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Guest Speaker, Melody Kelso from the Pet Connection in Kansas City. Background information:
Melody has used Nathan Winograd's book as a primary resource for her no-kill shelter. The book is entitled "Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America" and is available on Amazon.com for around $17.00.
NOTE: The Lincoln Animal Ambassadors has a copy available - Please contact Molly Hoffmann at chicadogrunner@yahoo.com to borrow this book
Melody also uses the resources available from Alley Cat Allies - http://www.alleycat.org/
The Pet Connection took in over 800 animals last year (2008) and only euthanized 7. - They are cage-less facility. - All dogs are trained on basic commands such as: come, go, sit, down and no bark - All people who adopt dogs receive free training for life.
Melody was influenced by San Francisco, a no-kill city, as well as Dr. Wayne Hunthausen (http://www.westwoodanimalhospital.com/) a Kansas City dog behavior trainer.
Melody first worked at Animal Haven and enacted many of the philosophies of Nathan's book. http://www.animalhavenkc.org/ Then, Melody started up The Pet Connection. http://www.thepetconnection.net/
Melody's presentation: * Less than 10 - 20% of pets are adopted from a shelter. Approximately 30% of animals in shelters are lost and need to be reunited with their owners. * We are not necessarily experiencing an overpopulation of animals, as much as a marketing problem. * The below issues could raise adoption rates...
Reasons people do not visit shelter to adopt:
Hours: If your hours are too restrictive, it becomes too difficult for potential adopters to visit your shelter. The Pet Connection occasionally is open for 24-hours at a time in order to be available to people such as doctors and nurses who work weird hours.
Friendly Staff: Make sure your staff is attentive, available, helpful, and friendly. There is nothing worse than going to a shelter and being ignored or having someone tell you, "I don't have time to do the paperwork now, you'll have to come back tomorrow."
Smell: Keep the shelter clean. Dogs at The Pet Connection are taken outside to potty. Any accidents are quickly cleaned up.
Noise: Dogs can quickly be trained to "no bark" with positive reinforcement. The dogs at The Pet Connection learn, on average, within a couple of days to "no bark" and the "no bark" is frequently rewarded. As mentioned, positive reinforcement is used. Only as a last resort will a citronella collar be used.
Animal Care: Devote more time for the animals. This keeps them well socialized, identifies key personality traits (to aid with better adoptions), etc.
The Pet Connection offers a comprehensive adoption program that focuses on:
- Marketing. If you only focus on one or two marketing strategies, you are limiting your marketing ability and are not reaching as many people as you could reach.
- Niches. As an example, often times older people prefer mature pets. A diabetic may possibly be very receptive to adopting a diabetic animal. Etc.
- Websites. Have a website and keep it up-to-date.
- Flyers. Create flyers and get them distributed far and wide. Flyers often reach people who don't surf the internet, read the paper frequently, etc.
- Foster care homes. Foster care homes are very important and should be used to the fullest potential possible. Fosters should take their foster dog(s) with them, as much as possible, to as many events possible, so that the dog(s) has the best chance possible at finding a home. Additionally, when people see the foster dog(s), they will frequently go to The Pet Connection to see what other dogs are available.
- Off site adoptions. Take advantage of opportunities to perform off site adoptions. Taking the animals to the people is sometimes easier/better than having the people come to the animals. For example, The Pet Connection discovered that older folks, living in assisted living facilities, often want mature pets but often do not have the ability to go to The Pet Connection to find their perfect pet. Therefore, The Pet Connection takes their adoption vehicle to Assisted Living Facilities.
Concerning targeting efforts towards lower income people: A lot of people have the thought process of, "if a person cannot afford to feed or care for a pet, they have no business having a pet." Melody said that people need to get rid of this thought process. Often times, people have a pet because they found it, it was given to them, they rescued the pet from the street, etc. People of all ages, economic status, etc., experience the positive effects of pet ownership and these pets need, and have, a home. -- Offer free stuff that will help these pet owners, such as free obedience training courses. -- Outreach -- Perform door-to-door work in your targeted area because websites, newspapers, billboards, and radio often does not "reach" these folks. -- Network with case workers and social workers to find out who needs assistance. -- Work programs such as: Let us spay/neuter your dog and we will provide you with a free dog house. Often times, when you throw in something for free, the pet owner will readily allow you to spay/neuter their pet.
Note: The Pet Connection frequently goes dumpster diving and retrieves fencing, supplies, wood, etc., from trash. They use the wood to construct dog houses. They fence yards of elderly folks who can no longer walk their dog.
Rescue Groups: The Pet Connection works closely with rescue groups. When breed specific animals come into the shelter, they make arrangements with the appropriate rescue group.
Retention Programs: Why do people give up their pets? One of the most often cited reasons are that the people have to give up their house or are having to move. Other reasons involve behavior issues, no longer able to afford food, vet care, etc.
- Temporary housing/boarding. The Pet Connection, on occasion has boarded cats for people who have lost their house and are looking for housing. The Pet Connection requires the owner to have a written plan and they charge a reasonable daily fee for the boarding. The owner is allowed to make payments, if necessary, for the boarding fee.
- Food. By providing the Pet Food Bank, we hope to reduce or eliminate folks giving up their pet because they are experiencing financial difficulty.
- Training. Basic obedience classes are offered by The Pet Connection and they charge $5 per class. If the pet owner cannot afford the fee, they offer the class for free. The basic obedience classes teach such things as sit, come, go, and so on.
- Fencing. The Pet Connection goes dumpster diving, and also receives donations from building supply businesses so that they can install fencing for people's dogs. For example, when an elderly person is no longer able to walk their dog, they will fence in the person's back yard so that the dog can get exercise. Of course, The Pet Connection approaches this offer with, "if you let us spay/neuter your dog, we will install a chain link fence for you."
- Equipment and supplies. Carriers, kennels, collars, leashes, etc.
- Clinic -- The Pet Connection has worked with area vets to establish low cost spay neuter clinics. More on that later.... -- Obtained blocks of appointments from vets and filled them -- Provided staff/volunteers at the vet clinics to assist in any way (which helped the vets to keep their price at bare minimum). -- Offers spay neuters at "what can you afford to pay?" price. -- Handed out coupons to low income groups. -- If individual cannot afford to pay anything, the Pet Connection uses sponsor funds. -- Generally, the spay neuter costs the Pet Connection an average of $5
- Lost and Found -- Approximately 30% of animals in shelters are owned and have been lost. They need to be reunited with their owners. -- A comprehensive database that is properly cross referenced must be maintained. "Kansas City" consists of many municipalities, each one having its own animal control and shelter. Therefore it is critical that each animal control & shelter maintain a lost & found database and that they share (cross reference) their information with all the other animal controls & shelters. -- The Pet Connection uses Webex software but there are many, many different programs available. www.webex.com (They use webex not only for their lost & found database but also for their finances, etc.)
-TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) -- It is critical to have a viable TNR program -- The Pet Connection has developed a $5 TNR program in that they offer TNRs at the cost of $5 per cat. If the person cannot afford that, they will perform the TNR free of charge (they use sponsor money). -- In many Kansas City municipalities, The Pet Connection has earned the right to perform TNR because it costs, on average, $15 to kill a feral cat and only $5 to TNR.
Clinic -- Low cost clinic is offered, targeting low income folks. The low cost clinic is also available to rescue groups and individuals. -- Services such as spay, neuter, vaccinations, heart worm checks, etc., are offered.
Dr. Andrea Straub is the veterinarian who runs their clinic. Dr. Straub was formerly working in Las Vegas and got the TNR ordinance going for Las Vegas. |
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