The Lion's Share

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Giving USA, a public service initiative of the Giving Institute and one of the definitive sources of information on U.S. philanthropy, reveals some interesting data relevant to animal welfare funding in its recently released 2015 edition, which covers 2014 giving by both individuals and institutions.  There’s both good news and bad news

First, the bad news:  of all the programmatic areas receiving charitable dollars in 2014, Environment/Animals (these categories were combined in the report) got the smallest share – only 3% of total giving – indicating that there is still much work to be done in convincing the giving public and philanthropic institutions to make this area a higher priority than it is currently.  Furthermore, considering that the Environment and Animals categories were combined in the report, the percentage of giving earmarked specifically for animal protection is even less than that low 3%.

But the good news is that in 2014, total charitable giving to nonprofits working in this programmatic area reached an all-time high of $10.5 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars, increasing by 7% over the previous year – the fifth consecutive annual increase – which indicates a clear pattern of growing appreciation for the importance of this work.

The Giving USA graphic below shows giving for Environment/Animals as a portion of total 2014 giving.

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Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend the annual conference of the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ) in Saratoga Springs, NY, which showcased academic research on various aspects of human-animal interaction around the world. The conference was sponsored by Mars/WALTHAM, Purina, IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare), ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), HSUS (Humane Society of the United States), and Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. Noteworthy takeaways from studies presented at the conference included the following:

• Dogs whose owners train with physical punishment tend to behave poorly, while those whose owners use rewards tend to behave well. (John Bradshaw, University of Bristol)
• Female equestrians feel their own physical capabilities expand when on horseback, and as a result of riding, their confidence grows in other areas of their lives. (Keri Brandt, Fort Lewis College)
• Animal investigators are often the first responders in violent-crime cases because suffering animals are more conspicuous than people who are in trouble. (Phil Arkow, National Link Coalition)
• In the U.S., more homes have pets than children, and more money is spent annually on pet food than on baby food. (Phil Arkow, National Link Coalition)
• Children in the U.S. are more likely to grow up with a pet than with a father who lives at home. (Phil Arkow, National Link Coalition)
• Animal-related words emerge soonest in toddlers’ vocabulary after parent-related words. (Phil Arkow, National Link Coalition)
• 71% of women in domestic violence shelters reported that their abusers either harmed or threatened to harm a pet as a way to control them. (Phil Arkow, National Link Coalition)
• Past history of animal abuse is one of the four biggest risk factors for violent criminal behavior toward other people. (Phil Arkow, National Link Coalition)
• Stochastic modeling can be used to predict performance and animal welfare in animal shelters. (Roger Haston, Animal Assistance Foundation)
• As Live Release Rate increases at a given animal shelter, that shelter’s intake capacity can decrease. As the shelter’s intake capacity decreases, over time its population becomes dominated by those animals that are hardest to place. (Roger Haston, Animal Assistance Foundation)
• Live Release Rate for an individual animal shelter can be misleading when used in isolation, without also looking at typical length of stay for its animals and outcomes for animals at other shelters in the same community. (Roger Haston, Animal Assistance Foundation)
• A full one-third of animal shelters sampled did not have a written policy documenting criteria for euthanasia decisions, half indicated that medically based euthanasia decisions are not made by veterinary professionals, and 83% indicated that behavior-based euthanasia decisions are not made by animal behavior professionals. (M. K. Workman, Canisius College)
• On Petfinder.com, the older the cat, the fewer clicks s/he received and the longer the time preceding his/her adoption. Black cats also received significantly fewer clicks than their counterparts of other coat colors. However, a mitigating factor that helped these typically less popular cats to receive more clicks was the strategic placement of toys in their photos. (M. K. Workman, Canisius College)
• Ethiopia has more working equines — 7 million — than any other country; approximately 3 million are horses and the rest are donkeys and mules. (Stephen Albone, Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad)

Fascinating food for thought!

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