Tomorrow's Shelters - Are We Strategically Planning?

If I was an investor and I looked at this graph from Maddie's Fund, the last thing I would do would be to invest in an animal shelter that was going to build more capacity (more kennels). I might as well flush my money down the toilet. In less than ten years those kennels will be gathering dust.  This graph shows the downward trend in the number of shelter deaths in this country over the last 30 years. It is falling fast - at the rate we're going we're on track to be a No-Kill Nation by 2015.

So will animal shelters become obsolete? Of course not. There will always be animals that slip through the cracks and need the safety net of our community's shelters.  But things will change. Smart shelter directors and boards of directors are looking at the trends now and planning for the future. Shelters will be more about being community-based resource centers than pet stores or "pounds".

The highly adoptables will fly out the door (they already do in a lot of places). The public will demand that the less adoptable be rehabilitated. The old sheltering model of "adopt the best and kill the rest" will not be tolerated. So shelters will have to design themselves around these less adoptable (but just as lovable) animals and the eleven steps of the No Kill Equation to stay afloat. Shelters will be funded by donations because of the goodwill that is generated in the community - not through adoption fees. Donors will fund shelters because they are grateful that the shelter helped them find their lost pet, taught them to potty train their dog or listened to their endless questions about Fluffy the cat's, odd nocturnal behaviors.

Looking in my crystal ball: here are some things that I think smart shelter directors should be thinking about NOW before they are blindsided by the changes that are to come:

- dogs will need more rehabilitation (because the highly adoptables are gone) so shelters will need to be set up to accommodate this. There will be less dogs, but for longer periods of stay. So shelters will need socialization rooms and exercise yards; both with equipment and furnishings that will simulate what they will need to deal with in their new lives. They will also need an extensive network of foster homes.

- trap banks, training and support for TNR (trap-neuter-return) programs.   Once the community (feral) cats are out of the shelter system, the pet cat population will stabilize and adoptions will match attrition rates in the community.

- lost and found services (Missing Animal Response) This is woefully lacking  now in most shelters in this country, resulting in thousands and thousands of shelter deaths.

- animal help desks to assist new adopters with behavior and training challenges. You aren't expected to learn to do the service work on a new car yourself. Why do animal shelter staff get disgusted when you adopt a new pet and then have training issues?

- low cost spay and neuter services available to the public without making them jump through all kinds of income-verification and/or residency hoops.

- great customer service that helps EVERY person that comes in the door with a smile, referring them to a good rescue or breeder (or shelter down the street)  if the dog or cat of choice is not available at the shelter. Yes - I said breeder. Because good breeders will be an important part of the future of animal welfare. 

- services for seniors citizens.  Perhaps a volunteer run program that helps seniors choose and adopt a pet and then helps with the vet visits, grooming appointments, and other small details that will enable a senior to keep a pet in their home longer.

Does your local shelter do these things now? Are they on the right road to doing these things soon? If not - don't be surprised if they are closing up shop in the next few years. The writing is on the wall.

Circling the Wagons Rarely Works

A couple of months ago I started this blog with a problem that had arisen at Countryside Humane Society in Racine, Wisconsin. Staff had given expired vaccines for six months to approximately 600 animals. I won't rehash those details. They're in my very first entry.

Shortly after the vaccine fiasco, the management of the humane society circled the wagons and denied any wrongdoing. One Racine alderman, Eric Marcus, has stayed determined to get to the bottom of this. There has also been ongoing coverage of the events in Racine Uncovered - a web-based news site.

Alderman Marcus has tried to get a copy of six years worth of Countryside's records and has been denied. Even though at least a portion of these records should fall under the Freedom of Information Act (more on this below). So, finally Marcus found someone who would come forward with allegations of abuse. The story aired on WISN news last night.

I am not a big fan of using one story to make a point - but in this case it may have finally achieved the desired outcome. Enough of a public outcry to get to the bottom of this mess. We'll see.  Countryside is still not responding and has hired a lawyer to represent them.

Countryside Humane Society has now been  removed from the membership list of AWARE (Alliance of Wisconsin Area Rehoming Efforts)  a partnership of shelters and rescues in Wisconsin who promote the responsible rehoming of adopted animals.

My point - "Crawling into bed and pulling the covers over your head does not make the storm go away." In this case, it's getting worse by the day - because I'm sure there will be all sorts of anecdotal stories of mistreatment that may surface. Just look at the comments that are starting to pop up under the WISN news story. Soon Countryside will have lost the public's support and donations.  The income from their animal control contracts is not enough to keep their doors open.

