Chicago Animal Care and Control Performance

Chicago Animal Care and Control (CACC) works with community partners toward the common goal of minimizing the number of homeless and abandoned animals that come into the City shelter, and saving all healthy and treatable animals as our resources and capacity for care will permit. CACC is committed to transparency and accountability regarding the animals that come into our care.

Our Data

The following will assist in understanding CACC’s performance month-to-month, quarterly and annually. Each set of data includes the following: an Intakes table and an Outcomes table.

Intakes include all of the categories of intake for dog, cat, other and wildlife during a particular time period: Stray animals (“Stray”); owner surrendered pets (“Owner Surrender”); animals confiscated for abuse, neglect or abandonment (“Confiscate”); disposal requests for deceased animals (“Disposal Request”); euthanasia requests by owners (CACC provides this service for the cost of $10) (“Euthanasia Request”); adoption returns (“Returns”), which are animals returned within 14 days of adoption.

Outcomes include all of the categories for the eventual disposition for a particular period of time for dogs, cats, other animals, and wildlife that have come into the shelter. These categories are as follows: adopted animals (“Adoption”); animals that have been returned to their owner after straying from home, or after having been confiscated or impounded (“Returned to Owner”); animals transferred to our rescue partners (“Transfer”); animals that were euthanized at the request of their owners (“Euthanasia by Request”); animals that were euthanized for health, behavior, and/or capacity for care, such as resources to treat or space (“Other Euthanasia”); animals that have died after they entered the shelter (“Died in Care”); and animals that were dead prior to entering the shelter (“Dead on Arrival”).

Calculating CACC’s Live Release Rate (LRR)

To calculate the total LRR, look to CACC’s Outcomes:

• Add the total number of dog and cat adoptions, transfers to rescue groups, and returns to owner. (If you wish to calculate the LRR for dogs or cats, then follow the same formula separately for the cat data column and the dog data column.)
• Divide this number by the total number of cat and dog outcome minus “Euthanasia by Request” and “Dead on Arrival.”
• Multiply the result by 100 to arrive at the LRR

For example, from Jan. 1, 2017 through October 19, 2017, for dogs we had 559 Adoptions, 1,042 dogs returned to owner, and 2,656 transfers to rescue organizations. Our total Outcome for dogs for that time period was 5,805 dogs, and the total number of owner requests for euthanasia for dogs was 479. The number of dogs that were dead on arrival was 445. To calculate the LLR, you would do as follows:

• Add 559 Adoptions, 1,042 Returned to Owner, 2,656 Transfers which equals: 4257 dogs
• Divide 4257 dogs by [the total number of dog outcomes for that time frame (5,805) minus “Euthanasia by Request” (479) and “Dead on Arrival” (445)].

4257 divided by 4,881 = 0.87 multiplied by 100 = 87 percent LRR.