Animal Welfare Professionals

Our open-admission public shelter is experiencing a sizable increase in intakes and we are developing an intake diversion program.  Do any other shelters already have this in place and have successes?  We'd love to hear about them.  Thanks!

We are a nonprofit shelter and our Safety Net program handles intake diversion for both municipal shelters in our County. We have an 85%+ success rate with well over 500 diversions. If you'd like to speak with the person that manages this program, you can reach out to her at ljean@arflife.org.  

Thank you so much for your reply -- I will reach out to her right away.

In the Chicago area there is CRISP: http://www.aliverescue.org/community-outreach/crisp/

How cool!  Thanks for sharing!

Started one here at Indianapolis Animal Care Services this spring.  Happy to chat with you about it—it’s a game changer! Danielle.hynes@indy.gov

Oakland Animal Services has seen a decrease in intakes in recent years, and started providing some resources to "keep them home." The website that provides some info is here: http://www.oaklandanimalservices.org/services/surrendered-animals/ 

There's a webcast tomorrow on Intake Mitigation and Managed Intake given by Dr. Sarah Boyd, Lead Veterinarian, and Joe Hellebrand, Director of Animal Services, at Brevard County Sheriff's Office Animal Shelter that you might be interested in.  If you can't attend tomorrow, you can still sign up for the webcast and then watch the recording later.  Here's the link:  https://www.maddiesfund.org/lss-intake-mitigation-and-managed-intake.htm?p=0EECED7D-7E3F-4ECB-A2D8-CD9099F21539 

We are not affiliated with any shelters, but after several years serving on a rescue that focused on one particular high kill shelter, I helped to co-found an organization centered on pet retention. 

Right now we offer pet food assistance and partial and full vet care subsidies, but we hope to grow to someday be able to offer short term animal care for pet owners in personal crisis (domestic abuse, undergoing medical treatment, etc) and hands-on care for elderly or ill pet owners who find some tasks overwhelming. 

One thing that I believe sets us apart is that we seek to form ongoing relationships, friendships, with our clientele. We want them to think of us first when they have an issue with their pets. We want to gain their trust. We do this by viewing them as equals and finding common ground, even if we disagree with the way that they are caring for their pets.

Unless there is true neglect or abuse happening, we go in with the attitude that we might not make things perfect, but we can make things better. By being patient and truly caring for the pet owner, we have seen animals that have lived outdoors all their lives being brought into the house to live as a family member,  we've seen owners learn to appreciate and interact with their pets in a more positive way, we've convinced people to change their minds about spay/neuter, we've guided people away from home remedies that are useless at best and harmful at worst towards acceptable care standards. 

I think providing tangible help, delivered with respect towards the pet owner, can go a long way towards keeping animals in their homes and improving the homes for the pets and the people.