Protecting Our Pets: A Mutually Beneficial Arrangement

Pets offer many health and social benefits. Throughout Greater New Haven, shelters, animal agencies, and advocates work hard to humanely care for domestic animals and find them new homes.

September 26, 2014

Pets have been beloved companions, loyal guardians, and useful helpers for thousands of years. They even make people healthier, according to a growing body of research.

Unfortunately, millions of domestic animals, primarily cats and dogs, are abandoned every year. There are various reasons a pet ends up on the street or at a shelter: a new owner becomes overwhelmed; a financial crisis forces a family to choose between feeding themselves or their pets; a family moves to an apartment with a no pet policy; a pet has behavior problems; an owner dies. Regardless of the reason, shelters, animal agencies, and advocates in Greater New Haven work hard to humanely care for these animals and find them new homes.

The Numbers

  • Between 6-8 million cats and dogs are in animal shelters1.
  • Of the animals in shelters, only 10 percent have been spayed or neutered2.
  • An estimated 3-4 million shelter animals are euthanized annually3.
  • The Animal Haven, a North Haven-based rescue and adoption agency, estimates that as many as 10,000 homeless cats and dogs live in Greater New Haven.
  • The New Haven Animal Shelter, one of the largest municipal shelters in the state, takes in about 900 dogs and cats yearly.

Pets for Good Health

When a pet is welcomed into a home and is well cared for, the pet gives back more than just companionship. Research over the past two decades has shown significant health benefits to pet ownership as well. Petting a dog or cat reduces anxiety and stress levels and has been found to have cardiovascular benefits including lower high blood pressure and lower pulse rates4.

One study revealed that heart attack victims who were also dog owners survived longer than those who did not5. Other researchers found that a half hour spent petting a dog raises a person's levels of dopamine and endorphins, which are associated with wellbeing and happiness, while levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, decrease6. Children who were exposed to pets as infants are less likely to have asthma7.

Animal companions are also associated with a lower risk of depression and other psychological benefits. Recently widowed women who own pets experience fewer symptoms of physical and psychological disease and report lower medication use than widows who do not own pets8. And bereaved elderly people with few people close to them have lower rates of depression when they own a pet9.

Many hospitals are using pet therapy programs to help patients cope with stress. At Griffin Hospital in Derby, therapy dogs are used in its program, People and Animals Working in Spirit (PAWS). At Yale New Haven Hospital and the Smilow Cancer Center, therapy dogs program for patients awaiting or undergoing various treatments and procedures.

Helping Pets in Greater New Haven

Shelters and animal rights groups in Greater New Haven help ensure that homeless animals receive humane care. Most rescued animals end up in municipal shelters, which list pets for adoption on petfinder.com.

Animal Haven, in North Haven, is one of five area shelters with a no-kill policy. As a private shelter, Animal Haven can turn away an animal with behavior issues or because of breed (such as a pit bull), whereas a municipal shelter like New Haven cannot. The New Haven Animal Shelter has a policy of only euthanizing animals with significant illnesses or behavior issues. Both work to find adoptive homes for their animals as fast as possible.

Animal Haven reports an adoption rate of above 80% and the New Haven shelter's rate is 75%. This compares to an adoption rate of 25% for dogs and 24% for cats among shelters nationally10.

To help increase adoption rates, The Friends of New Haven Animal Shelter promotes their mission on a "Pet of the Week" segment on WTNH NEWS 8, and raises awareness through events and social media.

In an effort to reduce disease, The Animal Haven is beginning a program to have veterinarians train their shelter managers using protective equipment, illness recognition, testing, and administering preventative medicine.

The Greater New Haven Cat Project is a volunteer organization that traps and neuters stray feral cats, and tests and finds home for foster cats. It also removes feral cats from dangerous settings and places them on farms for living outside.

For people in financial straits, New Haven's Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen's Thunder's Pantry offers free dog and cat food on a weekly basis alongside its food pantry.

To address a root cause of euthanizing animals, the motorcycle group Bikers Against Animal Cruelty advocates for the end of pet abuse. The North Haven-based volunteer organization also rescues neglected and abused pets from euthanizing and places them in new homes, and holds an annual motorcycle rodeo and adoption event.

What The Community Foundation is Doing

The Community Foundation's commitment to animals goes back to its 1928 founding charter, which states that its charitable endowment funds would be used for the "alleviation . . . of the suffering of animals."

Over many years, grants from TCF donors have been put toward this goal. In recent years, donor advised and preference funds have provided grants to area animal shelters and advocates including:

The Foundation also offers a grant program for nonprofit animal shelters made possible by the Lilian and Henry Konopacke fund.

For more information on how you can support your favorite charity in perpetuity, contact Sharon Cappetta at call 203-777-7071.

Works Cited

1.The Humane Society, May 2013

2. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). "Pet Statistics FAQ."

3. ibid

4. Anderson, W.P., Reid, C.M., Jennings, G.L. (1992). Pet ownership and risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Medical Journal of Australia 157:298-301

5. Friedmann, E., and Thomas, S.A. (1995). Pet ownership, social support and one year survival among post-myocardial infarction patients in the cardiac arrhythmia suppression trial (CAST).

6.Odendaal, J. (2000). Animal-assisted therapy - magic or medicine? J Psychosomatic Research 49(4):275-280.

7. Gern, J., Reasdon, C., Hoffjan, S., Li, Z., Rogberg, K., Neaville, W., Carlson-Dakes, K., Alder, K., Hamilton, R., Anderson, E., Gilbertson White, S., Tisler, C., Dasilva, D., Anklam, K., Mikus, L., Rosenthal, L., Ober, C., Gangon, R., Lemanske, R. (2004). Effects of dog ownership and genotype on immune development and atopy in infancy. J Clinical Immunology.

8. Barker, S., Barker, R. 1988. The Human-canine bond: Closer than family ties. Journal of Mental Health Counseling 10:46-56.

9. Akiyama, H., Holtzman, J., Britz, W. (1986). Pet ownership and health status during bereavement. Omega 17(21):187-193.

10. American Humane Association Fact Sheet.

© The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven,
September 2014