We Asked Animal Shelter Workers How They’re Staying Hopeful & Strong, This Hard Summer
In this hard summer, of a hard year, we wanted to know what was giving people in animal welfare hope, and strength. What is keeping you going, keeping you fighting for the animals in your care, and the families in your community? Below, we’ve shared some of what you told us. It’s very moving, and powerful, and inspiring. We teared up more than once, to be perfectly frank, hearing what you had to say. Thank you to everyone who spoke with us. And thank you to all of you who are working so hard, through all of this, to keep pets safe...
Giving Lost Pets Get a ‘Free Ride Home’ Helps People, Pets, and Shelters
So far this year, field officers with Pasadena Humane in California have gotten 293 loose and lost pets back to their owners without those pets ever entering the shelter. That’s nearly 300 animals, mostly dogs, along with a handful of wayward cats, who are home snoozing on the couch—not in a kennel in a very full animal shelter. They’ve done it with a program they call simply Return to Owner, or RTO—other organizations use the charming name Free Ride Home—through which pets found in the field are returned...
Video Gamers Raised $2,309 for This Shelter, and It Might Be the Easiest Fundraiser Ever
About a month ago, Brendan Gepson, marketing specialist for the Nebraska Humane Society, had an idea. What if some video gamers would hold fundraisers for the shelter while broadcasting themselves playing Stray—a popular video game about a lost cat who has to navigate, and escape, a world populated by robots. You play stray from the perspective of the cat! “Are you a local streamer who’s interested in doing a Stray charity stream for the shelter?” Brendan wrote on Twitter. “Let’s chat! Our DMs are...
Building a Positive Workplace Culture—Why It Matters and How To Do It
[embedded content] The animal welfare industry is understaffed and facing worker turnover, like employers around the country. The effects are dire: animal shelter workers are burned out, and animals’ lives are at risk. But in the face of these challenges, Pasco County Animal Services (PCAS) in Florida has zero vacant positions, and hasn’t had an opening in an entry level position in over 14 months. PCAS Assistant Director Spencer Conover attributes this success to a positive workplace culture, built through inspiration,...
Did You Know You Can Adopt Pets Straight From Members of Your Own Community?
Katie Corbett has a full house! The tan dog, Charlie, “is a guide dog dropout,” Katie says. Chance, the white dog, “is a tripod foster win from DeKalb,” in Georgia, who participated in the Arizona State study that found sleepovers reduced stress for shelter dogs. So you might think of him as not just a good dog, but a scientist. The kittens are Albus and Dooley, fosters who were since adopted into a family from New York. Photo credit: Katie Corbett We all know the traditional way to adopt: go to your local shelter, a...
Lifesaving Paw-tnerships: How to Build and Sustain Healthy Relationships Between Rescues and Shelters
This is fundamental: Shelters and rescue organizations must work cooperatively in order to save animals in need. Having worked in large open admissions shelters, and now as a rescue director, I have witnessed thriving partnerships—as well as those that have soured. With these years of experience, an initiative I now champion is relationship-building between shelters and rescues. Here are some of the ways for shelters and rescues to best grow positive, long-lasting relationships. For Shelters: Build Personal...
With pets.findhelp.com, Pet Support Is Just A Click Away!
Simply enter your zip code, then search pets.findhelp.com for whatever pet services you’re interested in, from pet food pantries and training, to veterinary care, and more. An exciting new tool launched live this month: pets.findhelp.com. Think Yelp for free and low cost pet support services. Pet support is just a click away! This platform changes the game for struggling pet owners, who may have thought their only option was to give up a loved pet to a shelter. Human Animal Support Services created this free, first-of-its-kind platform...
Help more people and pets with these webcasts available on demand!
Learning new ways to help people and pets just got even easier! You can now access all of Human Animal Support Services past webcasts in your Maddie’s® University account. There are currently 32 total. Topics span everything from overcoming adoption barriers to taking advantage of staffing shortages. Not sure where to start? HASS: Human Animal Support Services: An Interactive Introduction is a good place. You can also see below for a list of a few more examples, and start watching (and learning) at your leisure! Source: Chew On...
Steal These 11 Ideas! They’re Mostly Free. They Will Make a Difference. We Promise.
Would you like to learn how one animal shelter brought in $10k in donations from one TikTok video? How about how a lost and found texting program doubled a shelter’s return to owner rate, and a totally free fence-fixing program that’s keeping pets from getting lost in the first place? For just over a year now, we’ve been sharing organizations’ best, most innovative, and most *replicable* ideas in our Steal This Idea blog series. Well, here’s a roundup of 11 of our favorites so you can Steal These...
How This County Shelter Is Still Sending About Half Its Pets to Transfer Partners
You don’t need us to tell you how hard things are in animal welfare right now. So when we caught wind of a municipal shelter whose transfer rates to rescue partners hadn’t dropped in 2022, but had stayed robust—with nearly half its pets being transferred to rescue partners—we reached out to find out more. We’re talking just over 2,400 of about 4,800 pets in 2021, and nearly 1,000 of right around 2,000 pets so far in 2022, as of late June. The program is so successful that even now, as a government shelter in the...
