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Meeting notes |
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The meeting was cancelled for July 1, 2009. However, the committees have been meeting and the below is an update on: - Advocacy: Meetings with city leaders. Voter's Bloc - Communications: Rescue Symposium. Gathering ideas and support, determining the best ways to help homeless animals. A comparison has been accomplished, comparing Lincoln to other comparable cities - Community Outreach: Spay/Neuter Challenge. Challenging city leaders and prominent citizens, as well as vets, to sponsor spays & neuters
The Advocacy Committee has been working on a couple projects in the past two months. The first project was to get letters off to the new and existing City of Lincoln council people. A letter was sent to each one with a follow-up email. As of today, we have received a response from four of the seven council people: Councilman John Spatz, Councilman Gene Carroll, Councilman Jon Camp and Councilwoman Jane Synder. Meetings will be set up with each one in the very near future. We will discuss with the council people how to improve the lives of homeless animals in Lincoln and get their suggestions for how to do this. The organizational process for the newly formed group, Nebraska Voters for Companion Animals, is moving right along. A logo has been selected and a mission statement was agreed upon. The mission statement is "To become a unified voice for promoting the humane treatment of companion animals through legislation, education and advocacy." In an effort to have statistics to provide facts to use when testifying before legislative committees, Nebraska Voters for Companion Animals is working on a project to document companion animals as they arrive at the various rescue groups and shelters from Nebraska breeders. Included in the documentation will be the geographic area of Nebraska the animal was rescued from, health condition, age, and breed to list a few. A database is being set up so data can be entered, sorted and reports produced. A second database is being set up of Nebraskan voters to alert them of upcoming legislative bills, city ordinances, etc., which will be up for vote. Notifying voters of candidates who are interested in improving the welfare of companion animals in Nebraska is another function this database will be used for. If you would like to join the Advocacy Committee, please email Pauline Balta at pebalta@aol.com
City Comparisons The below is a summary of the comparison study on Midwest cities comparable in size to Lincoln. I believe the organization CARE in Springfield, MO is something we should look into to see how they have been able to work with Animal Control. Springfield's Animal Control works with rescue groups for animals not adopted out. CARE has a facility/sanctuaries for the animals, sounds somewhat similar to HUA. I didn't find much info on budgets, size of facilities, etc., but could probably get that if I contacted any of these organizations requesting that information. In fact, I am going to contact CARE in Springfield and let them know about LAA and see what pointers they can give us. The big thing it seems they have been able to do is not only have a no kill facility, but also being able to work with Animal Control. I have an e-mail in to Dennis Buckley @ Neighborhood Extra to find out the cost of sponsoring a pet, and also informing him we would like to write an article for NE informing Lincoln of who we are and what we are hoping to do. I haven't written an article, but will base it off of the Pet Enthusiast article. Lincoln, NE, population 242,000 Springfield, MO, population 151,000. http://www.springfieldmo.gov/health/animal.html The Springfield-Greene County Animal Control program will make every effort to work with qualified animal rescue groups. If you are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, you may be able to rescue animals directly from our shelter. Here are the Springfield-Greene County Health Department requirements: - You must provide proof of your organization's 501(c)(3) status. - You must be licensed with the Missouri Department of Agriculture as an animal rescue organization. - You must provide us with a copy of your organization's mission statement. It must state that your organization's purpose is to rescue animals from animal shelters. Castaway Animal Rescue Effort in Springfield, MO works directly with Springfield Animal Control. http://www.carerescue.org/index.html. Southwest Missouri's no-kill animal rescue, saving the area's dogs and cats. Since 2003, C.A.R.E. has rescued more than 5000 dogs and cats from Death Row at the Springfield/Greene County Animal Control Facility! C.A.R.E. adopted out a total of 917 dogs and cats in 2008. Has a low cost S&N program. They also take pet food donations. Facility sits on 15 acres outside of Aurora, MO. Des Moines, IA, population 194,000. Animal Rescue League of Iowa. http://www.arl-iowa.org/. Currently in need of a new shelter, holding a capital funding campaign, looking to raise $2 million. "The ARL believes an aggressive spay and neuter program is the only way for Iowa to become a no-kill society without turning away pets." Over 19,000 animals taken in during 2008. The ARL believes an aggressive spay and neuter program is the only way for Iowa to become a no-kill society without turning away pets. The ARL offers a Spay the Mother program, where free dog/cat spay certificates are provided to owners so they can spay their pets and prevent future unwanted litters. ARL sounds comparable to CHS, but also does outreach to Iowa and education programs. No specific budget or size of facility. Colorado Springs, CO, population 372,000. Dreampower Animal Rescue, www.dreampower.org. No kill animal shelter. Licensed animal rescue. Nothing on website about facilities or budget. Pets available for adoption are kept in foster homes. Education link on webpage, as well as low cost spay & neuter. Kansas City, KS, population 144,000. Spay and neuter of Kansas City, Missouri. http://www.snkc.net/index.html/ . Dedicated to providing low-cost spay & neuter If you would like to join the Communications Committee, please email Tammie Lang at xtam777@yahoo.com
Community Outreach TNR Ordinance: We had discussed our proposed TNR city ordinance with Bruce Dart, Director of the Lancaster County Health Dept. He has read our proposed ordinance and that they would prefer to ask the City Attorney to submit the ordinance that the Animal Control office had submitted several years ago to the City Counsel, along with a dangerous dog ordinance. Bruce indicated that the City Counsel is focused on a dangerous dog ordinance now with recent events and he feels they will be wanting to pass something soon regarding that matter, and they hope to slip the TNR ordinance into that same issue with the City Counsel They see that happening this fall sometime, once budget matters are taken care of with the City. Pet Food Bank: I have also been in contact with Hill Pet Foods asking for some donations for our proposed Pet Food Bank. They declined but suggested we talk with local merchants to fund that bank. I have had a verbal conversation with someone at Super Saver about getting their broken bags of food, and will soon be writing a letter to the home office of B&R stores. Spay/Neuter Challenge: We are proposing a letter campaign to challenge city leaders and prominent people in the community to donate to a spay/neuter project for low cost spay/neuter. In conjunction with this we will also be promoting a letter campaign to all the veterinarians in the Lincoln community to donate or discount spay/neuters for this project. Any suggestions on the best way to address this project, or any of these community outreach projects, are welcome. If you have suggestions, or want to help in any way, please contact Mary Douglas at mdouglas@remboltludtke.com or steppinmary@yahoo.com.
We have t-shirts for sale, $10.00 for t-shirts up to size XL and $12.00 for XXL & XXXL. If you would like to purchase a t-shirt, please contact Molly Hoffmann at chicadogrunner@yahoo.com Checks & Cash accepted.
The webmaster, working with The Cat House, has recently TNR'ed (trap-neuter-release) three feral cats. (A HUGE Thank You to The Cat House!!) We hope to continue this TNR project. If you are interested in helping with the TNR project, please contact Charlene Kjelland at Info@LincolnAnimalAmbassadors.org |
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