Letter From Vincent: A Q3 Dispatch From the Director of HASS
I’ve spent this spring and summer visiting some of the HASS pilot shelters. Members of the Human Animal Support Services team and I visited Dallas Animal Services in Texas, Kansas City Pet Project in Missouri, and Riverside Animal Services and Los Angeles Animal Services in Southern California. We’ve got plans to visit more of our incredible pilot shelters in the fall, as part of our “road show” tour. The road show is a whole-team project, with the goal of providing direct onsite support—primarily by...
Beyond Enforcement: Insights into Community-Centered Field Services
[embedded content] Traditionally, field services or animal control roles have been dedicated to enforcement: impounding animals, tackling cruelty and neglect, getting unsafe animals off the streets, and issuing citations to people violating animal statutes. Field services roles are changing, expanding into community-centered practices to support people and pets through community outreach, supplies and food, helping pet owners access vet care, and getting lost pets home. What can these changes mean for your organization and community? Tune...
Animal Intake in the HASS Model: the Vision, the Myths, the Revolution
[embedded content] What does animal intake look like in the Human Animal Support Services model? Join us for an eye-opening webinar as we delve into the vision, the nitty-gritty, and common misconceptions about this model’s transformative and lifesaving impact. Dr. Ellen Jefferson, President and CEO of Austin Pets Alive!, and Vincent Medley, Maddie’s® Director of Human Animal Support Services, discuss this topic with Jorge Ortega, Animal Services Director for Guilford County Animal Shelter, a HASS pilot shelter. Viewers will...
Paws and Politics: What You Need to Know About 2023 Animal Welfare Legislation
[embedded content] State legislative sessions have ended (or are ending soon!) across the United States and it’s critical to understand how these sessions will impact people, pets, shelters, and rescues. Hear an overview of 2023’s animal-related bills, led by Katie Jarl, Director of Government Affairs and Policy for Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) and HASS, and Executive Director for Texas Pets Alive! (TPA!); and Lauren Loney, Staff Attorney and Policy Specialist for APA!, HASS, and TPA!. This dynamic duo discusses hot topics including...
New Analysis: Pets With Microchips Are THREE TIMES More Likely to Get Home
It’s long been known that lost pets with microchips have a higher chance of returning to their homes than those without. New analysis from the HASS data team shows that pets with microchips are in fact three times more likely to be reunited with their families as those without—but that the use of microchips could be so much more effective. Read on for tips on what shelters can do to have those chips more effectively work to reunite pets with their families. HASS Data Is Clear—Microchips Work, and They Could Work Even...
Inclusivity in Action: Strategies for DEI in Animal Welfare
[embedded content] The week of Juneteenth, DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—is front of mind. But, how can we take action beyond one week and move toward a more diverse and equitable culture in animal welfare? Tune into this panel discussion with Mia Navedo-Williams, Manager of Multicultural Engagement for Best Friends Animal Society, Rory Adams, Senior Manager of Adoption Initiatives for PetSmart Charities, and Shakela Brown, Director of Community Services for Humane Rescue Alliance. Vincent Medley, Maddie’s®...
People, Pets, and Purpose: Kassidi Jones Adopted a Dog and Became an Anti-Racism Influencer
Kassidi Jones, a Ph.D. candidate studying 19th-Century African American Ecopoetics at Yale studying, always wanted a dog. Early in the pandemic, she visited a local shelter not expecting to adopt right away—and walked out with Ginger, who’d change her life. For a decade, Kassidi has studied race relations. As a Black woman, adopting a dog who most people identify as a pit bull, opened “another door,” she says, about “how else this is playing out every day in ways that so many people are able to gloss over.”...
Why Can’t Vets at Texas Animal Shelters Treat Owned Pets?
My dog Ranger first started having seizures at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. At 5 years old, my happy, healthy, and active little shadow who’d never had an inkling of health issues was suddenly violently convulsing at the foot of my bed and I had no idea what to do or how to help him. That trip to the veterinarian cost me just shy of $3000. I was fortunately able to pay that bill with my limited savings and help from my parents – an unearned privilege that I don’t take for granted. The medicine, bloodwork, and trips to...
From Intake to Outcomes: Managing Summer Space Crises with Animal Case Management
[embedded content] Summer is a challenging time for animal shelters, often coming with high intake numbers and slowed adoptions—that can be a recipe for a space crisis. To get more pets out, shelters are getting creative. Mara Hartsell, Shelter Support Advisor for American Pets Alive!, is sharing how shelters can (and are!) use a case management approach to move more pets through the sheltering system. In this recording, Mara will cover four action categories that can speed up the outcomes process and reduce length of stay for the...
You Should Be Doing Fee-Waived Adoptions This Summer
Intakes have overtaken positive outcomes for shelter pets. With summer coming, the need to increase accessibility and remove barriers to pets going into homes only grows more urgent. We’re diving in over the next few months to see what data and research can tell us about ways to move shelter pets to adoptions more quickly—beginning with this blog on the research supporting fee-waived adoptions. Shelter operations should utilize rapid intake to placement procedures to support pets leaving the shelter as soon as possible...
