If you work in animal well-being, you know that families seeking help often have more than one challenge affecting their pets. New research from the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) explores how a structured Animal Needs Assessment tool can help community outreach teams identify the multiple, overlapping needs affecting pets and their families, leading to more targeted support. From this research, the ASPCA developed a 10-item Animal Needs Assessment to systematically identify and prioritize common animal welfare concerns.

The study highlights the importance of comprehensive assessments, trust-building and cross-sector collaboration, which are key to keeping pets safe and families together. While one visible concern—such as a lack of veterinary care—may bring them to your organization, additional needs like inadequate enrichment, unsafe housing conditions or financial hardship often go unidentified. This research shows how using a simple Animal Needs Assessment can help community outreach staff consistently identify those needs, prioritize services and improve outcomes for pets and people.

Researchers analyzed Animal Needs Assessments completed across 519 households, revealing several important findings:

• Most households needed multiple services to address their pets’ needs.
• Client openness during the first interaction was strongly associated with successful service delivery.
• Animal welfare concerns frequently intersected with human vulnerabilities, highlighting the value of collaboration between animal welfare organizations and human service providers.

Learn more about key study takeaways, why this matters to animal well-being organizations and how you can put the needs assessment tool into practice.