Up until just a couple of years ago, pounds were able to explain away poor performance simply by saying their community was ‘irresponsible’; that they were bad pet owners, that they were buying the wrong pets on impulse, that they were not desexing their pets, that they were giving up and abandoning pets too easily, or that they simply didn’t care enough to adopt. And that was why pounds killed pets.

And the community enabled their poor performance by swallowing these excuses without question.

However, in 2011 something has changed forever.

We’ve been able to find out that we, as Australians, are overwhelmingly responsible and loving pet owners. That we rarely buy the wrong pets on impulse. That we nearly universally desex our animals. That only a tiny percentage of us give up our pets. And that given half a chance, we’d love to adopt.

So we’ve had to dig a little bit deeper for the reasons why pets don’t survive being impounded. Whats more, we’ve been able to compare the performance of one pound with another. With transparency like never before, we’re able to see the single determining factor in a pound’s success in saving the lives of pets; is whether or not they reject killing as a function of animal management.

Historically, it has been high kill, low adoption shelters who peddled the idea that there was ‘too many animals and not enough homes’. But these conclusions weren’t based on numbers of animal intakes vs potential pet adoption market size – instead they were applying simple, unsubstantiated reverse logic; pets are killed in pounds therefore there is too many.  The mythical ‘pet overpopulation’  was then used to protect pound management and hide their ongoing failures from the public.

Today, if we’re looking for real answers, we need to look at the facts, not the fiction – we need to look at the data and the experience of successful shelters.

Around 500,000 pets enter shelters ever year. Kill shelters will say there is no way to find homes for all those animals. But the good news is most of them don’t need adoption. A large number are untame or semi owned cats who need to be kept out of the shelter with TNR and ‘Secret Cat’ programs. More than 80% of the dogs are simply lost & could be reunited with their families if the shelter emphasised redemptions. Others are going to go to rescue groups. While a few are going to be hopelessly ill or injured & will need to be euthanised. Rather than need to rehome all the pets, we really only need to find homes for about one in five of them.

Is it possible?

Are there 100,000 people looking to bring a new cat or dog into their homes this year?

The answer isn’t just yes, but yes, and many, many more times that. Based on the number of pets who pass away naturally, over half a million homes open up each year with loving owners looking to replace their cat or dog. While some are already committed to getting one from another source like a breeder, if we can influence just some of the others to adopt their next pet – we CAN save every adoptable animal. We potentially have half a million people vying for just 100,000 available pets, or in other words, even if 80% of people get their pet from a source other than rescue, we could still zero out the killing.

And that is simply the organic numbers. This doesn’t include people who are getting a pet for the first time. Or people returning to pet ownership after a break. Or people expanding from a single to a multi-pet household. Or people who’d be willing to care for a community cat. Or temporary homes that would foster a pet for a time.

All shelters and pounds have to do to harness this market is decide to stop killing. There are tools to make it happen. There is a model to follow. The numbers show that we can be a No Kill nation.

Ending shelter killing is not only possible, but a certainty once we reject the excuses and demand those in charge of running our animal shelters and pounds comprehensively implement the proactive lifesaving policies & procedures of the No Kill equation. It is community pressure which will force pounds to improve adoption & reclaim rates. It is concerned individuals finding others in the community, to apply pressure to *their* pound in *their* neighbourhood which will ultimately save the lives of pets.

The pound system we get, is the one we accept. If you are an animal lover who wants better for homeless pets than a convenient death in an animal shelter, don’t wait for government to fix the problem. Don’t think animal welfare groups have it in hand. Don’t join a Facebook group & think it will be enough to bring about change. You must activate. Get involved.

The No Kill Revolution Starts with YOU

The No Kill movement gains momentum in Oz.

Resident action group forms to effect change at Campbelltown Animal Care Facility

Activists to pound for a change at Blacktown

GAWS & The LDH – The times they are a-changin…

Once above scrutiny and allowed to hide behind a plethora of excuses for poor performance, today’s pounds and shelters are being held accountable to provide the community’s pets a healthy animal management system.

This new level of answerability is never more evident than when animal lovers join together to develop solutions for their local companion animal issues, only to find that their council pound has been killing nearly every. single. one. of the unclaimed animals they were encharged to care for. Deeply entrenched in a culture which blames the public & absolving themselves of even the most basic responsibility in saving lives, these underperforming shelters buck the trend of compassion and instead choose to kill behind close doors. That is, until the community finally understands the premise of the No Kill model & stands up to apathetic management & heartless local council policies.

It’s hard to hide in the internet age; it’s nearly impossible to keep secrets from an empowered community. More and more it’s backlash from the public driving the change that for decades has failed to materialise.

