How to Support Shelter Staff’s Mental Health: Lessons in Social Work for Suicide Prevention Month
[embedded content] Animal welfare professionals face crises, traumatic experiences, and compassion fatigue daily. With staff shortages and maximum shelter capacity nationwide, many work unprecedented hours in often inhuman conditions leading to a significant risk to mental health. Animal rescue workers have the highest rate of death by self-harm among American workers–a rate only shared by firefighters and police officers. In this webinar, Dr. Janet Hoy-Gerlach, Director of Veterinary Social Work at Open Door Veterinary...
Standardized Shelter Intake Data Saves More Lives
While we are getting much closer to understanding the complex circumstances that lead to pets in need of homes, the data still has quite a ways to go to give us the actionable answers we are looking for. Gaining a better understanding of why and how pets enter animal welfare organizations and what we can do to support both ends of the leash has been a huge topic amongst animal welfare professionals for the last several years, but the conversation actually started much earlier than some may think. In 1992, animal shelter researcher and...
Is Customer Service Costing You Adoptions?
[embedded content] Did the animal welfare industry forget how to relate to the humans who walk through our shelter doors? Gina Knepp, National Shelter Engagement Director at Michelson Found Animals Foundation, walks through the importance of and immediate impact proper customer service, staff training, and relating to PEOPLE has in the adoption outcomes of pets. Find more information regarding best practices in customer service here. Source: Human Animal Support...
Human Animal Support Services (HASS) Announces Industry-Expert Developed List of Intake Reasons for Owner Surrender
(AUSTIN, TX) August 15, 2024–Human Animal Support Services (HASS), an international project revolutionizing the animal welfare industry by uniting human and animal welfare, announces an industry first–a standardized list of intake reasons for owner surrender. A major collaboration with industry experts such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Shelter Animals Count (SAC), behavior and veterinary professionals, animal welfare organization-led working groups, focus groups, and preliminary testing within HASS pilot...
Not Enough Adoptions or Not Enough Adopters?
[embedded content] Why do so many potential adopters visit a shelter but leave without a pet? Turns out the shelters themselves may have more of a role that you think. Amanda Foster, Assistant Director of Research & Data as well as Heidi Martson, PetSmart Charities Director of Pet Placement Initiatives discuss how five different shelters began implementing people-centric best practices to better understand the WHY behind their adoption conversion rate, and provide you with the tangible tools and initiatives organizations can use today to...
Budget Calculator: Build a Budget Supported by Municipalities & Community Support
[embedded content] Never enough budget: an all-too common problem in animal welfare. HASS wants to showcase a new budget calculator tool created to garner more municipal funding, community support and address the chronic underfunding shelters unfortunately face daily. This webinar, led by APA! President & CEO, Ellen Jefferson, and Senior Director of Research & Development, Maggie Lynch, cover how to use the HASS Budget Calculator and its results to advocate for budgets appropriate to meet the public’s expectations around humane...
Streetwise Solutions: The Lifesaving Power of TNR and Community Support
There’s no question about it: Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is the leading humane and effective approach to managing community cat populations. Despite its wide acceptance across the U.S., debates continue about the best way to reduce the number of community cats. The evidence, however, is clear—TNR works. At Philadoptables, our commitment to Philadelphia and its animals is steadfast. With an estimated 400,000 stray cats in Philadelphia, we collaborate with numerous organizations to promote humane practices and alleviate shelter...
Human Animal Support Services (HASS) Announces Results of Competitive Pet Placement Project
Supported by PetSmart Charities, the Competitive Pet Placement Project aims to identify barriers and produce solutions for increasing adoption outcomes (AUSTIN, TX) July 31, 2024–Human Animal Support Services (HASS), an international project revolutionizing the animal welfare industry by uniting human and animal welfare, announced the results of the Competitive Pet Placement (CPP) Project. An initiative supported by PetSmart Charities, five shelters, alongside HASS, took up the challenge to evaluate internal shelter practices or...
Prioritizing Both Ends of the Leash
How Shelters Can Triage Support for People AND Pets Today If a person is struggling to care for a pet, they likely need support themselves. Last month we released a blog highlighting the importance of animal welfare professionals embracing a conversational approach when speaking with individuals who come into the shelter to identify the root causes of WHY pets are walking through the doors. Now, we want to take it a step further–providing coordinated support for people and pets. While the shelter will always provide a support service to...
Harnessing People Power to Get Pets Back Home
[embedded content] Featured as a guest speakers for the 2024 International Companion Animal Management Coalition Conference (ICAM), HASS team members Jenifer Reed and Heather Kalman present new data findings and community-oriented programming for returning pets home. What do people in your community do when they find a lost pet? In the United States, the majority of pets enter animal shelters as lost pets, making supporting this population the greatest opportunity for lifesaving and community engagement. In this presentation, the Human Animal...
