Maddie's Insights: Gatekeeping Pet Ownership: The Impacts of Adoption Discrimination - On-Demand

Course overview

The animal welfare field has been discussing low-barrier adoption processes as a best practice for more than a decade, yet recent research has found that BIPOC families are still more likely than white families to be denied during the adoption process. We conducted focus groups (n = 27) and surveys (n = 311) with BIPOC pet owners to gain a more nuanced understanding of BIPOC families' experiences with getting pets in four U.S. cities (Atlanta, GA; Miami, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Philadelphia, PA). Key findings include that only 28% of survey participants reported being treated with kindness/respect by a shelter/rescue. The remaining 72% reported negative experiences with a shelter/rescue, including being "ghosted", provided with misinformation, experiencing disrespect or embarrassment, and/or being intimidated or treated with hostility. The top three community-led solutions for making pet ownership accessible to all included: provide more services/supplies/information to support the health and well-being of pets after adoption/purchase (46%), eliminate processes that make it more difficult to acquire a pet (45%), and be more understanding about a person's financial situation (42%). These findings highlight the critical need to move discussions from "low-barrier adoptions" to "making pet ownership accessible to all".