I wanted to take a look at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington and see if I could find anything interesting. I actually did. I found that they keep statistics of how many dog and acts they get and how many are adopted. Among a number of other stats. I see that they included in adoptions animals transferred to other organizations. Is that really a success? Or is it that the dog/cat is adopted through another organization and they just transfer there. Its a little vague and not clear. Also some people lose theirs dogs and it is returned. I for some reason feel uneasy about that being included.
Currently there stat is at 96%. I was amazed and wanted to take a look into the numbers. I was uneasy about it and decided to calculate myself. Lets take a look here.
https://www.awla.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Shelter-Statistics-FY2016-for-website.pdf
Total Intake: 1712
Adoptions: 1259
Transfers: 66
Return to Owner: 260
Total: 1585
Euthanized: 71
In there positive outcome rate, they decide the total of adopted, transfers and returned to owner and divide it by those same factors but include ones euthanized. So whats wrong with that here. Is it a simple in and out equation? No its not. They don’t even factor that. They consider success or “positive outcome rate” which they bold and highlight as a measure by comparing the number adopted/returned to owners versus how many are euthanized and adopted. So basically they are saying how many didn’t die in their hands or have to put down. 96% of those adopted were not euthanize. That is the stastitic. Why does that matter and why is that the highlight? I”m not trying to critical here but it is a little play on statistics with the presentation of it all. I want to know how many out of the well to do dogs and cats were adopted from the # that came in.
A real number would be the # adopted 1259 versus total intake minus the ones who had to be euthanized (1641) is the most accurate. And the true number people want to know. That is a 76% RATE. Which hey I think its still pretty good. This is an adoption agency and they are doing great work. I’m not doing this to discredit AWLA but the adoption rate is not as high as they portray. And my reasoning here it is not painting the correct picture of the adoption world. It is not all glitter and happiness that every animal gets adopted. We need to show the light that it is difficult to get them adopted and we need to focus efforts on owners keeping them.
I adopted my poor Dotty who passed away from seizures from there after we found at our home. They took well good care of Dotty and I will always miss her.
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