Since the 1940s, perceived companion animal overpopulation in the United States has been an important issue to the animal welfare community (Moulton, Wright, & Rinky, 1991). This surplus of animals has resulted in millions of dogs and cats being euthanized annually in animal shelters across the country. The nature and scope of this problem have been notoriously difficult to characterize. The number of animal shelters in the United Stares, the demographics of the population of animals passing through them, and the characteristics of per owners relinquishing animals are poorly understood. What portion of these animals are adopted or euthanized, why they are relinquished, and their source of acquisition are all questions for which there have been little data. Consequently, we are no closer to answering the fundamental question of how and why many animals are destroyed each year in shelters (Arkow, 1994).

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The Regional Shelter Relinquishment Study sponsored by the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy (NCPPSP) is a national research project designed to explore the characteristics of relinquished dogs and cats, their owners, and the reasons for relinquishment. The NCPPSP Regional Shelter Study found that behavioral problems, including aggression toward people or nonhuman animals, were the most frequently given reasons for canine relinquishment and the second most frequently given reasons for feline relinquishment. No association was found between category JOURNAL OF APPLIED ANIMAL WELFARE SCIENCE, 3(2), 93-106

Because early-age gonadectomy appears to offer more benefits than risks for male dogs, animal shelters can safely gonadectomize male dogs at a young age and veterinary practitioners should consider recommending routine gonadectomy for client-owned male dogs before the traditional age of 6 to 8 months. For female dogs, however, increased urinary incontinence suggests that delaying gonadectomy until at least 3 months of age may be beneficial.

Listeria monocytogenes isolates from human sporadic and epidemic cases (n l 119) and from animal cases (n l 76) were characterized by automated ribotyping and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) typing of the virulence genes actA and hly. This combination of typing methods differentiated 39 distinctive strains, each reflecting a unique combination of ribotypes, hly and actA alleles. Simpson's index of discrimination indicated a high discriminatory ability of ribotyping for both animal (0867) and human isolates (0857), which was further increased by the addition of hly and actA typing (0916 and 0904, respectively). Ribotype and hly allele data were further used to group isolates into three genetically distinct lineages. Each lineage is composed of several ribotype fragment subsets, each of which contains multiple ribotypes characterized by common ribotype fragments. To determine whether certain clones of L. monocytogenes show indications for unique pathogenic potential or host specificity, frequency distributions for five genetic characteristics (i.e. lineage, ribotype, ribotype fragment subset and hly and actA allele) were calculated for isolates from animal cases, human epidemic cases and human sporadic cases. Lineage III isolates were found less frequently in human cases (1 of 119 isolates) than in animal cases (8 of 76 isolates ; P l 0003). These results suggest the possibility of host specificity for non-primate mammals among lineage III strains. In addition, lineage I strains were found more frequently among human cases than among animal cases (P T 0001). Among the eight hly alleles observed, hly allele 1 was more common among human isolates as compared to animal isolates (P l 0002). We also identified one ribotype (DUP-1030) which was significantly more common among animal isolates (P l 0005) and one ribotype (DUP-1038 ; lineage I) which was significantly more common among human epidemic isolates as compared to human sporadic isolates (P T 0001). These findings confirm the presence of clonal groups of L. monocytogenes, which appear to be characterized by unique virulence or host specificity patterns. This study also establishes baseline data describing the genetic diversity of human and animal L. monocytogenes isolates which can be utilized in future surveillance programmes to track the emergence of new strains.