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A Dog By Any Other Name Kristen Auerbach Liz Finch
Liz Finch Director of Na6onal Programs Best Friends Animal Society
lizf@[email protected]
Kristen Auerbach Director of Animal Services Pima Animal Care Center
Tucson, Arizona
Your assump6ons are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”
– Isaac Asimov “
Part I: Introduc6on and History
Why Do Shelters Use Labels?
• Data collec6on • Shelter soSware • Commonly understood way to
talk about dogs
Why Are Labels a Problem?
• Guesses cause confusion and false expecta6ons
• Labels nega6vely impact all dogs
• Subjec6ve breed labels present false informa6on as fact
Star6ng Points
• We’re not saying there is no such thing as breed
• 75% of dogs in shelters are mixes of two or more breeds
• Community members look to animal welfare professionals as experts on pets
• Removing breed labels and using a “mixed breed” label are two different things
Breeds Are Made by People!
• Most breeds recognized today are no more than 300 years old
• Breeds are created by people and are historically specific
• Standards change over 6me
• Trivia ques6on: When were golden retrievers first iden6fied as a breed?
Trivia Ques6on:
When were golden retrievers first iden6fied as a breed?
Doggie DNA
Doggie DNA
Looks Don’t Equal Behavior
Part II: The Research
Scoe and Fuller Study 1965
These two 4-‐month-‐old puppies come into your shelter. What do you label them?
Meet the Parents
The Later Genera6ons
“None of the 72 puppies in the total F2 popula6on showed an exact resemblance to either parent breed.” REMEMBER: Only basenji and cocker spaniel are present in these puppies’ DNA history.
2008: Who Said It?
“In most shelters across the U.S., the majority of dogs are mixed breeds of unknown parentage. Nevertheless, it is common prac6ce for staff to guess a dog’s breed based on appearance. “This ‘best guess’ is used to iden6fy the dog, although the actual pedigree is unknown. The problem is that breed iden6ty elicits behavioral expecta6ons on the part of the new owner, even though researchers have found enormous behavioral variability within all breeds.”
American Shelter Dog
“In most shelters, cats are rarely iden6fied by breed. Instead, they are labeled as Domes6c short, medium or
long hairs. So why not describe our dogs in a similar way?”
– Dr. Amy Marder
The Consequences of Labeling
Our Parents’ Genera6on
What names have you heard used to talk about mixed-‐breed dogs?
“It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”
– Carl Sagan
Recent Research
The Breed Guessing Game
• 900 pet professionals watched one-‐minute videos of 20 dogs
• DNA tests done prior to study • Par6cipants asked to assign a
breed or breed mix to each dog • Study reviewed:
• Accuracy of visual breed ID • Agreement among experts
The Breed Guessing Game
• More than 10% of respondents thought seven of the dogs were “probably purebred”
• More than 19% of respondents thought the other three dogs were “probably purebred”
• Fewer than 50% of respondents included a breed detected by DNA results in 14 of the dogs
The Breed Guessing Game
• More than half of respondents agreed on predominant breed in only seven dogs • Visual ID did not match any
breeds iden6fied by DNA tests in three of those dogs
• More than half of respondents agreed on predominant breed in only three dogs
• No majority guess in 13 dogs
The Breed Guessing Game
• In the dog with the highest concentra6on of breeds, none of the respondents correctly iden6fied any of the breeds in the mix
Nature vs. Nurture
“… expecta6ons of breed are likely to influence treatment of a dog … and expecta6ons of how to treat a dog are likely to influence choice of breed.”
“The Relevance of Breed in Selec6ng a
Companion Dog” by Janis Bradley, Na6onal Canine Research Council
Takeaways
• We are wrong when we guess • We don’t even agree with each
other • Arbitrary breed labels based on
inaccurate guesses have REAL consequences
• Breed labels impact ALL dogs
What About the “Pit Bull” Label?
The Problem with “Pit Bulls”
• “Pit bull” has no legal or kennel club defini6on
• Default descrip6on for many medium-‐sized, short-‐coated, blocky-‐headed dogs in shelters
• Includes American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers
The Problem with “Pit Bulls”
• 1 in 5 dogs with pit bull heritage breeds in DNA missed by all shelter staff
• 1 in 3 lacking DNA labeled pit-‐bull-‐type dogs by at least one staff member
• Lack of consistency indicates that visual ID of pit-‐bull-‐type dogs is unreliable
Pit vs. Lab vs. Border Collie
Pit vs. Lab vs. Border Collie
• Adult dogs adopted from Arizona Animal Welfare League between 2011 and 2014 labeled as pit bulls
• Paired with lookalikes — dogs
physically similar in stature, head, coat color and length
The Lookalike Study
The Lookalike Study
Pit bull label was associated with more days awai6ng adop6on when compared to breeds of lookalike dogs
12.8
42.7
LOS (days)
Lookalike Pit Bulls
Study in Orange County, Florida
• 2014: Eliminated labels • Pit bull adop6ons up 72% • Euthanasia rate down 12% • Length of stay reduced
615
1056
198
248
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
2013 2014
# of Ado
p6on
s
Pit Bull-‐Type Dogs All Other Terriers
Study in Orange County, Florida
A mixed-‐breed dog is no breed at all, so talking about the breed on any level is misleading. It’s 6me to move on and decide what we do with this info.”
– Janis Bradley Na6onal Canine Research Council
“
Part III: FAQs
“What Breed Is It?”
Won’t the Public Be Upset?
Prepare, But Don’t Worry!
“We had several mee6ngs and staff training sessions to prepare everyone for what to say when people asked about the breed. We figured there would be a ton of ques6ons and frustra6ons. It all sounds so silly now, because the response ended up being no response. “We get occasional ques6ons, but people are generally sa6sfied when we explain why we don’t know what breed most of our dogs are.”
– Ashley Hetzner Capital Area Humane Society
How Do People Find Lost Dogs?
An owner might describe their missing dog as a Lab mix, but the shelter might’ve recorded that black dog as a pit bull mix or a shepherd mix. If the search is done purely by breed, they might not match at all, even though that dog is at the shelter or described in a found poster.”
– Dr. Julie LevyUniversity of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine
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