Animal Welfare Professionals

(So many lifesaving advances! Where do we even start, right??)

Oh gosh, so much!!! That FIV+ cats can, in most cases, live with other cats without transmitting the disease. That ringworm isn't the end of the world. How to market pets on social media. Everything!!

My dear Katie, I live in northern CA with 4 cats and in the studio/garage lives Holly, my foster cat. I found her dumped on my street one year ago and despite her young age, currently about 17 months, her sweetness and her beauty, and my abundant placing of flyers EVERYWHERE, I've not found the right home for her. Very few folks have even called. I know so little about social media and I know less about how to post things and what to post. Can you, will you give me some help?

Erica

That shelter stress is putting good pets' lives at risk and there is so, so much we can all do to fix it. Also like 1 billion other things.

Agree...1 billion other things!!! ;-)

That taking care of yourself is just as important as the daily work we do in our shelters/rescues. It's okay to say no and it's okay to take a step back. If we don't take care of ourselves, we can't continue to do the work

Several good articles here: https://www.animalsheltering.org/topics/compassion-fatigue

Yep! Compassion fatigue is real and a legit deficit on this field.

Unfortunately, I wish I had known that not everyone working in animal welfare shares the No Kill vision. So many are ignorant, apathetic, full of excuses...if I hear "can't save them all" one more time... or any of the myriad of excuses as to why new programs can't be implemented (even free programs!) or any of the false information about what No Kill actually means that is constantly being circulated by people who don't bother to check their facts. UGH! Coming to the realization that not everyone is dedicated to, or even interested in, doing the right thing was challenging for me.

I am very pleased that so much progress has been made in how No Kill is presented. The various authorities and their respective publications, videos, presentations, webinars, tool kits, recipes, consultants, events...and all the other support has been invaluable in our crusade. No Kill 2025! Go team! <3

I wish I (and everyone else) knew that adoption isn't the only way to help save animals' lives. If adoption isn't an option, then fostering, TNR, SNR, sleepovers, field trips, enrichment, volunteering, posting on social media...the list goes on and on... saves lives!

Yep! Innovation, being proactive instead of reactive, community outreach...sadly these are still foreign concepts in many places.

I wish I’d know that canine diabetes could be treated far better than the basic protocol that was given out to dog parents with a sugar baby. Oh how so many lives could have been saved back then and how saving the life of a diabetic dog is not hard and the rewards are far greater than you could have ever known. Let’s teach these pet parents how to home test their diabetic dogs and not only save the dogs life but give it a much more normal and fulfilling long life!!

My dog was diabetic for many years and it was controlled by twice daily injections, which were no big deal. In fact, his diabetes was better controlled than mine.

I really wish I had known how powerful community programs and targeted spay/neuter for owned cats would be in helping control cat overpopulation.  After seeing Dr. John Caltibiano of the TEAM Van(In CT) speak in 1998 I was inspired and I felt that he was really on to something good, but it took me 10 years to get my organization on board with owned cat spay/neuter.  I wish I had started a program in 2000 vs in 2008.  It makes the Cat Community so much easier to handle...  We had been doing TNR and active adoption, they didn't move the needle...  In 2008 things changed in MA for the better.  Things are still busy, but in a different way. 

I have learn about cats, and that we can make TNR´s to control the population of them in a good way, I also learned and teach why to spay and neuter is the best way for all the animals, and with this we control dogs and cats in my county. 

I wish I had known more about the numerous areas available for volunteers to help in. I believed that because I could not do much physically demanding work, such as walking large dogs, that I wouldn't be able to volunteers for other areas. So wrong.

That dogs are like potato chips--you can't just have one..

But really the most important thing I have learned is that volunteering even a few hours a week can be immensely rewarding and does make a difference in so many ways---the bliss of  "wiggly butt" when a  dog so happy to see you and puppy kisses? PRICELESS.

I wish I’d known that the TNR injunction going into effect in2009 would still be in effect in 2019 and I had joined the fight to keep in available. The City of Los Angeles still cannot fund, promote, or educate on TNR until they complete an environmental impact study and its fallen to the private sector which is overwhelmed. We lose so many kittens and the street cat population continues to grow.

I wish I had know about adoption driven capacity.  We portalled all of our kennels and reduced our capacity by more than half.  By given each cat bigger and better housing, illness and behavior issues decreased.  Our length of stay decreased and our over all adoption numbers went up.  Who knew that by decreasing our capacity we would help more animals.

Love this. 

How important it is to speak with our pets all the time.  Give them love and affirmations with gentle words and always use their names when you speak to them.  Sure they are part of our household and hear our conversations and thus are connected in this way, however we need to give them some direct attention every day conversing with them, face to face, when possible, otherwise while you are cooking dinner and they are sitting there waiting for theirs.  Talk with them. I believe this is how we bond with our pets.