Rockhampton’s slaughterhouse

Rockhampton (QLD)’s pound has a problem with flooding, and a problem with pets being stolen, and a problem with parvo and a problem with facilities being a run down pile of crap:

“As far as the location of the Rockhampton city pound, it is in a flood prone area beside the sewage treatment works and it’s not a very nice location,” says (Councillor Tony Williams). (ref)

But mostly they have a problem with animals ending up dead;

(Compliance officer Chris Phillips) admitted just 11% of cats survive a spell at the pound and during April only seven of the hundreds of animals taken to the pound were rehoused by the council.

Council killed 300 of the 436 pets impounded in the month of March alone, but it’s not their fault – obviously – the killing is the public’s fault;

… several councillors used a debate this week to blame society. Cr Cherie Rutherford said it was disturbing to see what little regard people had for animals and Cr Graeme Brady said everywhere you went in Rockhampton wandering dogs were a problem. (ref)

Cr Tony Williams said the problem was that some people treated pets as a disposable item. “Pets are for life, not just three months, but sadly not everyone sees it that way,” he said. (ref)

And the killing most certainly has nothing to do with the pound being open for adoptions one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon and lost pets only being held for 72hrs before being destroyed.

After receiving a bollocking by the community’s pet lovers and the local media “…meetings were held between RSPCA, Capricorn Animal Aid, and Council to look at improving rehoming rates.”

Ironically, only because of backlash by the same ‘irresponsible public’ so quickly condemned by Council, is the pound being held accountable. For the first time in decades, pets may given the chance to survive an interaction with the pound.

Parkes Shire Council unashamedly killing

Just four hours out of Sydney, Parkes Shire Council Pound has a problem; they get in one pet a day and gosh darn it, they have to kill it;

Parkes Shire Council has expressed concern regarding the number of dogs and cats being impounded and euthanized on a weekly basis within the district.
…
Last month a total of 28 dogs and six cats were impounded of which 26 were destroyed.

Despite a requirement in the NSW code of practice for pounds & shelters to make an effort to rehome healthy pets, Parkes’ remarkable effort to kill just about every pet that comes through their doors is explained away simply in their annual report;

“Council does not have any practical alternative available to rehome dogs and cats. During 2009/10 no dogs or cats were rehomed.”

108 cats and 337 dogs were killed in the 2009/10 financial year. Given its very hard to adopt a dead animal, these guys were never given a chance.

After the plight of pets being highlighted in the media, there was outrage from the Parkes’ community. Parkes Council was unrepentant – it’s the ‘irreponsible owners’ dontchya know?

Parkes Shire Council wants the state government to conduct a public awareness campaign highlighting the obligations of owners.

Pressure on Blacktown pound turn the wheels of change

Early last year the repulsive Blacktown Pound (NSW) ‘bidding’ process and pound procedures came under the scrutiny of the local community. Not only were small desirable breeds being sold undesexed to the highest bidder (often breeders who could recoup costs from selling pups), but potential adopters were being sent away empty handed when their bids were unsuccessful. Despite dozens of bidders on some animals, in 2008, 1419 dogs and 3146 cats were put down at the council facility.

Thanks to persistent public pressure, the council is now looking to make significant changes to their operating procedures;

Blacktown councillors voted to adopt recommendations made in two reports about pound operations and policy.

Former veterinarian and RSPCA boss Mark Lawrie compiled the reports, which say the desexing of animals given new homes may reduce the number of unwanted offspring returned to the pound.

Dr Lawrie says the tender system, which requires prospective pet-owners to outbid each other, should be changed to a fixed-price system.

He also said pound buildings and animal housings are run-down.

Dr Lawrie’s reports said it would cost a lot, but that newer facilities should be built.

Advocates will be watching with interest to see if Council implement the changes as recommended, or continue to allow thousands of pets to be killed unnecessarily while potential families flock to more cooperative sources of pets; pet stores and trading post breeders.

Don’t stop fighting

In the US, where animal welfare reform is well and truly underway, animal control agencies are slamming door on public scrutiny. We’d do well to learn from their experiences;

FixAustin.org’s Ryan Clinton, who has seen his community go from killing the majority of its homeless dogs and cats to saving more than 90 percent of them for six months in a row this year, sees such activism as democracy at its best.

“It should be uncontroversial that an agency doing the work of the people, and paid for with the people’s hard-earned money, should reflect the will of the people,” he said.

“But too often, animal-control agencies facing calls for reform behave more like authoritarian regimes than arms of a democracy, circling their wagons, deflecting blame, and becoming less rather than more transparent.”

He said the only reason any organization would take such actions is that it assumes the animal-loving public will give up.

“While that does happen in some places,” he said, “in others the public only fights harder. I think the lesson from Austin is that if a community of animal lovers fights inhumane sheltering practices long enough, smart enough and tough enough, that community can prevail.”

And we will prevail here in Australia too.

