When behavior problems seem insurmountable, many owners surrender their pets to shelters. The Nevada Humane Society in Reno lowered admissions by 8 eight percent with one simple change: It created the Animal Help Desk, a free phone service.
“We see it as part of our mission to encourage and enable people to do right by their animals by helping them keep their pets in their homes whenever possible,” Executive Director Bonney Brown says in the e-newsletter No-Kill Nation from Maddie’s Fund.
In one two-week period, 60 percent of owners were persuaded to try alternatives to surrender. They include behavior modification, training, environmental changes, health care information and finding a new home for the pet themselves. “In many cases all the caller needs is information and moral support,” Brown says.
