FEATURE STORY

Are There Hidden Reasons
for Pet Abandonment?

A Missouri veterinarian and MU College of Veterinary Medicine professor has studied animal behavior and sees a major, unspoken cause.

By Randy Mertens

Nobody wants to see a healthy cat or dog in an animal shelter. Cruel economics — not enough money to feed and medically care for such overwhelming numbers — means that many of these animals have been given a death sentence.

Several organizations are searching for ways to reduce these numbers — most deal with pet overpopulation. Some newspapers and TV stations publish photos of animals in shelters, hoping that a kind heart will be moved to adopt an animal into a stable home.

A specialist in the scientific field of animal behavior — one of only a handful of veterinarians so recognized in the United States — thinks that there is a hidden, unspoken reason why so many pets are ending up in shelters. And, if this reason can be dealt with honestly and directly, a major cause of animals going to shelters may be better addressed.

A hidden reason for pet abandonment?

When asked why they are abandoning their pets to an animal shelter, many people say it is because they have become allergic to animals or that they are moving to a new house and there is no room for the cat or dog. Debra Horwitz, a St. Louis veterinary practitioner and adjunct assistant clinical professor at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, believes there could be another reason. Horwitz, who specializes in and teaches an animal behavior course at the College, thinks that the animal’s perceived inappropriate behavior may play a role.

Horwitz has been specializing in the field since the early 1980s. Her book on the subject was published in 2002, and she lectures to animal owners and veterinarians across the country.

“To give an animal up because of behavior problems is really hard,” Horwitz says. “People feel that they are at fault. Often they believe that the animal will not exhibit the behavior in another home, so they tell the animal shelter something other than the real problem in hopes that the animal will be adopted.”

Common actual behavior problems in dogs and cats include aggression, house soiling, disruptive behavior, separation anxiety, fear-based behavior, and compulsive behavior. Horwitz believes that many of these problems can be overcome once they are identified and dealt with in a treatment plan.

There are no hard numbers about how many animals are put into shelters or put to sleep because of behavior, Horwitz said. The total number of animals left to shelters, though, is staggering. According to the American Humane Society, 18 million animals — about 15 percent of the country’s 43 million dogs and 75 millions cats — end up each year in shelters. Most are euthanized. Nine thousand animals were humanely destroyed in St. Louis County alone last year with about that same number on the others side of the state in Kansas City.

Behavioral house calls

Horwitz became interested in animal behavior while in private practice in the early 1980s and just after graduation from veterinary school. Some of her clients seemed unable to understand their animal’s behavior or lamented that the animal didn’t seem social or friendly enough. Many times this led the owner to give up and take the animal to the local shelter.

This puzzled Horwitz. Unfortunately, veterinary schools of the day offered little insight into this phenomenon. Horwitz decided to pursue her interest in behavior in any way possible. After reviewing the medical literature then available and attending seminars and college classes on behavior, she began making “behavioral house calls” to help pet owners with their problem animals.

Often, what she found was not bad dogs and cats, but animals acting normally, from their point of view, that were misunderstood or deemed undesirable by their owners. Cats soiling a carpet may not have an adequate litter box. A dog with a tendency to bite visitors may be fearful of the sudden ringing of a doorbell or strangers entering the house.

“A lack of ‘cross-species communication’ often contributes to problem behaviors,” Horwitz said. “We’re talking about two different species here. One has a verbal language and the other doesn’t. For example, a dog chewing the furniture may not have appropriate outlets for play and exploration or could be suffering from separation anxiety.”

Dealing with underlying causes can often lead to a direct and permanent solution. “Owners were relieved to find that there is a reasonable explanation,” Horwitz said. “It changed the entire relationship that neither the owner nor the animal was at ‘fault.’”

The visits also revealed that owners sometimes had inappropriate expectations of the animal-human relationship. “Some cats are really cuddly and some aren’t,” Horwitz said. “Like kids, pets have personalities. Sometimes it is the owner who may have to alter an expectation.”

Horwitz saw the need for not only more sound veterinary medical scientific data in the subject, but a need to educate the net generation of veterinarians on ways they can better help their clients with animal behavioral problems. She knew that veterinarians could be the first, and probably only, line of defense standing between a problem animal and its final trip to a shelter.

An emerging specialty in veterinary medicine

Today, Horwitz is one of only 29 veterinarians recognized as a board-certified specialist in the field of veterinary behavior by the American Veterinary Medical Association. To become board certified, a veterinarian must have extensive post-graduate training and experience, and pass a credential review and examinations set by the given specialty group.

It’s an emerging field of scientific study that is just beginning to find ways to make a difference. Specialists help farmers and ranchers understand agricultural pests and predators, and to more efficiently breed and raise high-quality livestock. Animal behaviorists also design healthy habitats for animals in zoos, aquariums and laboratories.

Animal behaviorists today are also providing grief counseling for owners and pets. “Companion animals,” Horwitz explains, “may become depressed when another family pet has gone. Some pets react to the loss of the companionship. They may react to the owner’s grieving of the pet, as well.” Specialists help find ways owners can help a surviving pet overcome its depression, which may result in loss of appetite, anxiety or other symptoms.

For now, however, Horwitz would be happy to help owners and pets resolve their problems with the hope of seeing fewer pets end up in animal shelters.

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Last Update: March 12, 2007