Coming soon; good news for pets – pounds who save lives

See also: How to save 110 pets in three days

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about my time off (apart from the sweet, sweet smell of baby neck!) is getting to watch the snowballing of compassion, as pet lovers and animal welfare advocates join forces like never before. Where the voices speaking up for the rights of shelter pets were once only a few ‘crazy’ fringe pioneers, now the myths and mantras which justified killing for convenience are being rejected by the community at large.

Sides are being drawn; those who seek to continue to kill, hiding behind apologetic slogans of ‘overpopulation’ and continuing to browbeat an ‘irresponsible public’. And those who seek to embrace the resources of the community’s pet lovers, championing the core belief that a new home is a better outcome for a pet, than death in a shelter. The community is speaking up for animals, fighting to overcome the inertia of many pounds in implementing proactive redemption, rehabilitation and rehoming programs. Thanks to this movement, the future is looking bright for Australian pets.

RSPCA ACT continue to lead to way

The RSPCA ACT have released their annual statistics, saving an inspiring 94% of dogs and 65% of cats. Their secret? Attitude!

“Despite the economic down turn and an increase in demand across all services, we just continue to improve. I am incredibly proud of our team.” ~ Michael Linke

Challenging the myth of ‘faulty’ pets

When Geelong Animal Welfare Society (GAWS) was approached by its community to work to reduce their high kill rates, their response was that the animals were dying because they were simply ‘not adoptable’.

“The animals we put down are not rehomeable,” Dr Walter said. “We are not like a pet shop, some of these dogs will have attacked people.

… these cats cannot be re-homed, they will rip your arm off.”

This may have seemed plausible until you consider the organisation killed 852 dogs and rehomed just 487 (they also ‘misplaced’ 217 dogs), and killed 2,426 cats, rehoming just 546.

The organisation is accused by protesters of refusing to implement proactive programs promoting adoption, refusing to working with community rescue groups, refusing to list pets online and acting in a hostile fashion to potential adopters. The community’s animal management problems are exasperated by the organisations support of draconian laws, which predictably drove up impounds.

While GAWS management are resentful of such attention – they have been killing without consequence for decades and wish desperately that their community would just butt out – the saga continues with the latest annual report revealing the organisation declared $2.3 million in financial assets in 2010.

GAW’s community is getting wise that they are not to blame for the organisation’s poor performance in saving lives and that the high kill rates are out of sync with how they want homeless animals to be treated. In short, the community are fighting for the animals, while the animal ‘welfare’ group who should be, fights for the right to keep killing. An abhorrent contradiction.

Community members who would like to join the push for an improvement of services at GAWS can join the Geelong Animal Care Facebook group.

Community push for compassion

With their name rapidly become synonymous with high kill rates, The Lost Dogs Home found itself the focus of locale media;

Pound kill rate sparks concern – THE AGE

A Lost Dogs Home plan to take over the running of more council pounds has alarmed animal welfare groups, who say the strategy will lead to more dogs and cats being killed.

The home has won three council contracts from rival RSPCA Victoria and has plans to take over more pounds as well as expand interstate.

The home has won contracts with Casey, Hobsons Bay and Echuca councils by tender from the RSPCA over the past two years and now runs 17 council pounds in Victoria.

But animal welfare groups have criticised the home’s growth strategy because of its high kill rate of impounded animals.
….
City of Casey spokesman Chris Ryan said tenders were called for all contracts valued at more than $150,000. The Lost Dogs Home was awarded the council’s pound contract, held by the RSPCA for the past 15 years, in December and will begin services on June 1.

Showing just how out of step they are with modern sheltering initiatives, the group blames both the community and the animals themselves for the fact so many pets fail to survive impoundment;

(Lost Dogs’ Home managing director Graeme Smith) ”We’re getting five to six owners per week refusing to come in and collect (their pets). It’s a syndrome that needs some addressing.”

Smith says the high number of dogs deemed not suitable for a new home reflects the area the shelter covers where there are more dangerous and restricted breeds of dogs.

”We have a council in the City of Melbourne that is hot to trot in making sure that we do the right thing and doing the right thing is not rehousing a dog that is going to go out and kill a neighbour’s dog or savage a kiddy,” says Smith. ”I’ve been someone who has been very strong on that.”

It’s worth remembering that this organisation adopted 3,101 pets and killed 13,594 and continues to fail to put animal welfare first, expanding their operations at the expense of animals and failing to reunite pets with owners.

Pounds may not be responsible for the pet ending up in care, but what happens next is completely in their hands. With the LDH refusing to modernise or work with local breed clubs, foster carers & rescue groups to maximise life saving, the community has the right to & should be demanding better. Killing pets while blocking these community relationships is no longer tolerable.

The community demands better for Victorian shelter pets

With the blessing of major shelters working to maintain control of valuable animal control contracts, the Department of Primary Industries proposed a highly restrictive new Code of Practice to become the blueprint for rescue in the state.

