Animal Shelter Adoption Hackathon Puts Data Science to Use for Social Good
Businesses, government agencies, and organizations of all types – from the NFL to the CDC – are using data science to solve tough challenges, plan strategically, and ensure growth. But from its inception, the discipline of data science has also concerned itself with harnessing the power of data to effect positive change in the world. To that end, close to 50 Booz Allen data scientists volunteered their expertise to look for ways to improve animal care and adoption.
Given a rich dataset with 16-years’ worth of information on animal adoptions from Lollypop Farm, a nonprofit animal shelter in Rochester, NY, teams spent many hours at the Booz Allen conference center looking for insights to help animal shelters nationwide. Some highlights of their findings are below:
- Women adopt shelter animals at a higher rate than men.
- While dogs of all weights are adopted at around the same rate, pit bulls spend an average of 20 more days at a shelter than Labrador Retrievers.
- Cats with unique names spend less time in a shelter compared with cats with more common names.
- Each letter in a cat’s name adds a quarter of a day to the time the cat will spend in a shelter.
- Although de-clawed cats spend less time shelters, they are also 3.5 times as likely to have behavior problems as cats that are not declawed.
Booz Allen’s Animal Shelter hackathon is part of the firm’s Hackathon for Social Good Series, which continued Saturday, February 6 with a Hackathon on Human Trafficking.
As a company, Booz Allen Hamilton makes it our mission to solve our client’s toughest challenges. We also apply our experience and expertise to making a difference in our communities. The spirit of service is embedded in our culture, and Booz Allen employees are passionate about giving back. When we sign on to help ease some of the burdens in our communities, we’re helping our neighbors, our employees, and working to create a better environment for all of us. Learn more about Booz Allen’s spirit of service.
