People, Pets, and Purpose: Derrick Garrett, Founder of Zoundz Music For Pets
[embedded content] Pets get stressed at the vet. They get upset in the car. Being home alone isn’t always a picnic. And of course animal shelters can be one of the most stressful environments for pets, with the noise, smells, and constant activity—and the stress can lead to behavior that makes it harder for pets to get adopted, and can even put their lives at risk. Enter Derrick Garrett. Derrick is a successful music producer and engineer who’s worked with Bobby Brown, the Spin Doctors, Chantay Savage, K-Ci & JoJo, and...
Crisis Sheltering for Pets: Keeping People and Pets Together
[embedded content] There are times when someone can’t take care of their pet on a temporary basis, because of a medical emergency, loss of housing, or another short-term crisis. The traditional sheltering response is to permanently separate the pet from their owner, but more and more organizations are providing crisis sheltering instead—boarding the pet at the shelter, or placing them in a foster home, for a limited amount of time. How does crisis sheltering work, and how can you get started? We’ve gathered experts from...
Letter From Vincent: A Dispatch From the Director of HASS
I’ve been thinking a lot about people. About the people we work with, and the people in the communities we serve. We don’t always talk about people in animal welfare, but we should, because we’ve discovered at HASS that you can’t aid in animal welfare without coming to the aid of people—or without people helping you. This week, I am joining more than 2,500 of my friends and colleagues at HSUS Animal Care Expo in New Orleans. I’ve known many of these committed animal welfare professionals for two and a...
Supporting Both Ends of the Leash: What Community Support Looks Like in a HASS Pilot Shelter
[embedded content] We know that people and pets need support to stay together through challenging times—but how can you identify the support your community needs and how your organization can facilitate it? That’s what this webinar is all about! Amanda Gatten, KC Pet Project’s Director of Community Programs, will share what a comprehensive, flexible, effective community support program looks like at a HASS pilot shelter, with ideas and tips for other organizations to steal. We will also hear from Eliza Torres, Education and...
Animal Advocates Need to Be Housing Advocates, Too
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is not a single state in the country with enough affordable and available rental housing for extremely low-income families. In the context of affordable housing, low-income families are those making less than 80% of Area Median Income. And these numbers do not even consider pet-inclusive housing, which is even less likely to be readily available for low-income renters. It is no wonder that for years, housing issues have been cited as one of the top two reasons for pet...
A free editorial calendar template for your animal organization’s marketing efforts
Does your animal well-being organization use an editorial calendar to strategize and organize its marketing efforts? If not, or if you want some inspiration for your current plan, be sure to check out this toolkit from HeARTs Speak and Human Animal Support Services. Throughout the past year, the organizations have created a series of communications kits to help you talk to your constituents about the many ways that you are supporting people and pets (and how they can, too!). Now, they’ve created a way for you to use...
How to Start and Run a Pet Food Pantry
The little pug’s name was Miss Kitty. She belonged to a man who wanted to go into treatment, “but the one big barrier to him getting the support he needed was making sure that his dog was cared for,” says Shannon Glenn, executive director of My Pit Bull Is Family, which created the North Minneapolis Pet Resource Center, a pet pantry in Minnesota. Miss Kitty His mother, who Shannon calls J, wanted to help—she wanted her son to get well, and she wanted to help him do that by caring for Miss Kitty. She just wasn’t...
Pawsitively Thriving: Strategies for Work-Life Balance in Animal Welfare
[embedded content] Work-life balance is never easy for people who work in animal sheltering, and increased lengths of stay and high staff turnover have only made the job more challenging. As you support the people and pets in your community, caring for yourself and your teams can feel like a secondary goal. Listen to this webinar recording featuring Lindsay Hamrick, Director of Shelter Outreach & Engagement with the Humane Society of the United States, to learn why work-life balance can be difficult in animal welfare and practical tips...
People, Pets, and Purpose: Best Friends’ Brent Toellner, and Clare Callison of HASS
[embedded content] Welcome to the next installment of People, Pets, and Purpose, our (no longer quite brand new!) interview series exploring the human-animal bond, and what really matters. Check out previous PPP episodes with the Arizona Pet Project’s Leanna Taylor and Michigan Humane’s Matt Pepper. What does a humane community look like, in and out of its animal shelters? That’s the topic host Diaz Dixon—the Maddie’s® Advisor for External Affairs and Partnerships for the Human Animal Support Services...
Kitten Season is Here Again, and We’ve Got Resources for You
Well, it’s that time of year again. Kitten season. You’re either in it already, or the kittens are coming. You don’t need us telling you how hard kitten season is, especially in these very challenging times. The good news is we have a lot of tools and resources that will help you communicate with and engage your community, in the work of saving cats’ and kittens’ lives. 6 Tips for Building a Barrier-Free, Inclusive Foster Base When the ASPCA launched its LA Foster Program in 2017, a first...