However, in a fantastic win for pets, the government listened to community feedback (over 500 submissions and more than 2,500 signatures in the PetRescue recommendation) and made significant changes to the original proposal. These changes allow shelters to work freely with foster carers and removed restrictions which forced shelters to kill pets after arbitrary time limits.

Not only does the new Code of Practice acknowledge the vital and significant contribution community rescue and foster care groups make in the modern animal sheltering model, it obligates high kill shelters to fully implement comprehensive foster care programs to save all healthy and treatable pets. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed in standing up for homeless pets and the amazing rescuers working to save them!

Busting myths

Rather than the usual suspects busting out tired old mantras of an ‘uncaring and irresponsible public’, new animal welfare players are finally being given the chance to spread the No Kill message, showing the community how to build a better future for pets. Vix from PetRescue was given the opportunity to discuss companion animal management on the 7PM Project recently. She used the opportunity to discuss modern sheltering practices and the innovative programs which are ensuring pound and shelter pets get a second chance at happiness.

Congratulations to Vix for such a groundbreaking interview.

Must attend conference announced

Continuing the theme of the new generation of inspired and inspiring animal welfare advocates leading the way in animal sheltering practices, the rock star line up for this year’s NDN has been announced.

Some of the international guests include:

- Richard Avanzino (President Maddie’s Fund USA)
Read more about Richard

- Robyn Kippenberger (CEO RNZSPCA NZ)
Read more about Robyn

- Bob Kerridge (Executive Director SPCA Auckland & National President, RNZSPCA)
Read more about Bob

- Mitch Schneider (Director Washoe County Animal Management Services USA)
Read more about Mitch

& Dr Jeff Young (DVM Planned Pethood Plus USA)
Read more about Jeff

And a host of amazing local speakers including;

- Michael Linke (CEO, RSPCA ACT)
Presenting; Change for the better

- Corinne Alberthsen & Jacqui Rand (University of Qld)
Presenting: What can 191,000 cats tell us about saving lives?

- Dr Kate Hurley (Director Shelter Medicine Program UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine)
Presenting: Feline Health in Shelters and Pounds Workshop

- Kate Mornement (Monash University)
Presenting: Behavioural Assessment Research

and Mike Bailey (Good for Dogs), Saskia & Meaghan Adams (Fundraising extraordinaires!), Tim Rickman & John Bishop (Pedigree Adoption Drive/PetRescue), Christine Yurovich (Cat Alliance of Australia) and Cathy Craw & Geoff Clarke (Tasmanian Canine Defence League).

For more information and to reserve your seat, visit: The National Desexing Network Conference page

From the Brimbank Leader today;

Brimbank Council (VIC) says just 31 per cent of Brimbank’s impounded dogs are united with owners.

It has been a State Government law since 2007 that all dogs and cats registered for the first time must be microchipped, but in Brimbank the council estimates only 40 per cent of dogs and 15 per cent of cats are registered.

To help, the council will hold a pet microchipping day on Saturday, March 26, between 10am and 3pm.
…
This year Brimbank Council is offering a two for one deal to encourage owners who have not yet registered animals, and pets being registered for the first time will have the fee for the next year waived.

We know there are things local councils can do to increase pet reclaims. The reclaim rate of a shelter without proactive programs is generally around 40-50% for dogs. A pound who offers innovative programs can drive up the reclaim rate for lost dogs up to around 65%. The advantages of doing so are obvious; more pets being collected by owners, or being returned straight home = less pets in care which reduces shelter costs. Less pets uncollected after their holding time, leads to less animals needing rehoming. And more pets being reclaimed, rather than needing to be fully processed by the shelter, often means less killing.

A study of 20,000 dogs entering Victorian shelters, showed 85% of them are entering as ’stray’, or lost dogs. With Brimbank offering their community a little over 30% in the way of reclaims, there is a remaining 55% of dog intakes that likely also have owners looking for them. The reasons for not making the connection are numerous. They may be from other councils. They may have been kept by the finder for an extended period, interfering with the process of reuniting pet and owner. They may simply be misidentified over the phone, or the owner simply gives up looking after a few visits to the pound. The pet owner has no idea about pounds or shelters and simply gives up hope. The owner may have transport difficulties, or trouble getting time off work. Whatever the reason, proactive redemption save lives.

Blaming an ‘irresponsible public’ for the high number of lost pets and low number of reclaims is part of the traditional sheltering paradigm which puts the onus on the owner. Under this approach, if someone has lost a pet, it is their responsibility to come down to the pound or shelter to look for and hopefully recover their missing companion.

