Best Friends Animal Society’s Human & Pet Vulnerability Study finds that shelter animals in high-social-vulnerability counties face lower adoption and return-to-owner rates and account for a disproportionate share of animals killed. The figures describe differences between county groups; they do not show that vulnerability causes an individual animal’s outcome.
What the study found
Best Friends Animal Society’s study summary compares shelter intake and outcomes across county groups defined by social vulnerability. The summary does not state the study period or publication year, so the figures below should not be treated as current annual rates.
| Measure | High-vulnerability counties | Comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Share of the U.S. population / share of shelter animals killed | 29.0% of the population lives in these counties; 53.4% of shelter animals killed were there | Best Friends study summary; year not stated on the accessible study summary. The two percentages describe different populations. |
| Adoption rate | 35.1% | 45.4% nationally; Best Friends study summary, year not stated on the accessible study summary. |
| Return-to-owner rate | 10.8% | 12.0% nationally; 13.5% in low-vulnerability counties. Best Friends study summary, year not stated on the accessible study summary. |
| Strays as a share of intake | 40.4% | 37.3% nationally; Best Friends study summary, year not stated on the accessible study summary. |
| Transfers out of high-vulnerability counties | 18.4% | 14.5% nationally; Best Friends study summary, year not stated on the accessible study summary. |
| Transfers into low-vulnerability counties | 14.6% | 9.5% nationally; Best Friends study summary, year not stated on the accessible study summary. |
| Owner-requested euthanasia outcome rate | 1.4% | 2.2% in moderate-vulnerability counties and 1.9% in low-vulnerability counties; Best Friends study summary, year not stated on the accessible study summary. |
The pattern is not uniform across outcomes. High-vulnerability counties have lower adoption and return-to-owner rates, higher stray intake, and more transfers out. Meanwhile, transfers into low-vulnerability counties are elevated relative to the national comparison, and owner-requested euthanasia rates are higher in moderate- and low-vulnerability counties than in high-vulnerability counties. These measures should be read separately rather than condensed into a claim that every shelter challenge is greater in the same places.
What “social vulnerability” means
The CDC and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) define social vulnerability in terms of demographic and socioeconomic factors that can make communities more susceptible to harm from hazards and other stressors. Examples include poverty, limited access to transportation, and crowded housing. Their Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) is a place-based measure intended to identify and quantify community vulnerability, not to assess any particular household or pet owner. The current SVI design uses 16 U.S. Census variables from the five-year American Community Survey, grouped into four themes and combined into an overall measure. CDC/ATSDR’s SVI overview, dated July 22, 2024, describes uses such as emergency preparation, evacuation planning, estimating shelter and supply needs, and community health promotion.
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What the figures can—and cannot—tell us
The study frames shelter outcomes in the context of county-level human vulnerability. That makes it useful for identifying where patterns differ and where shelter systems may need to examine access and service design. It does not establish that a county’s SVI score caused an animal to be killed, adopted, reunited with an owner, or transferred. Nor does a county classification tell us the circumstances of any one person or pet.
The accessible Best Friends summary does not give the data years, county selection criteria, analytic methods, or uncertainty estimates. Accordingly, its percentages are descriptive comparisons, not proof of why the gaps exist or of how large they are today. Best Friends’ accompanying article discusses possible operational barriers, but those explanations should be distinguished from the reported statistics.
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What shelters can do with the findings
Best Friends recommends reviewing return-to-owner processes, lowering barriers to adoption, bringing adoption opportunities into communities, and promoting services to people current outreach may miss, including through bilingual advertising. These are the organization’s suggested responses to the findings, not interventions tested by the analysis.
- Review return-to-owner pathways. Examine how quickly lost animals are identified, how owners are contacted, and whether in-field return-to-owner work could help reunite pets without requiring a shelter visit.
- Make adoption easier to access. Identify practical barriers in the adoption process and consider taking adoption events or opportunities into communities instead of relying only on residents traveling to a shelter.
- Reach beyond existing outreach. Promote available services in communities current communications may not reach, including with bilingual advertising where appropriate.
Best Friends researcher and data and analysis specialist Samantha Hill described the broader rationale: “By understanding pet vulnerability in the context of human vulnerability, I hoped this would show our need as an organization and as an industry that supporting pets is just as much an animal welfare issue as it is a human services issue,”
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