The Open Intake Dilemma: Rethinking Managed Admissions & Creating a Truly Humane Community

At a starting point, I think that open intake shelters are a critical part of having a humane community.

And so I think starting with the definition is a really good one, because otherwise it's hard to say, what are we talking about? And for me, an open intake shelter is one that it's going to define its geographic bounds.

Where does it take animals from? So in my case, it was Athens-Clarke County, which is a unified government in Georgia, and which animals they take.

So in their case, it's going to be domestic animals, which includes livestock, actually, but they don't have a big farming industry.

So that's not a big part of it.

But we did get to see some horses and there was a crocodile that got released.

Not a crocodile, sorry, an alligator.

We almost got the llama that was running loose, but that was on the other side of the county line.

So I didn't get to meet the llama.

But within the world of the geographic bounds and the types of animals, an open intake shelter is one that at the end of the day, if interventions don't work, even if the owner just says, I just don't want the animal anymore, at the end of the day, literally that day, They will take the animal if it's before them and the owner is asking.

So it's not just taking in stray animals from the community, but also owned animals from the community that the owners cannot or no longer want to keep.

And we've developed programs to help divert people.

We have a pet food bank at the shelter that my organization collects donations for or buys food for to keep stocked.

There's a very active free spay-neuter program, and anybody contacting the shelter about surrendering animals or who are surrendering litters of puppies or kittens, they get asked if they want their remaining animals to be spayed or neutered for free or if spaying and neutering would help them keep their animals, and it includes basic vaccinations.

And sometimes that helps divert.

Sometimes that's what they needed.

A landlord said this animal has to be altered and it has to be up to date on rabies.

And the owner thought the only thing they could do was surrender it.

We have paid for private trainers to work with people where it's not a true aggression issue, but there are issues of compatibility in the house.

So I think it's great to offer resources and to ask people, how long can you hold on them for? If you are being evicted, when is that? And how long can you keep the animals? Can we schedule this in a week or two? But if the person at the end of the day says, No, I need the animal gone now.

An open intake shelter says come in.

Right.

That's a really good, clear definition of what it is.

So let's put the other side.

I mean, people call it managed intake.