Countryside management needs for once and for all to come out in the open, show their records, apologize, roll a few heads, and get back on track in a new, responsible, transparent fashion that the taxpayers and donors expect and deserve.

If you are trying to get records from an animal shelter that provides animal control services (falls under the Freedom of Information Act) - here is a step-by step guide put out by the No Kill Advocacy Center.
http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/pdf/transparency.pdf

Also at the No Kill Conference last weekend in Washington, D.C. there was a session on "Forcing Transparency".  Here are the live blogging notes from Christie Keith of the Pet Connection.

The Power and Pitfalls of Petfinder

As many of you know, Wisconsin recently passed a  Dog Breeders Licensure Bill which was signed into law by Governor Doyle last December. The rules and regulations are presently being hashed out in committee meetings and the law will go into effect in June of 2011.

Our new state law will, along with breeders, license and regulate shelters and rescues, who sell or offer to sell 25 or more dogs per year. Most shelters and rescues were totally supportive, and many testified at the public hearing. - but there were some that were less than happy. They feel that this is going to cause unfair financial hardship on those that are trying to help the dogs.

Frankly, I was glad to see the shelters and rescues included in the bill. We work far too hard to get the dogs out of the puppy mills to see them suffer in poorly run facilities.

How does Petfinder tie in to all of this? Well - a history lesson first. Fifteen years ago - there wasn't any Internet or Petfinder. Rescues were almost exclusively associated with a breed group. So if you wanted to rescue a Jack Russell Terrier - you went to the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America and they had a rescue "arm" with representatives in every state. They advertised their rescue dogs in their member newsletters. Any other type of advertising would have been too expensive. The vet bills and costs of these rescues were supported by reputable breeders and fundraising by the clubs. Dogs were acquired by surrenders to the club or by state representatives who checked local shelters to see if any needed "pulling" to avoid euthanasia. It was virtually impossible to rescue a Jack Russell through any other means than the JRTCA.

Many of these breed rescues are still in existence and they do amazing life saving work.

But once the Internet came along and then the powerful search engine of Petfinder was introduced, adopters were able to search for dogs nationwide with a few clicks of the mouse. It was too good to be true for the rescues. And it was free! But the downside: With the ability to advertise dogs (and all sorts of companion animals) free online it wan't long before all sorts of rescues began popping up everywhere. Anyone can have a rescue, there's no rules, (other than perhaps local ordinances and a few state laws), no standards, and no longer any need to be affiliated with a breed club.

So the pitfalls start to appear. We have had a couple of rescues go bad recently in Wisconsin. One court case is pending, another has had the charges dropped due to our present substandard laws.

Many new people to dog rescue who should have learned the ropes either by fostering for a humane society or one of the reputable breed rescues that have strong, stable financial backing and support systems, instead started up their own rescues. This has resulted in a fractured system in our state - we have 267 shelters and  rescues listed on Petfinder and this is probably not all of them! Because there are other Internet services that popped up after Petfinder.

Without the backing of a breed club or a larger group, some of these smaller rescues can quickly become overwhelmed with vet bills and expenses. They start to have to rely on adoption fees of the highly adoptable dogs to pay for the bills of the medically or behaviorally challenged ones. They have to start actively seeking these highly adoptable dogs to "pull" to make ends meet. And pretty soon it becomes a house of cards. Without the wisdom and support of a humane society or established breed rescue, things can go south pretty quickly.

Also important to mention - any reputable rescue must be willing to take a dog back at any time and for any reason. So a small rescue can often become overwhelmed both with the number of dogs they can reasonably care for, and the mounting vet bills.

One small thing goes wrong - the loss of a foster home, an unexpected return or medical expense and the house of cards comes tumbling down. Unfortunately, because these good-hearted, well-meaning people are "saving" dogs - it becomes very difficult to try to step in and say something when the red flags start to appear.  And again, it's the dogs that suffer.

I'll leave it there. But I also want to direct you to an excellent blog this week by Susan Daffron of the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals (NAPRP). She talks about how to recognize the signs in your life that it might be in the animals' best interest for you to give up rescue and call in some professionals for help. I think she summed it up best in this sentence:

If you can't care for them properly yourself, get them into a situation where they will be given humane care and the chance at a forever home.


Here is a link to an in-depth background story on Petfinder - it starts on Page 20 of the attached archived copy of Best Friends magazine.

http://www.bestfriends.org/allthegoodnews/magazine/BFM_Jan09PDF.pdf