It has been more than two decades since the last comprehensive study of conditions and compliance with state shelter laws in Kentucky’s county animal shelters. Researchers at the University of Kentucky College (UK) of Agriculture, Food and Environment’s Department of Veterinary Science recently took on the challenge and also used it as an opportunity to partner with a new Tennessee veterinary school.

The team traveled across Kentucky to gather information for the study, including data on current conditions and major problems. They also identified needs based on visits to the shelters and interviews with shelter personnel. Students from the veterinary school at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee collaborated in the study and traveled thousands of miles to curate data.

“We divided up the students and assigned them a number of counties. What we found is that the county shelter conditions greatly varied,” said Cynthia Gaskill, DVM, PhD, Dip. ABVT, a researcher at the UK Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. “Each county is responsible for its own shelter, but no one has any enforcement capability. There was no master list of shelters and locations, so some of them were hard to find.”

After the last study of Kentucky shelters, the Humane Shelter Act required all counties to come into compliance with new statutes by 2007, but no formal follow-up studies tested that progress