Legislating Components of a Humane City: The Economic Impacts of the Austin, Texas No Kill Resolution (City of Austin Resolution 20091105-040)

This report investigates and measures the economic impacts of the City of Austin Resolution 20091105-040, commonly referred to as the “No Kill” resolution, utilizing standard impact assessment methodology. Resolution 20091105-040 resulted in the implementation of a series of recommendations that included achieving and maintaining a 90% Live Release Rate for all companion animals housed at the City of Austin’s municipal animal shelter. In addition to exploring the specific economic impacts of Resolution 20091105- 040, this report also outlines, but does not quantify, the potential broader impacts of the Resolution on human, animal, and environmental health. These areas of impact include: public health, social capital, and community engagement

Transforming Trauma: Resilience and Healing Through Our Connections With Animals

Have you ever looked deep into the eyes of an animal and felt entirely known? Often, the connections we share with non-human animals represent our safest and most reliable relationships, offering unique and profound opportunities for healing in periods of hardship. This book focuses on research developments, models, and practical applications of human-animal connection and animal-assisted intervention for diverse populations who have experienced trauma. Physiological and psychological trauma are explored across three broad and interconnected domains: 1) child maltreatment and family violence; 2) acute and post-traumatic stress, including military service, war, and developmental trauma; and 3) times of crisis, such as the ever-increasing occurrence of natural disasters, community violence, terrorism, and anticipated or actual grief and loss. Contributing authors, who include international experts in the fields of trauma and human-animal connection, examine how our relationships with animals can help build resiliency and foster healing to transform trauma. A myriad of animal species and roles, including companion, therapy, and service animals are discussed. Authors also consider how animals are included in a variety of formal and informal models of trauma recovery across the human lifespan, with special attention paid to canine- and equine-assisted interventions and psychotherapy. In addition, authors emphasize the potential impacts to animals who provide trauma-informed services, and discuss how we can respect their participation and implement best practices and ethical standards to ensure their well-being. The reader is offered a comprehensive understanding of the history of research in this field, as well as the latest advancements and areas in need of further or refined investigation. Likewise, authors explore, in depth, emerging practices and methodologies for helping people and communities thrive in the face of traumatic events and their long-term impacts. As animals are important in cultures all over the world, cross-cultural and often overlooked animal-assisted and animal welfare applications are also highlighted throughout the text.https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/1045/thumbnail.jp

The Impacts of the City and County of Denver’s Breed Specific Legislation

In August of 1989, the City and County of Denver, CO, USA enacted legislation that prohibits the presence of all “pit bull” type dogs (PBTD) (defined in Denver as: American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, or Staffordshire Bull Terrier) within the city limits. In the 30 years the “pit bull ban” has been in place, the City and County of Denver and its animal control agency, Denver Animal Protection, have committed substantial resources to removing PBTDs from the community, including patrolling communities and/or responding to complaints made by neighbors, conducting thorough breed evaluations of suspected PBTDs, and kenneling PBTDs found in the city limits. This Social-Environmental-Economic Impact Assessment (SEEIA) examines how the City and County of Denver’s Breed-Specific Legislation (BSL) policy has impacted the economic and social systems of the Denver community. An economic assessment of BSL identified that the City and County of Denver has spent at least $5.8 million on enforcing the legislation, with additional economic analyses estimating that BSL resulted in approximately$107 million in lost direct and indirect economic activity related to lost pet care revenue. BSL in the City and County Denver has resulted in an extended length of stay for PBTDs in the care of animal shelters and also places additional strain on transfer partnerships with shelters in surrounding communities. An estimated $1 million has been spent by shelters in surrounding communities to care for the PBTDs that are transferred as a result of BSL. An assessment of the social impacts of BSL determined that the removal of a single breed of dog is inconsistent with the documented benefits of increasing opportunities for pet-keeping in community. Furthermore, the disproportionate enforcement of BSL in underserved communities and communities of color perpetuates historic trends of discrimination and marginalization in the U.S. and negatively impacts social cohesion of these communities. Despite some of the more negative impacts of the legislation, there appear to be a number of social factors that have sustained Denver’s “pit bull” ban. While in the minority of opinions, 19.4% of Denver residents who participated in an online survey about BSL (n = 252) said that the City and County of Denver’s breed ban positively impacted their perception of Denver and 24.6% of Denver residents said that the breed ban makes them feel safer. This perceived increase in sense of safety, even if only reported for a minority percentage of Denver residents, may continue to serve as the primary reason for policymakers to continue the ban in the present day (Maher, 2009, September 24). The breed ban’s prioritization of human public safety at the expense of the welfare of a specific type of dog, particularly without a substantial impact on the former, represents a diversion from the components that contribute to a Humane Community. In conclusion, we recommend alternatives to BSL that will address the root causes of the issue of dangerous dogs, including: building the City and County of Denver\u27s capacity to support residents in caring for their pets by identifying and expanding pet-support infrastructure such as affordable and accessible veterinary and behavior services, implementing robust non-breed-specific dangerous dog laws, and implementing evidence-based interventions for challenges to social cohesion and interpersonal and interspecies violence

