Analysis of the Austin Animal Center
And What This Means for Guilford County
Madison Carroll
July 25, 2017
Data Sets To Be Analyzed
- Austin Animal Center Outcomes - 10/01/2013 to 07/21/2017
- Austin Animal Center Intakes - 10/01/2013 to 07/21/2017
The Problem and Why I Care
I first became interested in studying animal shelters last year, when my community learned of some devastating news: after receiving some anonymous tips about sub-par conditions, the Guilford County Sheriff’s office decided to visit the Guilford County Animal Shelter to see if the accusations had merit. Unfortunately, they did. Dozens of cases of animal abuse, neglect, and inhumane euthanasia were found at the shelter, which was run by a private company on behalf of the county. The private company was disbanded, criminal charges were filed, and the county has begun to self-manage the shelter. The abrupt change in management has been challenging for the county, and has and brought some very real concerns about animal safety and adoption to light. Although the private company may have kept records such as Austin’s in the past that could be used by Guilford County to improve decision making going forward, the data would be untrustworthy. The claims of animal neglect stem from allegations that records were mishandled and suffering animals were not euthanized when necessary so the private company could boast a low euthanization and high adoption rates. The general problem the county faces right now is that they just don’t have any reliable information to guide their decision making.
Solving The Problem
I plan to study Austin’s data to glean insights about general conceptions people have regarding animal shelters, described below:
- Question: How many animals that come through the shelter get adopted? Get transferred? Get euthanized?
- Methodology: Study the counts of the different outcomes in the Output data.
- Why it’s important: Knowing this statistic would be beneficial for the county to know so they can project their expenses. If the survival rate (the rate of any outcome besides euthanasia) is high, that should be published for public relations purposes.
- Question: How long do animals stay in the shelter?
- Why it’s important: If If the average time an animal stays at the shelter is high, perhaps the shelter needs to push their marketing efforts. Dog customers know where they are located? Are the adoption fees comparable to other counties? Should more pictures of animals be put on social media?
- Methodology: This would require tracking the Animal ID variable to compare Intake Date in the Intake data with the Outcome Date and Outcome Type from the Outcome data. I could then use my results to sort by Outcome Type and compare my results to what I calculate in my first bullet.
- Question: Are older animals adopted at a slower rate than younger animals?
- Why it’s important: Keeping animals in a shelter for long periods of time racks up added expenses for the shelter, and increases the chance of euthanasia.
- Methodology: I would use the same methodology as the question above, but would include the Date of Birth variable from the Outcome data. Then, I would sort for those animals that were adopted and create a new variable for how many days they were in the shelter before adoption.
- Question: Are there any other animals at the shelter besides dogs and cats?
- Methodology: Study the counts of the different types of animals, group them into “Dog or Cat” and “Other” to check dispersion.
- Why it’s important: This is another point that is important for budget and PR reasons. If it costs the shelter a significant amount of money to care for the specialty animals, perhaps they should be transferred to another organization. If cost is low, the shelter should consider better advertising these animals so people know adoption is for more than just dogs and cats.
- Question: Does the color of an animal dictate if they get adopted or euthanized?
- Methodology: Compare the color of the animal with the outcome.
- Why it’s important: The shelter sometimes holds events where you can adopt an animal of specific color at a discounted rate, such as their black dog and cat Black Friday discount.
Optional Questions
If the data leads me to do so, I may explore the parameters below. Similar to many of the questions above, finding answers to the questions below could help guide the county to make decisions about PR efforts and budgetary spending.
- Question: Are there significantly more animals at the shelter due to being a stray or an owner surrender?
- Question: Do many of the animals need medical attention when they arrive above and beyond a traditional check-up?
How I’ll Help
My interest has been peaked and I want to learn what I can from the Austin data to see how I can help my community better understand animal intake and adoption rates and trends. Finding answers to these questions will help me better understand the issues encountered by my local animal shelter. I hope to pass on this information to the Chairman of the County Commissioners, who is currently overseeing the efforts of the county to take over the management of the shelter. Hopefully, information I discover from this data set will help me make a difference in my community.