter located in Portland, Oregon (USA). The outcome evaluation demonstrated no changes in any outcomes (e.g., cat adoptions, euthanasias, returns, transfers, or length of stay) that could be reliably attributed to Feline-ality™. The process evaluation at SAS identified and quantified eight possible errors in implementation that could affect the success of Feline-ality™; the results indicated a 1.6% overall success rate. Whereas the lack of substantive effect may indicate that MYM(®) Feline-ality™ does not perform as purported, it is equally as likely (if not more so) that this absence of evidence of any results reasonably attributable to Feline-ality™ has occurred because the error rate in implementation of the program was very high. The fact that a poorly implemented program necessarily impacts the results of an outcome evaluation underscores the need for process evaluation concurrent with implementation.