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Cultural competence is recognized as critical to reducing disparities within human healthcare settings, but it is rarely incorporated into evaluations of companion animal services. We developed and validated an animal welfare-focused cultural competence instrument with client and provider versions. We then used the instrument to assess the relationship between animal welfare providers' cultural competence and services provided to clients in historically underserved communities. 24 providers across 17 sites participated in the provider survey. 422 clients across those sites also participated and had their service utilization data analyzed. We found a significant correlation between the number of client-provider interactions and their level of agreement within the instrument's "competence/confidence" subscale. We also found that these interactions had a significant correlation with veterinarian care and spay/neuter services. This study provides initial evidence that increasing the use of culturally competent engagement strategies has the potential to increase service utilization for pets in historically underserved communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding pet ownership in a community is an important factor for assessing the effectiveness of animal welfare programming. Data on pet ownership were collected from 2,327 households in two urban and two rural zip codes. The percentage of households owning pets and the species owned were calculated for the individual communities, the urban and rural pairs, and the aggregate data. Findings were compared to the 2017–2018 AVMA Pet Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook data. The rural communities had an 11.5% higher rate of overall pet keeping and a 19% higher dog ownership rate than the urban communities, but the measured cat ownership rate was similar in all four sites at an average of 19.4% (SD = 2.1%). The community-specific rates of pet ownership were different (p <.0001) than the rates predicted fromthe AVMA-recommended formula, but at 56.8%, the aggregate pet-keeping rate was exactly the same as that calculated by the AVMA. The findings reveal community-level variability in pet-keeping rates that must be accounted for when assessing pet service, emergency planning, and animal welfare programming needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Humane Community is defined by the presence of leaders, institutions, and policies working collaboratively across social and political systems to create and implement sustainable human, animal, and environmental welfare. Social-environmental-economic impact assessment (SEEIA) is a tool that can be used to inform policymaking at the municipal, county, state, and national levels to gain a comprehensive assessment of a proposed policy's impacts on humans, animals, and the environment. In this paper, the Humane Community framework will be described and demonstrated by summarizing three previous studies that applied SEEIA to three different animal welfare policies: the "Compassion Center" concept of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the "No Kill" Resolution of Austin, Texas; and the "Pit Bull Ban" in Denver, Colorado. The authors will discuss how SEEIA studies support stakeholders in identifying potential mechanisms including, but not limited to, legislative efforts through which social change can be generated to achieve a Humane Community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]