Frequency of Lost Dogs and Cats in the United States and the Methods Used to Locate Them

Dogs and cats are a common member of the family in homes across the US. No population-based data exist on the frequency of pets getting lost from the home and lost pets can be a source of human and animal suffering. Our primary objective was to determine the percentage of owned dogs and cats that were lost, and of these, what percentages of pets were recovered. We examined the recovery success for dogs compared to cats and the methods used as well as the relationship between lost or found pets and pet and owner demographics. While 15% of dog and cat owners lost their pets, dogs had higher recovery rates (93%) than cats (75%) as well as being returned using different search methods

Should Dogs and Cats be Given as Gifts?

Policies that state pets should not be adopted as gifts are prevalent at animal welfare organizations, despite the fact that this belief is unfounded. Denying adopters who intend to give the animals as gifts may unnecessarily impede the overarching goal of increasing adoptions of pets from our nations' shelter system. We found that receiving a dog or cat as a gift was not associated with impact on self-perceived love/attachment, or whether the dog or cat was still in the home. These results suggest there is no increased risk of relinquishment for dogs and cats received as a gift

Preliminary Investigation of Food Guarding Behavior in Shelter Dogs in the United States

Even though food guarding is an adaptive trait for dogs, they are often euthanized when they exhibit this behavior while at an animal shelter. This research demonstrates some dogs that guard their food can be adopted and guarding is seldom seen in the home. Based on post-adoption follow-up of the dogs selected for the program, guarding behavior was rarely reported during the first three weeks, and by three months, adopters reported no food bowl guarding behavior. The adopters reported being highly bonded with these dogs and return rates were lower than general shelter dog population. Placing food guarding dogs into homes and providing follow-up support for adopters can provide a life-saving safety net for many shelters

Our Knowing Isn\u27t Showing: A Literature Review of the Sustainability Knowledge-Action Gap

A presentation of methods, data collection, analysis techniques, key findings and next steps. Presentation Time: Thursday, 12-1 p.m. Zoom link: https://usu-edu.zoom.us/j/83544115581?pwd=dllPNVdPZlVaNWljTWpEbGI3QXR3dz0

Effects of a Geographically-Targeted Intervention and Creative Outreach to Reduce Shelter Intake in Portland, Oregon

Animal shelters focus much of their efforts towards decreasing euthanasia and one of the best ways to reduce euthanasia risk may be to prevent cats and dogs from ever entering a shelter. This study, conducted in Portland, Oregon, relied on the capabilities of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to precisely and scientifically identify an intervention area (with high shelter intake) and to identify control areas to compare the project results with community-wide trends. The intervention itself was designed and implemented in a comprehensive way by seeking numerous paths to engage pet owners and reduce shelter intake of cats and Pit Bull type dogs. This research highlighted the ability of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to significantly improve a community's capacity to identify the most appropriate locations to focus resources and to closely track and measure interventions. Portland's targeted intervention to reduce shelter intake utilized many outreach tools with varying levels of impact. The overall intervention yielded a reduction in intake of owned cats that was greater in total numbers and percentage than four control areas. Furthermore, this work identified a percentage of cat spay/neuter out of the estimated number of owned, originally intact cats within the intervention and control areas. As percentages approached or surpassed 20%, those areas realized larger intake reductions than control areas with lower percentages

Large Dog Relinquishment to Two Municipal Facilities in New York City and Washington, D.C.: Identifying Targets for Intervention

While the overall trend in euthanasia has been decreasing nationally, large dogs are at a higher risk of euthanasia than other sized dogs in most animal shelters in the United States. We hypothesized one way to increase the lives saved with respect to these large dogs is to keep them home when possible. In order to develop solutions to decrease relinquishment, a survey was developed to learn more about the reasons owners relinquish large dogs. The survey was administered to owners relinquishing their dogs at two large municipal facilities, one in New York City and one in Washington, D.C. There were 157 responses between the two facilities. We found both significant similarities and differences between respondents and their dogs from the two cities. We identified opportunities to potentially support future relinquishers and found that targets for interventions are likely different in each community

Understanding Cultural Competence Training With Trauma-Informed Clinicians

Our USU research team partnered with the Intensive Outpatient Clinic (IOC) at the U of U. The IOC is a multi-disciplinary clinic serving diverse, and vulnerable patients. The IOC identified a need for ongoing cultural training in their organization, and the medical field more broadly. We worked with the IOC to co-develop a cultural competence training with both online and in-person components. Currently, the IOC has completed the training course, and our research is in the data collection phase. We will shared the story of our partnership work, research design, anticipated findings, and next steps. Acknowledgement: This research is supported by a USU Graduate Research and Creative Opportunities (GRCO) grant

A Pancreatic Polypeptide-Producing Pancreatic Tumor Causing WDHA Syndrome

We report the case of a 46-year-old female patient with WDHA (watery diarrhea/hypokalemia/achlorhydria) syndrome caused by a pancreatic polypeptide-producing tumor in the head of the pancreas. Whereas VIP and other pancreatic endocrine hormones were in the normal range, only serum levels of pancreatic polypeptide were elevated. Imaging studies identified a pancreatic tumor in the head of the gland. After laparotomy, the tumor of 3 cm in size was enucleated. Final pathology documented a pancreatic endocrine tumor with immunohistochemical staining demonstrating the presence of pancreatic polypeptide. The patient remained cured after a follow-up of more than three years. The present case illustrates that, although rare, WDHA syndrome may be associated with a pancreatic polypeptide-secreting endocrine tumor of the pancreas

Torsional flexibility in zinc–benzenedicarboxylate metal–organic frameworks

We explore the role and nature of torsional flexibility of carboxylate–benzene links in the structural chemistry of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) based on Zn and benzenedicarboxlyate (bdc) linkers. A particular motivation is to understand the extent to which such flexibility is important in stabilising the unusual topologically aperiodic phase known as TRUMOF-1. We compare the torsion angle distributions of TRUMOF-1 models with those for crystalline Zn/1,3-bdc MOFs, including a number of new materials whose structures we report here. We find that both periodic and aperiodic Zn/1,3-bdc MOFs sample a similar range of torsion angles, and hence the formation of TRUMOF-1 does not require any additional flexibility beyond that already evident in chemically-related crystalline phases. Comparison with Zn/1,4-bdc MOFs does show, however, that the lower symmetry of the 1,3-bdc linker allows access to a broader range of torsion angles, reflecting a greater flexibility of this linker