It's been a really busy month for me -- both at my job and with KC Area things going on. So posting has been light this month but I think things will be back to normal more for the next few months.
Anyway, each month I take a look back at the 5 most popular posts of the month (based on data from Google Analytics) plus I include the +1 -- which is the one post that I thought was most important that wasn't in the top 5. Here are the top 5 for the month of March, 2011:
1) The Next 48 Days (and how not to write a Petfinder Profile) -- earlier this month the city of Kansas City announced that it was terminating its contract with the current organization that runs its shelter. What followed were volunteers getting asked to no longer help at the shelter, and a staff that made saving the lives of animals more about them, and not about the dogs and cats they were trying to save. I pulled out a couple of petfinder profiles that were an example of this...and sadly aren't uniquely written for Kansas City's situation as I've seen similar examples of these types of poorly written profiles elsewhere.
2) This is your American Shelter System -- A look at some of the worst of public animal shelters from across the nation and several examples of how poorly run shelters are the largest killer of healthy pets in this country, not the public on whom they place blame.
3) Missouri Senate Passes SB 113 - the good, the bad, and the politics of the matter (# Mo Prop B) - The state Senate here passed SB 113 (it is awaiting final hearing in the House), and the aftermath was a lot of poor reporting and an alarming amount of mis-information about the bill. This was my effort to clear some of that up.
4) Two more no kill success stories - Great success stories from out of Austin, TX and Allegany County, MD show that good leadership and a commitment to not killing make all the difference.
5) Writing effective petfinder profiles -- I hope everyone watched this video that read the post -- and I hope more people go back and watch it. Some great ideas in the video for enhancing petfinder profiles to help "sell" animals better to the public.
+1 KCMO Terminates Shelter Contract - opening up new opportunities for animals - This was actually #6 for the month, and the wife told me not enough people read this because it had a crappy title. She was right (of course). The real story here is that the contract was terminated because of some major allegations of abuse and neglect at the shelter -- including poor record keeping, allowing a dog to die in its cage after being left untreated from obvious health problems for 3 days, a staffer having to remove "not yet dead" cats from the incinerator, heartsticking without proper anesthetic -- you get the idea. There is a lot of detail in the links provided (including the entire formal complaint). We're not out of the woods yet on this in KC...but we have some real opportunity here.
Thanks for reading, commenting and sharing. And don't forget, you can always find me @kcdogblog on twitter, or follow by "liking" KC Dog Blog on Facebook.
Lots of good information here especially the posts about writing and effective petfinder notice.
Posted by: Joanne | May 04, 2011 at 05:06 PM