The Impacts of the City and County of Denver’s Breed Specific Legislation

In August of 1989, the City and County of Denver, CO, USA enacted legislation that prohibits the presence of all “pit bull” type dogs (PBTD) (defined in Denver as: American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, or Staffordshire Bull Terrier) within the city limits. In the 30 years the “pit bull ban” has been in place, the City and County of Denver and its animal control agency, Denver Animal Protection, have committed substantial resources to removing PBTDs from the community, including patrolling communities and/or responding to complaints made by neighbors, conducting thorough breed evaluations of suspected PBTDs, and kenneling PBTDs found in the city limits. This Social-Environmental-Economic Impact Assessment (SEEIA) examines how the City and County of Denver’s Breed-Specific Legislation (BSL) policy has impacted the economic and social systems of the Denver community. An economic assessment of BSL identified that the City and County of Denver has spent at least $5.8 million on enforcing the legislation, with additional economic analyses estimating that BSL resulted in approximately$107 million in lost direct and indirect economic activity related to lost pet care revenue. BSL in the City and County Denver has resulted in an extended length of stay for PBTDs in the care of animal shelters and also places additional strain on transfer partnerships with shelters in surrounding communities. An estimated $1 million has been spent by shelters in surrounding communities to care for the PBTDs that are transferred as a result of BSL. An assessment of the social impacts of BSL determined that the removal of a single breed of dog is inconsistent with the documented benefits of increasing opportunities for pet-keeping in community. Furthermore, the disproportionate enforcement of BSL in underserved communities and communities of color perpetuates historic trends of discrimination and marginalization in the U.S. and negatively impacts social cohesion of these communities. Despite some of the more negative impacts of the legislation, there appear to be a number of social factors that have sustained Denver’s “pit bull” ban. While in the minority of opinions, 19.4% of Denver residents who participated in an online survey about BSL (n = 252) said that the City and County of Denver’s breed ban positively impacted their perception of Denver and 24.6% of Denver residents said that the breed ban makes them feel safer. This perceived increase in sense of safety, even if only reported for a minority percentage of Denver residents, may continue to serve as the primary reason for policymakers to continue the ban in the present day (Maher, 2009, September 24). The breed ban’s prioritization of human public safety at the expense of the welfare of a specific type of dog, particularly without a substantial impact on the former, represents a diversion from the components that contribute to a Humane Community. In conclusion, we recommend alternatives to BSL that will address the root causes of the issue of dangerous dogs, including: building the City and County of Denver\u27s capacity to support residents in caring for their pets by identifying and expanding pet-support infrastructure such as affordable and accessible veterinary and behavior services, implementing robust non-breed-specific dangerous dog laws, and implementing evidence-based interventions for challenges to social cohesion and interpersonal and interspecies violence

An Overview of Dairy Cattle Models for Predicting Milk Production: Their Evolution, Evaluation, and Application for the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) for Livestock.

The contemporary concern about anthropogenic release of greenhouse gas (GHG) into the environment and the contribution of livestock to this phenomenon have sparked animal scientists’ interest in predicting methane (CH4) emissions by ruminants. Focusing on milk production, we address six basic nutrition models or feeding standards (mostly empirical systems) and five complex nutrition models (mostly mechanistic systems), describe their key characteristics, and highlight their similarities and differences. Four models were selected to predict milk production in lactating dairy cows, and the adequacy of their predictions was measured against the observed milk production from a database that was compiled from 37 published studies from six regions of the world, totalling 173 data points. We concluded that not all models were suitable for predicting predict milk production and that simpler systems might be more resilient to variations in studies and production conditions around the world. Improving the predictability of milk production by mathematical nutrition models is a prerequisite to further development of systems that can effectively and correctly estimate the contribution of ruminants to GHG emissions and their true share of the global warming even

