Sunday, April 24, 2011

Shelters Doing Good

Things shelters or rescues are doing that other animal agencies could replicate! Some may be obvious, others may not. There is no reason to kill medically healthy animals, and these are some ways to reduce kill rates.

Sometimes the ideas are repeated. It takes seeing them at least three times for them to start having a sticking effect. Or so I'm told.

Create a volunteer program, ask them to help coordinate a fund-raiser: Volunteers love doing stuff for you, shelters. Take advantage of that and create a volunteer program to walk dogs, socialize cats, increase adoptions, foster animals, and also help with fund-raising events. The Pottawattamie animal shelter is benefiting from volunteers right this second! Too bad Council Bluffs also bans Pit Bulls.

Network for foster homes: Some dogs, like a Boxer named Cali, arrive at a shelter afraid and appearing "unadoptable". Wrong! Most of these dogs just need some rest and relaxation in a home environment and then bam! Super Amazing Adoptable Dog is ready for her debut. I'm not so keen on the Arizona Humane's Society foster program name SAFE (Saving Animals from Euthanasia) but it's catchy.

Ask your local paper to profile a "pet" of the week: For reals, newspapers love this shiz-nit. You can even write it for them and they'll be all "hells yeah, we love dogs and cats, let's get them adopted!" That's just fact. Take Darwin, for example who is available for placement through The Humane Society of Washington County, which just like Washington D.C. is not in the state of Washington.

Work with your local news media, host a telethon: The Terra Haute Humane Society raised more than $9,000 with its 5th annual telethon, hosted by their local NBC station.

Other ideas

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