Friday, August 17, 2012

University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine Study of Hoarded Dogs

Greetings Fellow Animal Advocates-

I’m writing to ask if we may enlist your help in a study we are conducting on dogs rescued from hoarding situations.  Best Friends Animal Society and the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine are collaborating on a study to better understand the psychological health of canine hoarding victims, much like we did with dogs recovered from puppy mills (http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/applan/article/S0168-1591(11)00300-5/abstract ).  If you would be willing to help, we would be very grateful if you could distribute the notice below to people who have adopted or are fostering rescued hoarded dogs through the work of your organization, and/or post the notice on your website or in your newsletter. As you can see from the solicitation notice itself, all that is involved for the people participating in the study is filling out an online questionnaire about their dog, and the strictest confidence is assured.

We greatly appreciate any help you are able to provide. And, of course, if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them for you.


STUDY OF HOARDED DOGS
Best Friends Animal Society and the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine are conducting a large scale study of hoarded dogs.  The study looks at the psychological and behavioral characteristics of dogs removed from a hoarding situation, which is a living environment where a person or persons accumulate animals in numbers that exceed the person’s abilities to provide for the basic needs of the animals, resulting in animal suffering.  The study is very similar to the one in which we looked at dogs from puppy mills (see it here: http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/applan/article/S0168-1591(11)00300-5/abstract ). 

If you are currently caring for a dog that had been removed from a hoarding situation, we would greatly appreciate your participation in the study.  Participation involves nothing more than filling out an online questionnaire about your dog’s behavior, which takes approximately 15 minutes. The strictest confidence is guaranteed and your contact information will not be provided to anyone else.

Here is the link to the University of Pennsylvania website where the questionnaire is posted: http://vetapps.vet.upenn.edu/cbarq/bestfriends.  The pin number for the study is 9093.

If you have any questions please feel free to email Dr. Frank McMillan at dr.frank@bestfriends.org.

Gracious thanks.

Best,
Dr. Frank

Franklin D. McMillan, DVM, DACVIM
Director of Well-Being Studies
BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY
5001 Angel Canyon Road
Kanab, UT 84741
dr.frank@bestfriends.org
www.bestfriends.org

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