It is believed that if the pet owner cared enough about their missing dog or cat, that they would make the effort to drive down to the pound daily. This thinking further assumes that if they don’t show up, then they don’t deserve the animal. The prevailing viewpoint says that under these circumstances, the pound is doing a service to the animal by finding it a different home or even killing him/her. It is a flawed paradigm which costs many animals their lives.

Beyond scanning animals for microchips, many pounds do very little to help people recover their lost pets. Worst yet, most shelter workers and pet owners have absolutely no idea how lost pets behave, the typical distances they travel and the best search techniques to recover them. The result is that people get discouraged because they are using incorrect search techniques that fail to produce results. People who are discouraged, lose hope. People without hope, give up searching. The result is that lost pets are not recovered. Instead they are absorbed into feral, stray and pound populations. The end result has been high kill rates. It is the broken system which has been dominating sheltering in our country today. And it is time for a new approach.
….

What ‘Missing Animal Response’ demands is the same principal of how law enforcement, fire departments and ambulance services operate. Approaching the issue of reuniting lost pets from a public service platform will actually save the lives of more animals than shelters are currently saving. That is because expecting grieving, broken-hearted people who are untrained and unequipped to search for their missing pets and who easily give up hope (because there are no resources to help them conduct a thorough search for their lost pet) does not make sense.
Notes from: Missing Animal Response: a Paradigm Shift to Reduce Shelter Kill Rates, by Kat Albrecht (free download here!)

Thinking ‘lost’ not ‘abandoned’ can help pounds implement policies which increase the number of pets who go home, rather than working to simply impound and process them.

What shelters can do

To their credit, offering microchipping days and fee-waived registration programs are a great place to start; but there is much, much more pounds can do to promote reclaims.

Sell the benefits of pet registration
Rather than present registration as a pet owner requirement or we’ll fine you; promote registration and microchipping at a ‘pets ticket home’. Registered pets, or pets wearing ID should be delivered straight back to their owner, rather than impounded.

Improved on-site response
Recognise that a pet that has gotten out, is probably just a once-off mistake. Officers can check identification, scan for a microchip, knock on doors where the animal was found, talk to residents and return pets home rather than impound them.

Offer billing options
Holding a pet to ransom until the owner can pay in full leads to increased non-collection of pets and puts that pet at risk of being killed. Instead offer billing, backed up by a collections department. Whether the owner can or can’t pay, it doesn’t really help either way to kill the pet and the pet is better off at home.

Improved impoundment procedures
The drive from Brimbank to North Melbourne where the pets are impounded is around half an hour. Public transport means a few changes and takes more than an hour (and dogs and cats have limited access to travel on public transport). If the owner is of limited mobility getting to the shelter may be impossible. Uploading good, clear photographs to a website of lost and found animals, then becomes vital.

Expanded lost and found pet reports
Every pet reported lost, should be given a case number and detailed records kept. These have to be matched to incoming animals, not just filed away. Volunteers can also be used for the following:

- Lost pet councilors: Volunteers offer councilor, encouragement, strategy and advice to every person who reports their pet missing. Volunteers would regularly search cages for animal look-a-likes, even weeks or months later.

- Reverse searching: Volunteers respond to the neighbourhood where a stray dog or cat was picked up to knock on doors, put up posters and pass out flyers.

- Distant shelter searching: Volunteers throughout the region routinely search all nearby and distance shelters and report back with any possible matches.

- Other media: Volunteers look at notices in local newspapers, on lost pet websites, classifieds and other pet websites.

Effective pet reclaims are a team effort

It is not enough to hold pets until their ‘time is up’ and claim that any unclaimed pets have been abandoned. By shifting from passive to a more proactive approach pounds can make a significant impact on lifesaving and return a large percentage of lost animals to their families.

More information on pounds which have had success using these models;

- Calgary Canada;
Bill Bruce is the Director of Animal and Bylaw Services at the City of Calgary, whose animal control department has achieved a +90% level of dog licencing compliance. Using the revenue from pet registrations they are able to run an open admission, self-funding shelter which saves 82% of cats and 94% of dogs… and they’ve done it without mandatory desexing, without breed specific legislation and without pet number limit laws.

- Washoe County, USA
Reno (Washoe County) takes in more animals per capita than most communities, over two times the national average and roughly 35 animals per 100 people. On top of high animal intake rates, as a tourism based economy it has been very hard hit by the economic downturn and has a high foreclosure rate. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the entire country. Luckily for the animals, Mitch Schneider, head of Washoe County Regional Animal Services, uses specific policies and practices that have brought Washoe County to having one of the highest live-release rates in the world.

