How can Houston kill fewer dogs?

Assessing the feasibility of a no-kill policy at BARC

Lilibeth Mata, Katherine McConachie, James Rigby, Bryan Wigianto

Background
The Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care (BARC) is Houstons only public animal shelter, responsible for all stray and surrendered dogs within the city of Houston Space restrictions and limited resources result in shelter overpopulation, leading to daily euthanizations BARC is under pressure from animal rights activists to adopt a no-kill policy (a live release rate of over 90%) 2012 Daily Euthanizations

We are interested in evaluating the potential for the implementation of a no-kill policy at Houstons public animal shelter, BARC. To accomplish this, we have developed a model of the intake, movement within, and outtake from the BARC shelter. We have used this model to assess the feasibility of a no-kill policy, as well as to make recommendations to the City of Houston that will minimize the number of euthanizations happening at BARC.

Results
BARCs situation occurs when all multipliers equal one (the intersection of the four lines) Intake seems to have the greatest effect on live release rate (because it has the steepest slope) Consequently, spay/ neuter programs could be an effective strategy to increase BARCs live release rate

The Model
Based on BARC data from 20112012 containing intake and outtake dates and details Considers four standard intake health conditions: healthy, rehabilitatable, manageable, and unhealthy Uses parameters estimated from data to generate daily intake and outtake (via adoption, transfer, and return to owner) Calculates required number of daily euthanizations based on estimated intake and outtake Goal: Predict future shelter activity and manipulate parameters to better understand no-kill feasibility

Austin Animal Center differs from BARC in two major ways: 30% less intake, 60% more transfers All else equal, the best way to alter intake and transfer rates is given by the path perpendicular to the color gradient Current BARC procedures and dog health profiles achieve an ~86% live release rate if given Austins intake and transfer rates

Houston Intake Euthanizations

~16,000 dogs/year (~45 dogs/day) ~7,400 dogs/year (~20 dogs/day)

Austin
~11,000 dogs/year (~30 dogs/day) ~830 dogs/year (~2 dogs/day)

Interested in gaining a better understanding of what it will take for Houston to become a no-kill city or developing your own approach to reducing the number of dogs being killed at BARC? Scan this QR code to check out our shelter simulation and tweak parameters yourself.
Validation of models ability to accurately recreate historical data

One difference not captured in the model is the health profile of the dogs entering the shelter Healthy dogs are much easier to adopt, transfer, and return to their owners

Live Release Rates

Healthy Houston Other

72.14% 94.64%

41.14% 76.57%

Acknowledgments

Rice University Computational & Applied Math Department, Mark Embree, Thomas Callaghan, BARC, Austin Animal Center, Emancipet

Austin