Shelter medicine is a holistic approach to improving the health and welfare of animals in shelters and communities. Shelter medicine considers the health and welfare of the individual animal as well as the entire animal population.

Shelter medicine recommendations may differ from private practice recommendations, because of consideration for the entire population and not just individual animals. Shelters are a high-risk environment for disease outbreaks due to the numbers of incoming animals with unknown vaccination status, a dynamic population and the shelter environment being inherently stressful.

SPCA supports continuing professional development in the field of shelter medicine.

SPCA advocates that shelters function within their capacity for care limits

Shelters should operate within their capacity for care to provide for the animals' welfare and achieve the best outcomes possible for the animals, the community, the personnel and the organisation. Capacity is defined by the overall ability to provide humane care including resourcing, staffing levels and foster capacity, not just by the number of animals the facility is designed to house.

Procedures are needed to safeguard the welfare of animals in care and improve outcomes. An organisation’s capacity for care becomes difficult or impossible to maintain if more animals are admitted over time than can be provided with appropriate care.

SPCA advocates that pounds, shelters, rescues and other rehoming groups continually work to reduce length of stay.

Length of stay (LOS) is a critical factor of facility management as it captures many other measures (e.g. adoption rates, efficiency, quality of care). The longer an animal stays the greater the need for increased space, interaction and environmental enrichment to prevent confinement-related welfare compromise. Most shelter housing is suitable only for 1-3 weeks. LOS reduces capacity for incoming animals and also impacts staff and volunteers, and the financial health of an organisation.

When a population is not managed within an organisation’s target LOS, capacity for care is limited and welfare of animals in the shelter and in the community is reduced. Recording and monitoring LOS data is essential for improving adoption outcomes and measuring the success of adoption events and changes to adoption processes.

SPCA is opposed to the euthanasia of healthy and behaviourally sound companion animals as a method to manage shelter capacity

Euthanasia decisions should be based on the best outcome for the animal within the shelter’s available resources and should never be substituted for a live outcome (e.g. adoption, transfer) as a means of reducing length of stay.