Animal Welfare Professionals

Diane Blankenburg @dblankenburg
CEO & Principal Consultant
Humane Network
Nevada

Tell us about you and your history in animal welfare.

I’m from San Diego, CA and am currently the CEO and Principal Consultant for Humane Network for the past 14 years. Currently, our biggest project is the three-year campaign funded by Dave & Cheryl Duffield Foundation to elevate the status of dogs and cats across Nevada which you can learn more about here.

I previously was the Community Programs & Development Director of Nevada Humane Society where I helped lead the open-admission shelter handling over 10,000 animals annually and producing a 94% community-wide save rate. During my time there I also helped develop animal help desk and successful adoption promotions and dramatically increased our volunteer support to over 7,000 volunteers while creating signature fundraising events and programs.

I also spent time as the Katrina Rescue and Recovery Director for Alley Cat Allies and was the Network Director for Best Friends Animal Society for 3 years.

I was honored to be part of the team at Nevada Humane Society that received the Maddie's Fund Community Lifesaving Award in 2012 for being one of the first shelters in the country to initiate progressive ideas like foster programs, offering low-cost spay/neuter services, educating our community on adoption and increasing positive marketing of animals.

What are you most proud of in your career?

Being able to share our experiences and expertise in order to make lifesaving for dogs and cats easier and more effective for organizations and communities across the country.

What's something related to animal welfare that you are passionate about and want others to learn?

Quality customer service and effective interpersonal skills!

Tell us something about yourself people might be surprised to learn?

I love to travel and have visited over 30 countries.

Visit HumaneNetwork.org to find ways you can increase animal lifesaving and create sustainable results. Explore their resources tab to access free guides, webinars, articles and videos that can help you increase pet adoptions.

Plus check out the attachments to learn more about Maddie's Pet Project in Nevada, Humane Network and their top 10 tips to save more lives by increasing pet adoptions from your shelter or rescue group!

Attachment(s)

PostFile-86b061b9-dd5f-4329-94c6-3ccbb572a457.pdf   2.15 MB 1 version

PostFile-20c141bb-532f-43cc-a7c1-fbec229b6a20.pdf   487 KB 1 version

PostFile-0c3da5b1-0852-4612-af68-4e2eb5628fe5.pdf   927 KB 1 version

Cheers to one of my favorite animal welfare friends and early colleagues! 

My wife and I have had rescues since 1990. Usually as many as our home could hold. We currently have 6 dogs. I am a psychologist and she has an MBA in organizational mgmt. We are planning to move before the fall and I posted a plan and request for Ideas under tag Serenity Ranch. I am now retired so adoption vetting will fall to me. We hope to be able to house up to 1000 animals. But have concerns with cats. We want to allow them outside but cats are very independent thinkers. This leads us to an enclosure problem, the only solution I see is to completely cover the enclosure. Please read our start up plan under Serenity Ranch and leave Ideas there.

Thank you so much