Holistic, scaffolded support for the human-animal unit is tragically missing from much of the animal welfare sector, which means we leave our human community members to survive poverty, illness, disasters, and other social challenges alone and do not serve companion animals to the greatest amount possible. Animal shelter success is normally determined by a live release rate, the number of animals that leave the shelter versus the number of animals that enter it. Unfortunately, this short term focus maintains the status quo, and does nothing to help owners in crisis or struggling with an immediate need. This is of particular concern when we know that most surrendered pets are loved and considered part of the family. Typically, shelter employees talk with folks looking to surrender a pet once, intake the animal, and never see the human again. This conditional motivation exists within short interactions with clients/pet owners. Our client service models tend to be conditionally motivated: using owner surrender requirements, adoption requirements, and requirements for helping an owner such as proof of government assistance, proof of spay/neuter, and mandatory income assessments, etc. The traditional transactional model involves “handling the immediate problem” of owner surrender and solving the immediate needs of the person or offering one option by intaking the animal. Community members are usually treated as customers at animal shelters and can adopt an animal out of the shelter/rescue (usually for a fee) or surrender an animal (sometimes for a fee) and be on their way. Traditionally, animal shelters maintain a transactional relationship with members of the community.
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