Shelter Work in the United Kingdom
英国におけるシェルターワーク
Miranda LUCKInternational Animal Welfare Consultant, Lead Trainer on Shelter Management for RSPCA International

ミランダ・ラック
国際動物福祉コンサルタント

RSPCA（王立動物虐待防止協会 ）インターナショナル 保護管理部主任トレーナー

First of all, I'd like to start by saying

freedoms which I know I've mentioned yesterday andthank you so much for inviting me

how you can incorporate them into the decisions you

here, and it's a real honor to be

make at your animal shelter and then, looking at them

speaking to you today. I hope that I

more closely, how you can incorporate them into re-will have some information that will

homing policy, and standard operating procedures.

be of use and value to you, [Slide 1].

And then I'll just ﬁnish with some facts and ﬁgures.

A little about myself to start off with: My name is

So here is a brief introduction to the RSPCA, [Slide 4].

Miranda Luck and Iʼve worked in animal welfare for aThe letters stand for Royal Society for Prevention ofvery long time. I was in the fortunate position to be

Cruelty to Animals. The organization was started in theraised in New Zealand on a farm. So I was surroundedearly 1800s but was awarded its Royal Patronage

by sheep (not surprisingly), cattle, goats, ducks,

support by Queen Victoria in 1824. It was originallychickens, dogs, cats, and lots of species. So I was always

developed to help working animals, mainly workhorses,

very interested in animals and their welfare.

but over the years the RSPCA developed to specialize infour main areas. Those areas are ʻfarm animalsʼ,

I traveled to the UK, qualiﬁed as a Veterinary Nurse andʻcompanion animalsʼ, ʻwildlifeʼ and ʻresearchʼ. Today I'mworked my way through the system training as afocusing on companion animals.

surgical nurse operating in theatres and working withthe vets. I worked in private veterinary practice and in

To carry out the valuable work of the RSPCA, theywelfare veterinary practice, and that's where I

employ over 1,000 staff members and, equally as

developed my true passion for animal welfare.

important, over 700 volunteers. These 700 volunteers
work just as hard, for as many hours and for as long as

I'm now the lead trainer for the RSPCA International

the paid members of staff. They are a very valuable

Department providing training workshops and advice

asset to the RSPCA and without them they couldn't

for different organizations, NGOs and government

complete their work.

organizations around the world.
[Slide 5] That work includes managing and taking care
[Slide 2] My associates who work with me at ʻMirandaof 52 animal centers in England and Wales. Those 52

Luck & Associatesʼ are trusted and valued colleagues

animal centers care for about ﬁve-and-a-half thousand

specialized in other areas including veterinary surgeons,dogs and cats at any one time. They also care for otheranimal behaviorists, and people who develop animal

different species, including farm animals and small

shelter design.

domestic pets like rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters
which are growing in popularity in the UK.

Today I have been asked to talk about Shelter Work in
the UK so I'm going to look at four main areas, andSo all of this success didn't happen overnight and it'sthese are the importance for the RSPCA in theimportant to think about the history behind sheltersdevelopment of shelters. [I will also talk about] the ﬁve

and how they developed in order to look at the future,

Workshop Ⅳ Shelter Animal Care ̶ For Better Adoptions

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[Slide 6]. So if we look at the past, back to the Victorian

One of the oldest animal re-homing centers in London

Era, to the age of Queen Victoria's reign there was anis Dogʼs Home Battersea, and they were very fortunate

identifiable change in attitudes and people's behavior

in that Queen Victoriaʼs son Prince Leopold, was one oftowards animals. This really stemmed from an outbreakthe ﬁrst adopters of one of their dogs which gave themof rabies.

a lot of support and a lot of backing. So it was bit like
todayʼs celebrity backing, it was very important at theIn 1830, there was a huge rabies epidemic in the maintime.

cities of England and Wales and this brought about a lotof questions, speciﬁcally about dogs. Who owned them,[Slide 7] We move into the next century. With rabies

who looked after them, who was responsible for them

eradicated by 1902, the understanding of animals andand how to deal with the disease? This coincided with

the importance of keeping animals as companion

the lot of interest at that time in scientiﬁc experiments

animals grew. Personal wealth also grew as did

and animal vivisection.

marketing and the ideal picture of an animal being partof the family home. The Lassie movies of the 1940s

One of the rules regarding rabies was that every dog

such as, “Lassie Go Home” etc. were very popular in themust be kept indoors, enclosed or must wear a muzzle.

