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Owner-Related Reasons Matter more than Behavioural Problems—A Study of Why Owners Relinquished Dogs and Cats to a Danish Animal Shelter from 1996 to 2017

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Many dogs and cats are relinquished to shelters by their owners. To reduce their number, it will be vital to know whether people relinquish their pets primarily as a result of real or perceived problems created by the animals, or because of problems in their own lives, i.e., whether...

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Autores principales: Jensen, Janne B. H., Sandøe, Peter, Nielsen, Søren Saxmose
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7341242/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32575574
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10061064
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author Jensen, Janne B. H.
Sandøe, Peter
Nielsen, Søren Saxmose
author_facet Jensen, Janne B. H.
Sandøe, Peter
Nielsen, Søren Saxmose
author_sort Jensen, Janne B. H.
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Many dogs and cats are relinquished to shelters by their owners. To reduce their number, it will be vital to know whether people relinquish their pets primarily as a result of real or perceived problems created by the animals, or because of problems in their own lives, i.e., whether the reasons are animal or owner related. We therefore investigated reported reasons for giving up cats and dogs to a large shelter in the second-largest city in Denmark, a wealthy Scandinavian country, in the period 1996 to 2017. We observed that owner-related issues were the most common reasons for both cats (74%) and dogs (75%). Problems with the health of the owner were the most common reason, but challenges with housing also contributed significantly, both with cats and dogs. Time pressures were reported by dog owners, but not cat owners. We conclude that the most important way to reduce relinquishments in Denmark, like in other countries studied, will involve focusing on owners—e.g., by finding ways to help them to look after their animals during their own episodes of ill health. Among the animal factors, behavioural problems were by far the most commonly reported reason for relinquishment for both species. ABSTRACT: Every year, dogs and cats are relinquished to animal shelters by their owners in large numbers. Reasons for relinquishment of dogs and cats to a large Danish shelter from 1996 to 2017 were obtained and characterised. The reasons were available for 86% of the owner-relinquished animals, including 3204 dog relinquishments (90%) and 2755 cat relinquishments (82%). They were allocated to 59 categories, which were further merged into four owner-related and three animal-related reasons. The most commonly reported of these seven reasons for relinquishment of dogs were owner health (29%), animal behavioural problems (23%), housing issues (21%) and lack of time (14%). For cats, the figures were: owner health (32%), housing issues (26%), and animal behavioural problems (25%). No systematic changes in these patterns were found over time. The number of relinquished cats was roughly stable, whereas the number of relinquished dogs decreased on average by 3% per annum. Owner issues were the primary reason for relinquishment in both species, but nearly one-quarter of the animals were relinquished as a result of behavioural problems. As the latter are often connected with the owner in some way, the results emphasise the importance of a focus on owners when addressing pet relinquishment challenges.
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spelling pubmed-73412422020-07-14 Owner-Related Reasons Matter more than Behavioural Problems—A Study of Why Owners Relinquished Dogs and Cats to a Danish Animal Shelter from 1996 to 2017 Jensen, Janne B. H. Sandøe, Peter Nielsen, Søren Saxmose Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Many dogs and cats are relinquished to shelters by their owners. To reduce their number, it will be vital to know whether people relinquish their pets primarily as a result of real or perceived problems created by the animals, or because of problems in their own lives, i.e., whether the reasons are animal or owner related. We therefore investigated reported reasons for giving up cats and dogs to a large shelter in the second-largest city in Denmark, a wealthy Scandinavian country, in the period 1996 to 2017. We observed that owner-related issues were the most common reasons for both cats (74%) and dogs (75%). Problems with the health of the owner were the most common reason, but challenges with housing also contributed significantly, both with cats and dogs. Time pressures were reported by dog owners, but not cat owners. We conclude that the most important way to reduce relinquishments in Denmark, like in other countries studied, will involve focusing on owners—e.g., by finding ways to help them to look after their animals during their own episodes of ill health. Among the animal factors, behavioural problems were by far the most commonly reported reason for relinquishment for both species. ABSTRACT: Every year, dogs and cats are relinquished to animal shelters by their owners in large numbers. Reasons for relinquishment of dogs and cats to a large Danish shelter from 1996 to 2017 were obtained and characterised. The reasons were available for 86% of the owner-relinquished animals, including 3204 dog relinquishments (90%) and 2755 cat relinquishments (82%). They were allocated to 59 categories, which were further merged into four owner-related and three animal-related reasons. The most commonly reported of these seven reasons for relinquishment of dogs were owner health (29%), animal behavioural problems (23%), housing issues (21%) and lack of time (14%). For cats, the figures were: owner health (32%), housing issues (26%), and animal behavioural problems (25%). No systematic changes in these patterns were found over time. The number of relinquished cats was roughly stable, whereas the number of relinquished dogs decreased on average by 3% per annum. Owner issues were the primary reason for relinquishment in both species, but nearly one-quarter of the animals were relinquished as a result of behavioural problems. As the latter are often connected with the owner in some way, the results emphasise the importance of a focus on owners when addressing pet relinquishment challenges. MDPI 2020-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7341242/ /pubmed/32575574 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10061064 Text en © 2020 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 (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jensen, Janne B. H.
Sandøe, Peter
Nielsen, Søren Saxmose
Owner-Related Reasons Matter more than Behavioural Problems—A Study of Why Owners Relinquished Dogs and Cats to a Danish Animal Shelter from 1996 to 2017
title Owner-Related Reasons Matter more than Behavioural Problems—A Study of Why Owners Relinquished Dogs and Cats to a Danish Animal Shelter from 1996 to 2017
title_full Owner-Related Reasons Matter more than Behavioural Problems—A Study of Why Owners Relinquished Dogs and Cats to a Danish Animal Shelter from 1996 to 2017
title_fullStr Owner-Related Reasons Matter more than Behavioural Problems—A Study of Why Owners Relinquished Dogs and Cats to a Danish Animal Shelter from 1996 to 2017
title_full_unstemmed Owner-Related Reasons Matter more than Behavioural Problems—A Study of Why Owners Relinquished Dogs and Cats to a Danish Animal Shelter from 1996 to 2017
title_short Owner-Related Reasons Matter more than Behavioural Problems—A Study of Why Owners Relinquished Dogs and Cats to a Danish Animal Shelter from 1996 to 2017
title_sort owner-related reasons matter more than behavioural problems—a study of why owners relinquished dogs and cats to a danish animal shelter from 1996 to 2017
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7341242/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32575574
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10061064
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