Animal Welfare Professionals

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  • 1.  Why People Interested in Pets Leave the Shelter Empty Handed

    Posted 2 days ago

     

    Why are shelters so full? Is it because there aren't enough people who want to adopt anymore or is it because we aren't expert converters of foot traffic to adoption? Yesterday in a meeting with HASS Pilot Shelter Directors we discussed  the Competitive Pet Placement Project (CPP) results from a super exciting pilot project supported by PetSmart Charities and led by the Human Animal Support Services Project.

    CPP is about assessing our ability to compete with the on-demand breeder market that is taking our homes. The data collected from 5 shelters across the US shows us that more than enough people are coming in but people are leaving without a pet due to barriers like long wait times. These aren't new problems and I think we mostly chalk them up to barriers we can't fix but we found that we actually can! 

     

    Two questions for you: 1. Do you know your conversion rate of people walking in to those taking a pet home, same day? 2. If it is higher than 20%, what are you doing to get those pets home?


    #AdmissionsandIntake(includingIntake-to-placement)
    #AdoptionsandAdoptionPrograms
    #CommunityPartnerships*
    #DataandTechnology
    #EducationandTraining

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    Nichole Hazard
    Director of Marketing & Communications
    HASS
    TX
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  • 2.  RE: Why People Interested in Pets Leave the Shelter Empty Handed

    Posted yesterday

    CPP goals are fantastic. Just like the move from call a rescue facility a "Pound" to a "Shelter," CPP recognizes adopting must be consumer friendly. The key ingrediencies to consumer friendliness are: a) efficient; b) matching; c) influence behavior using data. The case studies focused on Adoption Conversion Rate. Can anyone share other metrics, like 

    • did adoption return rate change
    • wait times
    • adoption counselor matching making time - what did time did you budget?
    • dog walker/greeter matching making time - did you budget time (we do <=15 minutes) and did that time go up or down

    I am happy to spend time working with the case study groups to collect and report on this data for the benefit of the community. And thank you HASS and PetSmar Charities for this work. 



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    Peter Buck
    Founder
    Cortex
    CA
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Why People Interested in Pets Leave the Shelter Empty Handed

    Posted 9 hours ago

    If people/counties/governments would focus more on the root of the problem which is why the animals are there in the first place,  we would make much better strides/advances and make the world a better place for animals.  In almost 20 years of doing cat rescue I would say 90-95% of our cats (and we rescue 650-700 annually and TNR a few hundred more) are born of ferals and friendly strays that well intentioned people start feeding but fail to spay/neuter.  They "can't afford" to spay 1 so they end up feeding 6, then 11, then 16 and THEN they start calling around for help because they do not of any resources.  Sometimes there are resources available but not accessible/affordable to those with more than just a couple and not convenient and appointments can be weeks or months out depending on the time of the year. Our counties should begin to charge everyone homeowner $5 or $10 on their annual tax bill and that money should go strictly toward free and easily accessible spay/neuter for their county-there should be multiple clinics with varying schedules to accommodate those who work and may have to travel a distance to get to the clinics.  Right now most places are like the little boy with his finger in the dike- putting a band aid on the problem/disease instead of fixing/curing the root cause--the animals keep coming only to suffer. Lets get to the root of the problem and keep MANY more out of shelters to begin with.  Everyone who walks in a shelter is not a qualified adopter nor a forever home unfortunately. We're adopting out animals not selling cars (not trying to be disrespectful at all and I apologize if it comes off that way) Just can't think of a nicer way to say it at this moment. 



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    Marcie Fernandez
    President
    Haven on Earth animal league Inc
    FL
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    Original Message


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