UK. These movies and merchandise ‒ books and stories

This caused outrage to many citizens and to many

- all promoted the idea of having a pet in your familysections of society. People were concerned that dogs

and responsible pet ownership. Other advances such

wearing muzzles wouldn't be able to drink, eat, oras, pet food being available in tins, easy to use, andsurvive on the streets.

available from supermarkets also made pet ownership amuch more positive experience.

Scientiﬁc experiment and vivisection was also of grave
concern. So during these times the RSPCA (or, initially it

So the question is - where are we now? Well, we are

was the SPCA before it gained Royal Patronage),heading into the future, [Slide 8]. As you can see fromdeveloped as did a number of other animal welfare

the ﬁgures on the screen, pet ownership is huge in thecharities and organizations. One of the means that theUK. Constant campaigns have resulted in pets being re-RSPCA wanted to share their important message about

homed more frequently from rescue centers than fromthe care of animals was through the development of abreeders or pet shops which we are hugely pleased

group called "The Band of Mercy".

about. But that hasnʼt happened overnight, it
happened with a lot of campaigning and a lot of

The Band of Mercy was designed to encourage school

constant pressure by animal welfare organization tochildren to take care of animals. All school children inhighlight responsible pet ownership and the idea ofEngland and Wales were asked to sign a pledge to bepositive animal adoptions. In 2008, through thekind to birds and animals. This group was a huge

campaigns and practical achievements, it is thought

success and proved to be very popular. It was also athat over 200,000 dogs and cats were successfullymeans of sharing information and advice about pets.

adopted in the UK. So, how has this been achieved? It
has been through the careful development andThe dogs had been captured and taken oﬀ the streetsplanning and management of shelters.

because of the rabies had been put into shelters or
centers or homes. Really these were designed forYesterday the five freedoms were discussed, [Slide 9]

humane euthanasia. As time went on, the keepers ofand I canʼt stress how important they are. (They are onthese dogs and cats realized that they could possibly

the screen again now). As mentioned, they arefind homes for them. So that was the beginning re-originally designed for farm animal welfare but theyhoming or animal adoption.

actually apply very nicely to the requirements of animals
at shelter.

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シェルター動物のケア・より良い譲渡に向けて[Slide 10] This is an organizational chart showing thealso that potential adopters must meet the animal inbasics of animal shelter management and the standards

person and that includes the whole family. That could

you should be focusing on and how to develop them.

be a mum, dad and a couple of kids with perhaps theirAnd you could use this chart either for reviewing yourgrandma (who comes and visits every weekend). They

existing animal shelter management or for developing

are all invited to meet the dog to make sure thata new one. Use the ﬁve freedoms to help you develop

everyone is going to be happy with the situation. Homeor determine your animal welfare standards.

visits are also carried out, where an RSPCA volunteer
visits the people in their home to make sure that the[Slide 11] ʻPoliciesʼ represent the position that is held byenvironment is safe and secure.

an organization, the principles of your organization
values that you feel strongly about. For instance, aOnce the animal has been adopted then post homepolicy may be about behavior assessment before youvisits are carried out within a three month period toallow your animals to become available for adoption.

ensure that the animal has settled in well and that both

The uniformity of these policies amongst you all (asthe adopter and the animal are happy. In the case ofvarious animal welfare organizations) is really importantʻreturnsʼ ‒ that is, those animals that do not settle inbecause if you have uniform or similar policies ‒ forwell and are returned back to the animal center - theseexample, ʻthat old dogs or cats will be assessed before

are assessed on their return and an ʻexit interviewʼ

they are re-homed - if all of you practice that policy,

conducted to determine why the animal came back. We

then you will give the general public, your potential

can use this sort of information to identify why that

adopters, the same view that all animals adopted fromparticular re-homing or adoption didnʼt work out. We

the shelter have been assessed. That is somethingcan identify what went wrong and how it can bepositive - and will enhance public understanding andaddressed in the future. That concludes re-homing as aresponsibility.

policy.

Now, there are three areas I feel very strongly about[Slide 13] This slide shows ʻstandard operating

developing policies on, namely, ʻneuteringʼ,proceduresʼ and, in particular, we are going to look atʻeuthanasiaʼ, and ʻre-homingʼ (animal adoption). But weʻrecord keepingʼ. There are four main areas including

are just going to look at animal adoption today.

