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Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States

SIMPLE SUMMARY: This study examined reasons why adopters chose their pet in an animal shelter, what behaviors were first exhibited by the pet to the adopter, what information was important during their selection process, and the relative importance of seeing the animals’ behavior in various contexts...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Weiss, Emily, Miller, Katherine, Mohan-Gibbons, Heather, Vela, Carla
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4494324/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26486914
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani2020144
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author Weiss, Emily
Miller, Katherine
Mohan-Gibbons, Heather
Vela, Carla
author_facet Weiss, Emily
Miller, Katherine
Mohan-Gibbons, Heather
Vela, Carla
author_sort Weiss, Emily
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: This study examined reasons why adopters chose their pet in an animal shelter, what behaviors were first exhibited by the pet to the adopter, what information was important during their selection process, and the relative importance of seeing the animals’ behavior in various contexts. ABSTRACT: Responses from an adopter survey (n = 1,491) determined reasons for pet selection, type of information received by the adopter, and the context in which the animal’s behavior was observed. Appearance of the animal, social behavior with adopter, and personality were the top reasons for adoption across species and age groups. Most adopters stated that information about the animal from a staff member or volunteer was more important than information on cage cards, and health and behavior information was particularly important. Adopters found greater importance in interacting with the animal rather than viewing it in its kennel. The results of this study can be used by shelters to create better adoption matches, prioritize shelter resources and staff training, and potentially increase adoptions. Additionally, some simple training techniques are suggested to facilitate adopter-friendly behaviors from sheltered dogs and cats.
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spelling pubmed-44943242015-09-30 Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States Weiss, Emily Miller, Katherine Mohan-Gibbons, Heather Vela, Carla Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: This study examined reasons why adopters chose their pet in an animal shelter, what behaviors were first exhibited by the pet to the adopter, what information was important during their selection process, and the relative importance of seeing the animals’ behavior in various contexts. ABSTRACT: Responses from an adopter survey (n = 1,491) determined reasons for pet selection, type of information received by the adopter, and the context in which the animal’s behavior was observed. Appearance of the animal, social behavior with adopter, and personality were the top reasons for adoption across species and age groups. Most adopters stated that information about the animal from a staff member or volunteer was more important than information on cage cards, and health and behavior information was particularly important. Adopters found greater importance in interacting with the animal rather than viewing it in its kennel. The results of this study can be used by shelters to create better adoption matches, prioritize shelter resources and staff training, and potentially increase adoptions. Additionally, some simple training techniques are suggested to facilitate adopter-friendly behaviors from sheltered dogs and cats. MDPI 2012-04-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4494324/ /pubmed/26486914 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani2020144 Text en © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Weiss, Emily
Miller, Katherine
Mohan-Gibbons, Heather
Vela, Carla
Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States
title Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States
title_full Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States
title_fullStr Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States
title_full_unstemmed Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States
title_short Why Did You Choose This Pet?: Adopters and Pet Selection Preferences in Five Animal Shelters in the United States
title_sort why did you choose this pet?: adopters and pet selection preferences in five animal shelters in the united states
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4494324/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26486914
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani2020144
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