Statistics

Annual Animal Statistics and Live Release Rate: SF/SPCA (Asilomar Accords)

The San Francisco SPCA guarantees a home for healthy dogs and cats and provides treatment to homeless animals: giving them the opportunity to heal and become available for adoption.

Improving the lives of animals within our community and beyond, The SF/SPCA provides pre-adoption medical and behavioral care and housing to thousands of homeless animals each year. Given the enormity of the task, we effectively categorize and track the animals we serve and their needs. Such information puts us in a great position to consistently improve upon our live-saving efforts.

Toward those ends, The SF/SPCA utilizes the Asilomar Accords approach to gather and report our shelter statistics.  A team of SF/SPCA professionals, including the President, Vice President, Director of Shelter Medical Services, Shelter Services Director, Behavior & Training Manager, and Feline Care Coordinators have developed an Asilomar Matrix that categorizes medical or behavioral circumstances a shelter animal can have. These categories are then used to identify the animal's condition as Healthy, Treatable, or Unhealthy/Untreatable upon intake. Categorizing animals in this way enables us to track our success through our Live Release Rate, determine how our resources are used, and identify where we need to focus our energy.

Our evaluation process provides each animal entering The SF/SPCA with a thorough medical examination and behavior assessment. Medical diagnostic testing is performed as needed to determine illnesses and prognoses. Behavior concerns are thoroughly assessed by our staff, and animals are given the time they need to adapt to the shelter environment.  Our medical and behavior teams consider the individual animal's evaluation and prognosis, using the Asilomar Matrix, when making the decision to proceed with adoption, foster care, treatment, transfer, or euthanasia. These considerations allow us to best utilize the resources available to The SF/SPCA, given our pledge to save as many dogs and cats as possible, prevent animal suffering, and protect our community.  In an effort to continuously improve upon our procedures, the Matrix is reviewed and updated at least annually.

Definitions:

• Healthy:  an animal 8-weeks of age or older and without any medical or behavior concerns.
• Treatable/ Rehabilitatable: the animal is not initially ready for adoption, but has a condition that can be resolved with treatment. Examples of rehabilitatable conditions are under-age animals requiring foster care, a broken limb requiring surgery, or a behavior that resolves through modification.
• Treatable/Manageable: the animal is not ready for adoption, but has a condition that can eventually be managed by a typical guardian in a typical home.  Examples of manageable conditions are an animal with arthritis or dental disease, or an animal with fearful behavior.
• Unhealthy/Untreatable: the animal has a condition that is resulting in suffering or imminent death, or the animals display behaviors that present a danger to the community.

It is important to note that identifying an animal’s condition as ‘Untreatable/Unhealthy’, does not necessarily make the animal a euthanasia candidate. Through The SF/SPCA ‘Fospice’ program, volunteers can provide end-of-life care for animals as they proceed through the stages of a terminal illness; i.e. pets with cancer, kidney failure, etc. can live out their remaining weeks or months in loving homes. These animals are provided with in-home care and continual medical monitoring to ensure a compassionate quietus.

SF/SPCA 2008 Annual Animal Statistics (11 KB, Adobe PDF) and 2008 SF/SPCA & ACC Partnership Report (14 KB, Adobe PDF)

SF/SPCA 2007 Annual Animal Statistics (35 KB, Adobe PDF) and 2007 SF/SPCA & ACC Partnership Report (32 KB, Adobe PDF)