More info still

Myth busters – Not all shelter pets need a new home
Missing Animal Response handout
Municipal Animal Programs That Work (Best Friends)

Dear Sir / Madam,

I need help or some advice? I work in the Coburg area and behind my work is a family of cats (dad, mum & one kitten left) living in the lane way behind a number of shops. Some of the shop owners have built a shelter (which is quite good) The mother cat is expecting again any day. I have been feeding the cats every now and then as they are also fed by a local shop keeper (given fresh meat and chicken). They don’t really belong to anyone. I am willing to pay for the female cat to be spayed once she has her new batch of kittens but I don’t know what to do with the kittens once they arrive. Previously some of the shop owners have taken the odd one or two. I have contacted the cat protection society and another similar organisation who inform me that they would just put them all down. I would appreciate any advice you may have. As I stated I am willing to pay for the female to be spayed – do you know of a vet that would do this for an alley cat? Thanks and any advice appreciated.

What you have – a compassionate person looking for help, willing to act as a cat caregiver.

What Victoria cat ‘welfare’ groups have offered her – to kill the cats.

This isn’t even close to good enough. This is the kind of person you should be grabbing and engaging and using to better the lives of cats in your state; not fobbing off by telling them you’ll kill the kittens she’s willing to help you to save.

If your state’s laws aren’t what you need, then every Victorian animal group who is killing because of this outdated legislation, should be on the streets protesting until the laws are changed. You, as the spokespeople for cats, need to be demanding that these cats are offered protection and that you are granted permission to care for these animals.

If your shelters are full in 2011, just as they were in 1970, then guess what… you’re doing it wrong. If the best you can offer a compassionate community member looking for help, is to offer to kill some cats, then guess what… you’re doing it wrong. If you’re killing kittens, when other communities have all but dried up their kitten supply through outreach desexing and community cat care, then guess what… you’re doing it wrong.

The cats of Victoria need groups who do more than claim to care, and take millions of dollars from the community in the name of ‘cat welfare’, bu then in reality do little more than act as garbage disposal for local councils, taking on trapping contracts and killing thousands of cats annually.

The cats of Victoria need groups who genuinely champion those policies that protect cats.

The cats of Victoria need a hero.

I received this email last week;

You could really help a dog we have in care at our shelter at Armidale in northern NSW in need of surgery before we can make her available to be adopted.

Neither the shelter nor our RSPCA branch, who are providing support, can afford the amount needed so we have launched a campaign to raise funds for this specific cause. All the details are here. Any help in publicising Millie’s plight will help her get her new home.

thanks
*************************************************
Phill Evans
New England Regional Companion Animals Shelter
http://armidaleanimalshelter.blogspot.com

New England Strategic Alliance of Councils – Balancing autonomy and cooperation to enhance services to our communities
Armidale Dumaresq Council www.armidale.nsw.gov.au
Guyra Shire Council www.guyra.nsw.gov.au
New England Weeds Authority

Millie is a 9 year old labrador who was abandoned by her owners. With the cataracts completely blinding her estimated to cost $5,500 to remove, she could have easily been deemed ‘unsavable’ and euthanased without fanfare. But the unreasonably compassionate staff of the New England Regional Companion Animals Shelter, took it upon themselves to ask the community for help, setting up a blog to promote Millie’s plight, called ‘Help Millie See’.

Launched the end of February, it featured a heart-melting video of Millie which showed exactly how her cataracts effected her quality of life. They used this blog to thank donors as they came forward. They publicised Millie in the local media. They kept the community updated on Millie’s progress and the progress of their fundraising.

Less than 15 days later, the group has raised more than the money needed – they’ve raised nearly $6,000 to Help Millie See… An extraordinary achievement brought about simply by asking the community for help.

A huge congratulations to Phill and his team.

Groups who spend their time criticising their community for their faults are missing awesome opportunities to tap into their compassion. Groups who spend their time ruminating on how the public is the ‘problem’ and advocating for laws to ‘teach them a lesson’ build barriers between themselves and their community, and ignore the reality which is, overwhelmingly, the public are good and kind and pet loving… and the solution to reaching ‘unreachable’ goals.

The shelters who will see success in the future are those that promote saving lives in the face of obstacles. Those groups who will thrive in the future, are those who believe in serving and involving their public and who refuse to be content with ‘blaming and killing’, instead taking the time to advocate to their communities on behalf of the pets. Those groups who will lead us into a future where shelters are a safety net for animals, are those who recognise the ‘good’ people in the community, make up 100 times over for any ‘bad’ people in the community and that engaging the good people should be the focus.

Powerful opportunities for social engagement come from transparency, trust and creativity. This is the new world of animal sheltering.

Everything is conspiring against you.

Your public is unappreciative; in fact many you deal with are genuine scumbags. Your community is demanding, telling you how to do your job.

The rescue groups in your area aren’t perfect and some are downright painful. People you’ve relied on in the past have let you down. Your volunteers are a lot of work; they get too involved, they make trouble.

The laws in your area make change impossible. Those in authority don’t care.

Your animals are different. Your community is different. Your location makes thing harder. You’re too rural. You’re too urban. Your problems are unique.

