Fur-Ever Homes Series: Expert Insights on Tackling Pet Homelessness (Joyce Briggs)

Joyce Briggs, former President of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs and advisor to the Mars' State of Pet Homelessness Project shares her insight and advice around preventing homeless pets.

This year we are marking International Animals Day by welcoming you to our four-part 'Fur-Ever Home' series that features interviews with expert advisors for Mars' State of Pet Homelessness Project. 

The ambition of the project is to drive more informed and targeted action by providing data and insights and help reduce pet homelessness and ensure they get the care they need. We begin our series with Joyce Briggs, with the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs (ACC&D). 

Joyce has worked at the intersection of animal welfare and veterinary medicine since 1995 and is a long-time believer in sterilization to prevent unwanted litters of cats and dogs. Seeking innovations to make sterilization more accessible led to her leadership role with ACC&D and her role as an advisor for Mars’ State of Pet Homelessness project. At home, she has a big sweet blocky-headed shelter dog called Dexter, and a 15-year-old cat called Phillip, who’s in charge. 

One of the key steps to tackling pet homelessness identified in the State of Pet Homelessness Project is to prevent unwanted pets. What in your view can make the most significant impact in this area? 

JB: I believe sterilization is the most cost-efficient and humane way to deal with unwanted litters at all levels – for pet owners, communities, society and of course, pets themselves. 

Let me share with you a case study to demonstrate the impact of sterilization. In 2006, striving to reduce euthanasia of cats and dogs in the shelters of Portland, Oregon, I helped found a coalition called the Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland (ASAP). Then, the live release rate (i.e the pets adopted, returned to owners after being lost, or transferred to another shelter) from the shelters was 62% - meaning 38% did not leave alive. And 80% of those not making it were cats. The coalition determined that providing low-cost surgeries for cats, for people who could not otherwise afford sterilization, would save the most lives, by reducing intake. A new program: ‘Spay and Save’ launched in 2010, sterilizing 10,000 cats annually for people who met low-income guidelines.  By 2014, the program dramatically reduced cat intake, as hoped, and the live release rate climbed to over 90%. That level has been maintained to this day, now around 95%. 

That’s a fantastic result of a local initiative. How this can be scaled up around the world?

JB: Community and shelter veterinarians are supplemented by what we call High Volume High Quality (HVHQ) spay/neuter clinics to provide capacity, and yet access to surgery is still quite low. Globally, there is not enough capacity to sterilize all pets born. 

That’s why ACC&D exists as a catalyst to develop non-surgical alternatives, in addition to traditional surgical sterilization. When I say non-surgical, imagine a ‘spay shot’. After decades of effort, recent research has moved into a development phase, with a potential product to sterilize female cats with a single injection being evaluated first for the United States via the FDA regulatory channel. That research is being funded by the Michelson Prize & Grants program of the Michelson Found Animals Foundation. ACC&D envisions this, alongside a dog version and other new technologies, expanding the future toolkit for preventing unwanted litters, more effectively using veterinary time, being less invasive for animals and more affordable for pet owners. 

It will still take several years to realize this dream and develop equivalent technology for males.  We’re so pleased that Mars is a supporter of ACC&D’s work as it seeks to make pet homelessness a thing of the past. 

Aside from vets and shelters, what can individual pet owners do to make a difference? 

JB: I’m an advocate for trusting people to make the right decisions when provided with the right information and support. If you don’t want a litter, then sterilize your pets and understand the consequences if you don’t. Right now, I’m fostering Cleo, a sweet mother cat with 6 kittens, for a local shelter. Fortunately, the shelter will responsibly sterilize all seven cats before rehoming for my foster, but it could overwhelm a typical pet owner. 

There is so much a person or family can do. It can take a village to raise a community of healthy and happy pets. For example, some years ago, I saw a social media post by an older woman, who shared that she’d just moved to the area and her job had fallen through. She was now living in her daughter’s apartment which did not allow pets. She was distraught about the fate of her elderly dog named Mrs Whatsit and put out a desperate plea hoping someone might keep her for 3 months till she could find a job and apartment.  I thought, in ‘Petopia’, where I want to live, somebody steps up. And I could be that someone. Mrs. Whatsit joined our family for some months, in fact, Banfield did a complementary first wellness exam. No shelter was asked to rehome an elderly dog. It was so satisfying to help Mrs. WhatsIt and her owner. Opportunities to help are all around! 

We all have a part to play – shelters, veterinarians, landlords who could consider pet-friendly accommodation, policymakers who can legislate for pet-friendly cities, pet owners and citizens who might step up in times of need. 

Where to look for information on the topics you mentioned?

JB: If you want to know more about the progress towards non-surgical sterilization and contraception, check our website, acc-d.org and that of the Michelson Prize & Grants. If you’re a pet owner or potential pet owner, you should always speak to your local vet about the decision to neuter or sterilize. There’s also great information on pet-friendly cities at Mars’ Better Cities for Pets website.