In animal shelters there is an excess of cats and dogs that need homes

Question

In animal shelters there is an excess of cats and dogs that need homes. Meanwhile, there are also many senior citizens who live alone and experience more health problems than those who live with spouses or family members. A solution to these problems, which would benefit both animals and seniors, is to place these homeless animals with senior citizens who wish to own pets, and to provide assistance to those senior citizens who might not be able to take care of the pet on there own. Animals have been known to respond favorably to living with older people, who are more often able to provide more attention than younger people with families.

In evaluating the proposed solution, it would be most useful to have data regarding:-

A. whether most of the animals currently at the shelter would be suitable for adoption by the senior citizens

B. what the costs would be of instituting the program

C. whether senior citizens are capable of taking care of pet without assistance

D. whether family members and spouses who live with senior citizens tend to provide nursing care

E. whether there are other forms of companionship that might provide the same health benefit to the senior citizens

Source: 800score

Tan2017 · Answer

Official Explanation by 800score is as follows:-

The author makes an assumption that the connection between living with others and the health problems is a causal one and that it is the companionship of living with others, specifically, that provides the health benefits. If instead the benefit comes from those family members providing nursing care, then it is less likely living with pets would provide the same benefits as living with another person."

While this the official explanation I would still like an expert view for better clarity !

Aiasha · Answer

The correct answer is option D. 
Living alone Vs living with a companion is being considered here. The argument suggests that living alone causes health problems and that companionship causes less health problems. The missing info. here is that humans are the reason for better health. Therefore, simply substituting the need for humans with dogs will not help in reducing the health problems.

KanishkM · Answer

Would like to know if my reasoning for eliminating answer A and accepting D is correct or not

A. whether most of the animals currently at the shelter would be suitable for adoption by the senior citizens

B. what the costs would be of instituting the program
Costs is not as per the scope of the argument -> Out

C. whether senior citizens are capable of taking care of pet without assistance
This is going  against  the scope of the argument, they are considering pets for people's help.

D. whether family members and spouses who live with senior citizens tend to provide nursing care

E whether there are other forms of companionship that might provide the same health benefit to the senior citizens
OOS, as this talking about other forms of companionship, not relevant to this argument

Now lets go over A and D 
A. whether most of the animals currently at the shelter would be suitable for adoption by the senior citizens
Yes most of the animals currently at the shelter would be suitable for adoption by the senior citizens
This strengthens the conclusion.

No most of the animals currently at the shelter would not be suitable for adoption by the senior citizens
This means some will still be suitable, this again strengthens the argument, that felines should be given to senior citizens

D. whether family members and spouses who live with senior citizens tend to provide nursing care
Are my questions relevant
Initially i thought, why are we considering the family members in this scope??
Didn't we say that we are considering cats for helping the senior citizens ???

But now when i do the Yes No test on this

Yes family members and spouses who live with senior citizens tend to provide nursing care
This weakens the plan, by saying they are not required.

No family members and spouses who live with senior citizens tend to provide nursing care
This strengthens the plan, by saying they are required.

Answer indeed is D.

unraveled · Answer

OE: (D) The author is arguing that placing homeless animals with senior citizens would help reduce the number of pets and bolster the health of their owners. The support for this solution is twofold; that seniors who live with others have fewer health problems, and that animals are frequently happier with older owners. The author makes the assumption that the connection between living with others and health problems is a causal one, and that it is the companionship of living with others, specifically, that provides the health benefits. If, instead, the benefit comes from those family members providing nursing care, then it is less likely that living with a pet would provide the same health benefits as living with another person. Knowing the reason for the health benefits is important to evaluating whether the proposed solution would actually benefit humans.

Choice (A) is incorrect because it addresses the feasibility of the solution and how widely it can be implemented. Whether or not most of the animals would be suitable is irrelevant, as long as those animals that are suitable are the ones that are placed with senior citizens.

Choice (B) is even further outside of the realm of the argument; the costs of the program are not at issue.

Choice (C) raises a potential concern about placing animals with seniors, but this concern is eliminated by the information that part of the solution would include providing assistance in caring for the adopted animals.

Choice (E) is incorrect because the author is not suggesting that the proposed solution is the only one, or the best one; merely that this solution would be of benefit to animals and people.

krndatta · Answer

ParamjitDasGMAT ,

Can you throw some light on your reasoning for options A and D.

Thanks

sarthak1701 · Answer

Got to the correct answer by the method of elimination, A is irrelevant because the stem clearly says there is an excess of cats and dogs, but that does not necessarily imply that most of the animals there are cats and dogs, for all we know, rabbits may form the majority of animals in the shelter but because they get adopted at a much higher rate as well, they are not in excess and it does not matter if rabbits are suitable for adoptions by senior citizens or not because the argument is about cats and dogs.

mmathur · Answer

So, the reason I eliminated D was because it felt out of scope. Like the passage starts off by talking about senior citizens who live alone. I latched onto the 'alone' keyword.

But D is talking about senior citizens who live with other people. So.. I'm wondering where exactly in my thought process I made a mistake and how I can avoid it in the future. Can anyone help me with that? Thanks in advance!

bb · Answer

I agree with you. A is the better answer here.

D is tangential at present. Either the passage needs to be modified to fit it or A is the better answer.

I will probably move this question into archive because it’s problematic.

In animal shelters there is an excess of cats and dogs that need homes

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