Your leadership lacks vision. Your boss is unsupportive. You could lose your job.

You’re under-resourced. You’re understaffed. You’re not sure you have the drive to make this happen. You’re feeling attacked. You’re burnt out. These critics should have to walk a mile in your shoes.

All these things are true.

Now what?

Every community who has ever made the change from killing, to not killing, had ‘insurmountable’ issues. Every shelter who has moved from killing, to not killing, has had people inside and out, telling them the changes were impossible. Every person who has ever driven the change from killing, to not killing, felt at times that they were on their own under impossible conditions.

Every. Single. One.

Working to succeed, despite the things that conspire against you is easily the hardest part of the process, because there might not be solutions. The community will never be perfect. Irresponsible people will always exist. Transport issues will always come up. Funding issues will always be a battle. Laws will always need changing. Poverty will always be a hurdle you face. Some pets will always need help.

Endless reasons to maintain the status quo. People telling you; you’re wrong, it can’t be done, not now, you’re not being realistic, you’re wasting your time. Wanting you to join their pity party about how you have it so impossibly tough.

Ignore them. You have to fight to make the changes anyway.

The animals are counting on you.

In the end none the only thing that can make change in your organisation and in your community is you. Whatever issues you face, you are no better or worse than those who have faced these challenges before you. And they have succeeded.

You are not alone. Join us.

Inspired by Copyblogger’s post today; Everything Will Conspire to Stop You …So What?

I am going to blog out some of the cool webinars and interviews I’ve heard lately. This is from a series of No Kill webinars available for a subscription fee, that is well worth the spend if you are doing any animal advocacy in your community.

‘Getting to No Kill as an animal control center’ was one of the webinars I was looking forward to most, as I found Mitch Schneider incredibly inspirational when I heard him speak last year. No really, in case I wasn’t clear – go. watch. this. webinar.

Reno (Washoe County) takes in more animals per capita than most communities, over two times the national average and roughly 35 animals per 100 people. On top of high animal intake rates, as a tourism based economy it has been very hard hit by the economic downturn and has a high foreclosure rate. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the entire country. Washoe County has a city with the highest per capita felon rate in the US, and Reno has been named the second drunkest city in the nation. Sound like a place where a No Kill community could thrive? Luckily for the animals, Mitch Schneider, head of Washoe County Regional Animal Services, uses specific policies and practices that have brought Washoe County to having one of the highest live-release rates in the world.

“We like to think of our animal control program as a win/win approach to animal control” ~ Mitch Schneider, head of Washoe County Regional Animal Services

Washoe County Regional Animal Services, pre-No Kill; thousands of animals were euthanised each year. 2 full time staff were euthanising most of the day, they had a freezer full of dead pets (15 barrels full) which the renderers emptied each day. Staff burned out, while the environment was smelly and disgusting. Staff didn’t like to think of what they were doing as ‘killing’. While Mitch didn’t actually believe that with their high abandonment rate and lack of community affluence, that No Kill would work in their community, he wanted to try. He didn’t like the term ‘No Kill’ but didn’t feel that that was a good enough reason to reject the programs and that if they failed, that there would really be no harm done and they would likely be in a better position than they were in.

The hurdles; checking traditional and programmed thinking and re-analysing entrenched beliefs. When thinking ‘outside the box’ you have to realise you don’t have to resolve every issue before you do something (what if’s?), or nothing gets done. Thinking like a business person by becoming outcomes focused; looking to save money, reduce killing, better the image of animal control, improve staff morale (reduce burnout, retraining) and get the animals home!

The importance of Return to Owner (RTO) policies; While Mitch dislikes the term ‘No Kill’, he hates the term ‘dog catcher’. He wanted to overcome the perception in the community that people feel animal control is an enemy to be feared, rather than a resource. He encouraged staff to be proud of getting animals home, rather than impounding them and began promoting the idea that they shouldn’t be punishing people through their pets. He focused his staff on improving RTO rates as they;
- reduce facility needs
- can save millions of dollars in operating costs
- reduce risk (the less animals handled = fewer accidents)
- reduces abandonment (non-collection) by getting pets straight home
- reduces disease in the shelter/less intakes
- reduced killing and lower euthanasia costs
- lowers staff turnover and improves morale

It starts in the field; the goal should not be impoundment, but to return that pet safely home. While it can be more effort on the part of the field officer (door knocking, scanning, checking ID tags, and looking the pet up on the in-car computer), it reduces the workload at the other end of the process (no impoundment, intake exam, vaccination and you don’t have to feed the pet). It enhances customer service as owners are happy to have their pet returned. And it reduces abandonment (non-collection) which can be around 50%, as people fail to collect their animals, fearing fines, or simply not knowing where to look for their pet. There is no RTO service charge, but citations can be written for repeat offenders.

