In the dynamic landscape of animal welfare, transparency and accountability serve as guiding principles, illuminating the path towards a future where every animal has the opportunity to thrive. By maintaining transparent reporting on shelter statistics, including intake, adoption, and euthanasia rates, shelters not only foster accountability and trust within the community but also gain valuable insights into areas for improvement and measure progress towards achieving no-kill goals. As we delve into the importance of implementing this strategy, let us explore the transformative power of transparency and accountability in advancing the cause of animal welfare. Continue reading “Building Trust Through Transparency and Accountability”
Understanding Incremental Veterinary Care in the Shelter Environment
At its core, incremental veterinary care is a case management strategy that empowers shelter veterinarians to make informed decisions about the allocation of limited resources based on the individual needs of each patient and the overall welfare of the shelter population. This approach acknowledges the inherent financial constraints of shelters while prioritizing the well-being of the animals under their care. Continue reading “Innovative Approaches to Medical Rehabilitation: Incremental Veterinary Care”
In the realm of animal welfare, few strategies possess the transformative potential and cost-effectiveness of foster programs for under-budgeted and short-staffed shelters. Foster care networks, when cultivated strategically and with community engagement at the forefront, have the power to alleviate overcrowding, reduce stress on shelter animals, and amplify the impact of shelters in their mission to save lives. Let’s explore the nuances of establishing and expanding foster care networks, unlocking their potential to become a cornerstone of compassionate animal care. Continue reading “Unleashing Hope: Building Thriving Foster Care Networks”
Insanity, according to Albert Einstein, is “doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.” Many communities address their feral cat problem over and over again with two basic methodologies - only to be disappointed by the consequences of their efforts.
Feral cats are cats who have reverted to a wild state – born from tame cats that owners abandon or allow to run loose. These cats mate with other free-roaming cats, and their offspring, raised without human compassion, are wild, or feral. They grow up and breed with other feral and free-roaming cats and the cat population increases exponentially. Feral cats are considered a public nuisance by some and a public health concern by others. They needn’t be either.
The two methodologies employed by most communities are Do Nothing and Eradication. Decades of applying these methodologies has proven they don’t work – and there are very real biological reasons why.
It is easy to understand why doing nothing has little impact on the problem, but it is not as easy to understand why eradication does not work.
Feral cats typically live in colonies of 6 to 20 cats. When individuals try to catch cats for extermination, this heightens the biological stress of the colony, triggering a survival mechanism that causes the cats to over-breed and over-produce. Consequently, instead of birthing one litter per year with two or three kittens, a stressed female will produce two or three litters with 6 to 9 kittens each.
Even in the unlikely event that a person could catch and remove all the feral cats in a neighborhood, a phenomenon known as “the vacuum effect” would result. The removed colony had kept surrounding colonies at bay, but once removed, all deterrents evaporate and the surrounding cats enter the new territory to over-breed. The vacated neighborhood is quickly overrun with feral cats fighting for mates, caterwauling, and spraying for territory. Extermination only exacerbates the problem and actually produces worse results than doing nothing at all.
However, there is a third methodology that is increasingly practiced in communities across the United States and around the world with amazing results. It is called Trap/Neuter/Return, or TNR.
With TNR, all the feral cats in a neighborhood are trapped, sterilized, and returned to the area where they originated – under the care of a colony manager. The colony manager is a trained volunteer in the neighborhood willing to feed, water, and care for the colony.
Feral cats are descended from domestic cats but are born and live without human contact. Trap/Neuter/Return is the only effective – and humane – method of controlling the feral cat population.
TNR prevents the vacuum effect. Altered cats display none of the troubling behaviors of intact cats. Feral cats provide free rodent abatement, a service many neighborhoods unknowingly rely on. Since feral cats only live three to five years, the problem literally solves itself through attrition, provided TNR is implemented community-wide.
TNR also solves public nuisance complaints. There is an adage that says “you can’t herd cats.” In fact, you can herd neutered cats because they tend to hang around the food bowl. No longer having the urge to breed and prey, they follow the food bowl wherever the colony manager takes it. Feral cats can be trained to congregate in areas out of the way of the public.
TNR is a non-lethal, humane and cost-effective solution. Understanding these facts, municipal animal shelters ought to enact a moratorium on accepting feral cats until a comprehensive community-wide feral cat program can be initiated.
TNR empowers citizens to solve this troublesome problem once and for all. Feral cats are trapped, neutered, vaccinated, health-checked by a veterinarian and returned to their neighborhood where their population is stabilized and reduced through attrition.
If you would like more information on TNR or if you need help to develop this program in your community, please contact me.
More than a policy and statistical objective, “no-kill” is a principle, an ethic, and once applied the practical consequences begin to fall into place. The principle is that animal shelters should apply the same criteria for deciding an animal’s fate that a loving pet guardian or conscientious veterinarian would apply. That is, healthy and treatable animals are not killed simply because of a lack of room or resources to care for them.Continue reading “Applying the No-Kill Ethic by Ed Boks”
Board members have a lot of responsibility to the organization they represent, to the community for which they are stewards of the nonprofit’s resources, and also to the organization’s CEO. The CEO’s success is tied closely to the support he or she receives from the board. How can individual board members support their CEO’s success? Below are the six ways I’ve found that have the greatest impact. Continue reading “Top 6 Ways a Board Can Help Its CEO”
Is it time national animal welfare organizations rethink their position on pit bulls?
This is the recommendation of Beth Clifton, a former Miami Beach police officer, animal control officer, elementary school teacher, veterinary technician and wife of Animals 24-7 editor Merritt Clifton.
Every year, ANIMALS 24-7 conducts a national dog-breed survey. The results of the 2018 survey were just released. As interesting as the data collected by the survey are, I was particularly struck by a rather provocative proposition posed by Merritt Clifton, the editor/reporter of ANIMALS 24-7 and this survey.
Before exploring the thought provoking proposal, let’s set the stage:
The survey found that as of mid-June 2018, nearly 15% of all the dogs available for sale or adoption in the U.S. were pit bulls. With that kind of market presence, one might conclude pit bulls are pretty popular in the U.S. However, Mr. Clifton has another explanation. Continue reading “When it comes to pit bulls, how stupid are we? by Ed Boks”
The formula to end the killing of feral cats works
It is commonly understood that any serious initiative to end shelter killing has to focus on ending the “supply side” of the surplus animal equation. The only way to do that is to preemptively spay/neuter those animals most likely to “supply” (give birth to) animals most likely to die in animal shelters.We
The three categories of animals dying in the largest numbers in most shelters throughout the United States are feral cats, pit bulls/pit bull mixes, and Chihuahuas.
Did you know that the presence of a cat or dog in a counseling office can speed the therapeutic process for some patients? Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) was introduced by psychologist Boris Levinson in the 1950s when he discovered that his dog Jingles was able to connect with autistic children in a way humans had not.
Since then, AAT has continued to develop as a therapeutic science. Although dogs are the most frequently used therapy animals, cats, birds, rabbits, horses, donkeys, llamas and even pigs and snakes participate in different programs.
According to research, when people hold and stroke an animal, many positive physical and psychological transitions occur, including lowered blood pressure, a feeling of calm, the ability to be more extroverted and verbal, decreased loneliness and increased self-esteem. Continue reading “Pets improve owners’ health and well-being By Ed Boks”
A Commitment to No-Kill Excellence