ʻstaff ʼ, ʻrecord keepingʼ, ʻincoming and outgoinganimalsʼ and ʻshelter routinesʼ. Standard operating[Slide 12] ʻRSPCA Policyʼ. Now, I will talk specificallyprocedures are detailed written instructions to achieve

about RSPCA policy on re-homing. One of the rules andexcellence and uniformity for a speciﬁc shelter function

policies that we have is that every animal is behavior

or task. I feel it is very important that these are written

and health-assessed before adoption. This is a 10 day

instructions and that all staff members are aware ofassessment minimum to make sure that the animal isthem so that everyone knows the procedures, thehealthy and a 10 day minimum assessment of its

policies, how they are to be done and carried out.

behavior. During that time we are testing the dogs orcats in regard to how they react to other dogs, how theyThe one we are looking at specifically today is ʻrecord

react to cats, how they react to traffic and all sorts ofkeepingʼ, [Slide 14]. This chart is a template, a standard

situations. From this we can develop a picture of howform thatʼs used in RSPCA shelters and it lists reasonsthat animal is going to cope in its new home.

why animals may have been returned back to theshelter.

We also assess the adopter to make sure that they
understand that the dog needs food, water, exercise

As I mentioned before, this is about analyzing why

and to make sure that the dog is going intothings have not worked out and ﬁnding out what you

environment where it can be happy. RSPCA policy iscan do to make improvements. For example, ﬁnding if

Workshop Ⅳ Shelter Animal Care ̶ For Better Adoptions

13there is something you could have done that would

those particular animals to re-home them.

have made the homing more successful. The list
includes sections, such as, whether the animal was

On a happier note, over 16,000 animals were re-homed.

destructive.

We only call a re-homing or adoption successful, once
the animal has been in the home environment for overSo, if the animal was returned because it was chewing

three months. We tend to ﬁnd that if the animals canup the furniture or suﬀers anxiety when left alone, thatstay in the home for three months they will stay for theﬁnding would indicate that, for some reason, a speciﬁc

rest of their lifetime. This is a success story (despite thebehavior was missed in the shelter [assessment]. Weeuthanasia ﬁgures) because when I ﬁrst started working

would then look at our behavior assessments to findin welfare, these ﬁgures were quite diﬀerent. In fact, it

out why it happened.

would have been very easy to transpose (just swaparound) the euthanasia figures with the successful re-Alternatively, it might be that the owner was actuallyhomings. So we have made a big improvement and thisleaving the dog for very long periods of time which theysuccess is not just the success of the RSPCA, but also for

had not told us about. Other reasons may include ʻnotvery many others. [Slide 16] It is thought that there are

getting on with the children in the familyʼ or that theabout 750 animal welfare organizations in the United

animals ʻdeveloped a sickness or injuryʼ. It might beKingdom.

something that is completely outside of our control.
This is something we are seeing more of this year due

Their role mainly derived from that of the original

to the economic situation. More people have been

RSPCA in 1824 and many of them work alongside themade redundant or lost their jobs and can no longer

RSPCA. Or, alternatively, they work independently but

aﬀord to keep their pets. That reason also is importantwith the same aims and objectives, namely, to decrease

to us because it is completely outside of our control. But

the unwanted dog and cat populations (and otheranalyzing how we handle that situation helps us planspecies) in the UK. They share some of the very samefor the same thing in the future. These ﬁgures are very

aims and objections of my own which are to improve

important to help monitor your success (or otherwise).

animal welfare.

You can use them for your campaign materials to help
gain support which, in turn, may help you gain greater

So, that was just a brief overview. I hope it has been offunds, which is very important. So record keeping issome value to you. [Slide 17] Please feel free to contact

incredibly important for helping the success of yourme or e-mail me if you have any questions or queries. Iʼown shelter.

m very happy to answer any questions that I can or oﬀer
any advice or consultation. Thank you for your time.

[Slide 15] This graph shows some pretty basic records
developed from record keeping. The front bars show
the volume of dogs accepted, the rear bars the same forcats. This is at a section of RSPC re-homing centers.
How many were re-homed successfully and how many
were euthanized.
This shows that over 24,000 dogs were accepted in2008. But very sadly, over 8,000 were assessed withdiseases and deemed unsuitable for re-homing. They
will have been behavior or health-assessed after which
it was decided that, for one or both of those reasons, itwould not be safe, practical or in the best interests of

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シェルター動物のケア・より良い譲渡に向けて䇼Slide 㪈䇽䇼Slide 㪌䇽䇼Slide 㪉䇽䇼Slide 㪍䇽䇼Slide 㪊䇽䇼Slide 㪎䇽䇼Slide 㪋䇽䇼Slide 8䇽

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䇼Slide 㪐䇽䇼Slide 䋱㪊䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪇䇽䇼Slide 䋱䋴䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪈䇽䇼Slide 䋱㪌䇽䇼Slide 㪈㪉䇽䇼Slide 䋱㪍䇽

シェルター動物のケア・より良い譲渡に向けて䇼䉴䊤䉟䊄䋱㪎䇽Workshop Ⅳ Shelter Animal Care ̶ For Better Adoptions

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