Prison-Based Dog Training Programs: Standard Protocol

Across the United States, the number of prison-based dog training programs (PDPs) has increased substantially over the past several years. Currently, there are approximately 255 PDPs across 47 states that operate in a variety of correctional settings; however, there is little information available on how to successfully develop and implement a PDP. As a result, the research team from the Institute for Human-Animal Connection (IHAC) has developed a standard protocol to help guide PDP development and implementation. This report identifies common practices of PDPs and incorporates both general and context-specific recommendations that were gathered from interviews with PDP staff, relevant literature, and content experts. In total, 21 interviews with 20 programs were conducted. PDPs were asked about several program features, including policies and procedures, key personnel, funding, materials, physical spaces, supervision and monitoring, safety considerations, animal welfare, handler selection and training, and program benefits. This report highlights the benefits of PDPs to dogs, humans, prisons, local communities, and society as a whole and identifies challenges related to funding, staffing, and operating in a correctional setting. Findings from the protocol point to the importance of planning, staffing, communication, internal support, and training curriculum in successful program implementation

Small area analysis of hospital discharges for musculoskeletal diseases in Michigan: The influence of socioeconomic factors,

The rise in health care costs has occasioned a number of initiatives in an attempt to reduce the rate of increase. Despite the growth of health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations and the introduction of Medicare's prospective payment system, health care costs have continued to increase. Coincident with these efforts, a number of researchers have shown that there exists wide variation in age-adjusted hospital discharge rates, which translate into significant variation in per capita expenditures. Much of the focus on the reasons for hospital admission variability has been on physician practice variation. If most of the variation in hospital discharge rates is due to physician practice style, then payment systems can be developed (e.g., capitation) that limit physician practice variation without harming patients. We examined socioeconomic factors in Michigan communities to assess their association with hospital discharge rates for patients with musculoskeletal diseases. Data on hospital discharges from 1980 and 1987 were taken from the Michigan Inpatient Data Base. All admissions from the major diagnostic category 8, diagnosisrelated group (DRG) 209-256 were included. Zip code-specific hospitalization data were grouped into small geographic areas or hospital market communities (HMCs). Discharge rates were calculated, and profiles of the socioeconomic characteristics of each of the HMCs were developed. A Poisson regression model with an extrasystematic component of variance was used to analyze the association of HMC socioeconomic characteristics with age-adjusted hospital use. We found that four socioeconomic variables, average annual income per capita, percent of the population with four years of college, percent of the population living in an urban area, and percent of families with incomes below the poverty line, explained 26.6% (R2) of the variation in overall hospital discharge rates (p Socioeconomic factors play a significant role in explaining the observed variation in hospital discharge rates for musculoskeletal diseases. Models utilizing only physician practice variation to account for the populationbased differences in discharge rates are overly simplistic. In order to ensure that vulnerable subsets of the population are not harmed by the introduction of cost-containment strategies based on simplistic models, more attention must be paid to the socioeconomic and epidemiologic factors related to hospital use.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/29190/1/0000243.pd

Cell proliferation and tissue remodeling are major determinants of cancer metabolism and the response to drugs targeting metabolism

Background\ud \ud Alterations in cell proliferation and tissue remodeling are major hallmarks of cancer. Given that these two physiological processes require a significant investment of metabolic resources, we hypothesize that the metabolism of cancer cells is, in a first approximation, determined by the magnitude of cell proliferation and tissue remodeling.\ud \ud Materials and methods\ud \ud To address this question in further detail we have analyzed in vitro data characterizing cancer cell lines and gene expression profiles of human cancers.\ud \ud Results\ud \ud We show that the metabolism of cancer cells is strongly correlated with cell proliferation and tissue remodeling. Based on in vitro data, cancer cell lines align from an extreme of highly proliferating cells of relatively small size to another extreme of slowly proliferating cells with large size and mesenchymal properties [1]. Similarly, in human cancers we detect a strong negative correlation between gene signatures associated with cell proliferation and tissue remodeling [2]. The stratification of human cancers based on the cell-proliferation/ tissue-remodeling signatures results in divergence in the survival plots as significant as those obtained using current site-specific classifications. Furthermore, in vitro data suggest that these different subtypes have a differential sensitivity to diverse drug classes targeting metabolism [1].\ud \ud Conclusions\ud \ud We conclude that human cancers can be subject to a universal cell-proliferation/tissue-remodeling classification independent of their site of origin that can guide personalized treatment targeting cancer metabolism

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals