Animal Welfare Professionals

Hi there!

My name is Riley, and I'm the Community Engagement Coordinator at Huntsville Animal Services. We packed a lot of fun, new, and creative events into this year, and with 2025 wrapping up, I'd love to hear from other shelter folks about what worked for you. I'm especially interested in events or promotions you'd absolutely repeat because your community loved them and your staff didn't quietly plot your downfall afterward. :P

I'm mainly looking for Outreach ideas where you provided something to the community, and Adoption events that really moved the needle. I'd also love to hear whether your shelter does Sunday adoption events and if they're worth it.

Since I'm asking for ideas, here are a few of our favorites from this year in case they spark something for your team:

St. Pitty's Week
In March, we waived fees for all pits and pit mixes. We highlighted them heavily on social media, shared pit bull fun facts all week, and even included a rooster named "Pit Bull" with a silly bio. He got adopted almost instantly, which is not the usual rooster trajectory here. The promo ended with a physical adoption event at a pet supply store, and the whole thing helped us place about twenty long stay bully breeds in one week.

Boom Proof Your Pet
Two weeks before the Fourth of July, we held a big community outreach event focused on preparing pets for the holiday. Everything was free. We brought a vet and offered vaccinations, microchips, and heartworm testing. We gave away collars, leashes, carabiners for fence reinforcement, pet food, dog tags, and a mountain of other goodies. Local trainers and dog-related businesses joined us to provide education and giveaways. A nonprofit handed out flea and tick prevention. It was busy, exhausting, and wildly successful. We entered everyone's info into Chameleon afterward, and several lost pets have made it back home thanks to the microchips from that event.

Late Night Adoption Event
We also tried staying open until 10 pm on a Friday. Fee waived. Food trucks invited. Staff fueled by snacks and chaos. It drew a great crowd. We filmed fun social media challenges for folks who couldn't attend in person, and those videos took off. Overall a big win as forty animals got adopted in a five hour span . We did this twice, and the one in August did a lot better than the one in December, BUT the December turn out ( 9 animals adopted) was worth the work too imo. 

Those are just a few of the ones we loved most. If anyone has questions about how we pulled off any of these, I'm happy to share the behind the scenes. And if you've got Outreach or Adoption events that were a hit for your community, I'd really appreciate the inspiration.

Thanks in advance!

Hey there! I'm Grace and I'm the Outreach and Development Coordinator for Heartland Humane Shelter & Care. First of all, I absolutely LOVE St. Pitties week, Definitely something I'm going to pitch for 2026.

Here's one of our recent events that I found to be pretty successful!
Meet Your Mutt
Held during February and formatted as a speed dating style event. We had it during our closed hours so the only thing that staff needed to do was make sure everything was clean! We chose 10 different areas of our shelter that could be speed dating stations as well as 10 of our different long-term dogs that would rotate through the stations every 10-15 minutes. The chosen dogs were promoted on social media leading up to the even. People signed up through an online form and during the event each of our speed daters had a Rate Your Date Packet (attached) so they could provide feedback on their date. Even if that date didn't result in an adoption we still received info on that dog that can help us in future meets! The community loved it! It was our first year doing it, but we're planning on adding more dates in 2026!

Hi there!

My name is Riley, and I'm the Community Engagement Coordinator at Huntsville Animal Services. We packed a lot of fun, new, and creative events into this year, and with 2025 wrapping up, I'd love to hear from other shelter folks about what worked for you. I'm especially interested in events or promotions you'd absolutely repeat because your community loved them and your staff didn't quietly plot your downfall afterward. :P

I'm mainly looking for Outreach ideas where you provided something to the community, and Adoption events that really moved the needle. I'd also love to hear whether your shelter does Sunday adoption events and if they're worth it.

Since I'm asking for ideas, here are a few of our favorites from this year in case they spark something for your team:

St. Pitty's Week
In March, we waived fees for all pits and pit mixes. We highlighted them heavily on social media, shared pit bull fun facts all week, and even included a rooster named "Pit Bull" with a silly bio. He got adopted almost instantly, which is not the usual rooster trajectory here. The promo ended with a physical adoption event at a pet supply store, and the whole thing helped us place about twenty long stay bully breeds in one week.

Boom Proof Your Pet
Two weeks before the Fourth of July, we held a big community outreach event focused on preparing pets for the holiday. Everything was free. We brought a vet and offered vaccinations, microchips, and heartworm testing. We gave away collars, leashes, carabiners for fence reinforcement, pet food, dog tags, and a mountain of other goodies. Local trainers and dog-related businesses joined us to provide education and giveaways. A nonprofit handed out flea and tick prevention. It was busy, exhausting, and wildly successful. We entered everyone's info into Chameleon afterward, and several lost pets have made it back home thanks to the microchips from that event.

Late Night Adoption Event
We also tried staying open until 10 pm on a Friday. Fee waived. Food trucks invited. Staff fueled by snacks and chaos. It drew a great crowd. We filmed fun social media challenges for folks who couldn't attend in person, and those videos took off. Overall a big win as forty animals got adopted in a five hour span . We did this twice, and the one in August did a lot better than the one in December, BUT the December turn out ( 9 animals adopted) was worth the work too imo. 

Those are just a few of the ones we loved most. If anyone has questions about how we pulled off any of these, I'm happy to share the behind the scenes. And if you've got Outreach or Adoption events that were a hit for your community, I'd really appreciate the inspiration.

Thanks in advance!

Hi there!

My name is Riley, and I'm the Community Engagement Coordinator at Huntsville Animal Services. We packed a lot of fun, new, and creative events into this year, and with 2025 wrapping up, I'd love to hear from other shelter folks about what worked for you. I'm especially interested in events or promotions you'd absolutely repeat because your community loved them and your staff didn't quietly plot your downfall afterward. :P

I'm mainly looking for Outreach ideas where you provided something to the community, and Adoption events that really moved the needle. I'd also love to hear whether your shelter does Sunday adoption events and if they're worth it.

Since I'm asking for ideas, here are a few of our favorites from this year in case they spark something for your team:

St. Pitty's Week
In March, we waived fees for all pits and pit mixes. We highlighted them heavily on social media, shared pit bull fun facts all week, and even included a rooster named "Pit Bull" with a silly bio. He got adopted almost instantly, which is not the usual rooster trajectory here. The promo ended with a physical adoption event at a pet supply store, and the whole thing helped us place about twenty long stay bully breeds in one week.

Boom Proof Your Pet
Two weeks before the Fourth of July, we held a big community outreach event focused on preparing pets for the holiday. Everything was free. We brought a vet and offered vaccinations, microchips, and heartworm testing. We gave away collars, leashes, carabiners for fence reinforcement, pet food, dog tags, and a mountain of other goodies. Local trainers and dog-related businesses joined us to provide education and giveaways. A nonprofit handed out flea and tick prevention. It was busy, exhausting, and wildly successful. We entered everyone's info into Chameleon afterward, and several lost pets have made it back home thanks to the microchips from that event.

Late Night Adoption Event
We also tried staying open until 10 pm on a Friday. Fee waived. Food trucks invited. Staff fueled by snacks and chaos. It drew a great crowd. We filmed fun social media challenges for folks who couldn't attend in person, and those videos took off. Overall a big win as forty animals got adopted in a five hour span . We did this twice, and the one in August did a lot better than the one in December, BUT the December turn out ( 9 animals adopted) was worth the work too imo. 

Those are just a few of the ones we loved most. If anyone has questions about how we pulled off any of these, I'm happy to share the behind the scenes. And if you've got Outreach or Adoption events that were a hit for your community, I'd really appreciate the inspiration.

Thanks in advance!

I don't have a recommendation, but I do want to say that we love having Riley at our shelter :-) 

Hi there!

My name is Riley, and I'm the Community Engagement Coordinator at Huntsville Animal Services. We packed a lot of fun, new, and creative events into this year, and with 2025 wrapping up, I'd love to hear from other shelter folks about what worked for you. I'm especially interested in events or promotions you'd absolutely repeat because your community loved them and your staff didn't quietly plot your downfall afterward. :P

I'm mainly looking for Outreach ideas where you provided something to the community, and Adoption events that really moved the needle. I'd also love to hear whether your shelter does Sunday adoption events and if they're worth it.

Since I'm asking for ideas, here are a few of our favorites from this year in case they spark something for your team:

St. Pitty's Week
In March, we waived fees for all pits and pit mixes. We highlighted them heavily on social media, shared pit bull fun facts all week, and even included a rooster named "Pit Bull" with a silly bio. He got adopted almost instantly, which is not the usual rooster trajectory here. The promo ended with a physical adoption event at a pet supply store, and the whole thing helped us place about twenty long stay bully breeds in one week.

Boom Proof Your Pet
Two weeks before the Fourth of July, we held a big community outreach event focused on preparing pets for the holiday. Everything was free. We brought a vet and offered vaccinations, microchips, and heartworm testing. We gave away collars, leashes, carabiners for fence reinforcement, pet food, dog tags, and a mountain of other goodies. Local trainers and dog-related businesses joined us to provide education and giveaways. A nonprofit handed out flea and tick prevention. It was busy, exhausting, and wildly successful. We entered everyone's info into Chameleon afterward, and several lost pets have made it back home thanks to the microchips from that event.

Late Night Adoption Event
We also tried staying open until 10 pm on a Friday. Fee waived. Food trucks invited. Staff fueled by snacks and chaos. It drew a great crowd. We filmed fun social media challenges for folks who couldn't attend in person, and those videos took off. Overall a big win as forty animals got adopted in a five hour span . We did this twice, and the one in August did a lot better than the one in December, BUT the December turn out ( 9 animals adopted) was worth the work too imo. 

Those are just a few of the ones we loved most. If anyone has questions about how we pulled off any of these, I'm happy to share the behind the scenes. And if you've got Outreach or Adoption events that were a hit for your community, I'd really appreciate the inspiration.

Thanks in advance!