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Why  ESBA  is Needed

Every time an animal is relocated, there is a decent possibility her emotional state and behavior will be negatively affected. With each new environment come responses to that environment; we can hope for pure good fortune--that the will animal respond positively, even though we know that many do not--or we can ensure that each adopted animal has ample opportunity for her emotional and behavioral responses to be or become positive rather than "problem."  How?  Through preparation. 

We can equip adopters with crucial skills. To most effectively address adoptee behavior after adoption, adopters must be provided these skills before a potentially home-threatening need arises--that is, before adoption.  Since undesired behavior is a main cause of abandonment, surrender, and elective euthanasia, adopted animals have a better chance of lifelong well-being in safe ‘forever’ homes if their adopters are ready willing and able to provide them with an anti-aversives lifestyle that includes non-aversive care, handling, training, & behavior conditioning as soon as it is needed if not before it is needed. Naturally, some people who don't have access to anti-aversives training often try to ignore an undesired behavior situation, hoping things get better on their own; others may fall prey to promises of quick fixes, entrusting their beloved pet to someone using inhumane and even dangerous tactics, not knowing that science repeatedly shows these tactics are not lasting solutions and can result in more, and more serious, problems down the road.  These situations take a toll on the pet owner and can tend to weaken the human-animal bond such that, by the time one seeks to surrender the animal, it is too late to offer them humane training help--they have fallen out of love with their pet or simply feel unable to cope. ESBA can prevent needless surrender and euthanasia, so it should be provided as part of the adoption process, before an animal is taken home. 

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Screening-Inclusive Adoption and Why It's a Recommended Facet of ESBA: 

Rescues, shelters, and other animal welfare organizations are supposed to do what is best for the animals.  We are not fulfilling that obligation if we neglect to fact-find on the animals’ behalf or if we neglect to prepare adopters  with the skills they will need to humanely keep a pet.  As the industry has become less careful, people have become less inclined to participate in careful processes, believing them to be invasive or otherwise objectionable.  It is the responsibility of the animal organization to help people understand that these processes are beneficial to adopters and placement organizations as well. Screening does help adopters by helping them ensure a good match, and thereby it can spare adopters from heartbreak in the form of surrender or worse.  Careful, conscientious placement organizations objectively assess animal and adopter needs, hopes, and expectations as well as trustworthiness and responsibility level. The goal is to make a good match in which both adopter and adoptee will be happy and well together; that goal cannot be met without first gathering data.  Screening provides insights that help organizations understand how to best inform, serve, and work in supportive partnership with adopters.  Careful match-making coupled with pre-adoption preparation serves everyone by increasing the likelihood of lifelong success and decreasing the risks of loss.

Public Benefit

EBSA benefits the human public in many ways. The adopter benefits by taking home, along with the new adoptee, the gift of a powerful new skillset that normally costs $100 an hour or more.  The general public benefits by the pet population becoming more behaviorally sound, and guardians becoming more knowledgeable and skilled--resulting, e.g., in fewer dog bites, more affordable and accessible insurance, more housing access for those with pets, et cetera. Shelters, rescues, and sanctuaries benefit by a reduction in returns and and, eventually, a reduction in new surrenders, leading to an increase of space and time for the animals that most desperately need them. Every area of the country benefits socially and economically from less distress and expense related to the challenges of evermore demand for sheltering. The most direct, logical way to achieve such beneficial improvements is by prevention. Only through preventative policies & practices can the cycle of suffering and surrender be broken.

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And then there’s the eventual increase in overall societal goodness, not to mention a decrease in the cultural heartache that comes from being part of a society whose beloved companion animals live under constant threat that the revolving doors of suffering and surrender will yet again recall them.

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