UK Animal Shelter Study First in More Than 20 Years

Researchers found that a lack of sufficient funding was the major problem identified by most shelter workers.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

UK Animal Shelter Study First in More Than 20 Years
Researchers found that a lack of sufficient funding was the major problem identified by the majority of shelter workers. | Photo: iStock
It has been more than two decades since the last comprehensive study of conditions and compliance with state shelter laws in Kentucky’s county animal shelters. Researchers at the University of Kentucky College (UK) of Agriculture, Food and Environment’s Department of Veterinary Science recently took on the challenge and also used it as an opportunity to partner with a new Tennessee veterinary school.

The team traveled across Kentucky to gather information for the study, including data on current conditions and major problems. They also identified needs based on visits to the shelters and interviews with shelter personnel. Students from the veterinary school at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee collaborated in the study and traveled thousands of miles to curate data.

“We divided up the students and assigned them a number of counties. What we found is that the county shelter conditions greatly varied,” said Cynthia Gaskill, DVM, PhD, Dip. ABVT, a researcher at the UK Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. “Each county is responsible for its own shelter, but no one has any enforcement capability. There was no master list of shelters and locations, so some of them were hard to find.”

After the last study of Kentucky shelters, the Humane Shelter Act required all counties to come into compliance with new statutes by 2007, but no formal follow-up studies tested that progress

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
285 votes · 285 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!