The officers responsibility when collecting a pet;
- call all numbers on ID tags
- scan for chip (have a microchip scanner on board)
- check lost animal reports (via in-car computer)
- door knock local residents
- leave a notice at the address
- return animal to yard, or leave with neighbour or relative

If the pet cannot be returned, on intake;
- rescan for chip
- photograph and list pets on online public database
- recheck ID and call any numbers
- check the address again at a later time

Other proactive programs include;
- they have a team of volunteer ‘pet detectives’ who double check all the work of the animal control officers, and check lost and found pet listings
- they will waive fees if it means reuniting pet and owner
- they offer safe holds for emergencies (owner in hospital or prison)

Benefits; lots of good PR as pets are returned home, rather than killed. This community satisfaction has even lead to bequests. A reduction in negative media saves time and stress as less effort is put into counteracting time consuming citizen’s complaints. Officers are less stressed and have more personal satisfaction, as they receive more positive feedback from the community and more public support. And because the community sees their department as an important community service, they have more compliance with local laws.

You have to market your value; they ran campaigns selling the benefits of their RTO programs (pet protection) and found that people don’t mind buying a dog licence if there is a perceived benefit – your pet will be returned straight home which is convenient, keeps them safe and saves you looking for them. If a dog licence is ‘just another tax’, they will only pay it if you catch them out. Using technology (online pet listings, in-car scanners and computers) meant the program was so successful and popular, cat owners came forward wanting the same benefits for their cats.

They had to recognise that a pet getting out is usually an accident, and while they can punish repeat offenders later with a citation if required, that they shouldn’t be punishing people through their pets as this simply increases abandonment.

Billing; the idea of holding a pet to ransom until the owner can pay in full, simply means that pet is at risk of being killed. It is not customer friendly and doesn’t generate community support. It also leads to increased non-collection of pets, driving up killing. The pet is better off at home, whether or not the owner can pay.

The shelter offers billing, backed up by a collections department. If the owner can or can’t pay, it doesn’t really help either way to kill the pet.

Overcoming resistance;

“We’ve always done it this way” – never justifies anything
“Every day I come in, something has changed” – it takes a desire to better today than yesterday to deal with change. Most resistance is simply laziness.

Trap, neuter, return (TNR) and community cats; the shelter has embraced TNR and is working collaboratively with local community cat groups. This wasn’t always the case, but now the National Animal Control Association and most other groups have moved away from trap and kill programs. Traditonal approaches of trap and kill are costly and ineffective, “it’s a fight you can’t win” as there are simply more ferals than pet cats. They believe that TNR is the humane and common sense approach.

When people inquire they are given information on community cats and the groups that work with them. They have community education programs which include how to live peacefully with community cats (including how to discourage them with sprinklers etc). 90% of people don’t want anything bad to happen to the cat, so are happy to get support and to be given alternatives. This saves the animal being impounded. For the last 10%, who don’t care about the cat or want it removed, they can impound the animal and offer ‘barn cat programs’.

Working with regulations; Mitch says, make sure your regulations support and are in harmony with your mission; have your laws reflect your philosophy. Don’t form your mission around the limitations of the laws. Mandate rescue access laws and collaborate and form partnerships with existing community groups.

Collaboration; working with rescue, which in turn saves taxpayers the money it would cost to euthanise pets. Unless the animal is dangerous, government (the temporary guardians of the animal) should never refuse access to a bona-fide rescue group, or stand in the way of an animal being rescued.

Never stop improving and have a willingness to embrace change. Play well with others and know that you don’t have to resolve every fear before trying something new. Fear, concern and objections will stifle improvement.

A German philosopher once said that all truths go through three phases (paraphrasing);
1) ridicule
2) violent opposition
3) finally acceptance as the obvious

Moving forward; You can’t fix what you don’t measure so keep accurate records. Share this information openly with the public, as the community can’t help you fix what they don’t know is broken and it will take the whole community to fix it.

Summary;
- Return to Owner policies reduce load on the shelter and improve animal outcomes.
- Embrace technology; online photos of impounded pets, scanners in the field, computers in vehicles with access to databases
- Use volunteer pet detectives as a proactive way to reunite pets and owners
- Collaborate with rescue groups and other animal welfare groups
- Provide billing for services; stop holding pets to ransom

Their hard numbers (can also be found on their website); 5,000 – 6,000 animal intakes each year. Including surrenders and community wide, animal intakes are between 15,000 – 20,000 per year. Despite these huge numbers, 91% walk out the front door alive.

About 1,400 of these pets will go straight home. If the non-collection rate averages 50%, than means 700 extra pets that may not have been collected and would need care.




For the full webinar visit; http://www.animalarkshelter.org/webinars/

For even more information on Mitch Schneider’s work visit: Compassionate animal management – how ‘the system’ can be designed to save pets