Late Night Musings: Clearing the Shelters

Yesterday was "Clear The Shelters Day" for many shelters across the nation. The Clear The Shelters event is sponsored by Hills Pet Nutrition, Telemundo and NBC Universal, and based on stats from their website, more than 90,000 pets from 1200 shelters found homes in yesterday's event.

Bakersfield Animal Center - 8-17-19

The numbers are staggering:

The Humane Society of Harlingen did 60 adoptions.

Palm Valley Animal Center/PAWS Adoption Center: 302 Adoptions

Albuqueque Animal Shelter: 113 

Brandywine Valley SPCA: 304

Pima County Animal Center: 122

City of Bakersfield Animal Care Center: 210

And so many more....

Humane Society of Harlingen (TX) - 8-17-19

It's an amazing event. And an amazing day. Today, thousands of animals are sleeping in wonderful homes instead of shelters, and thousands of shelter workers are able to work just a little less hard because their shelters are no longer completely full. It may only last for a few days, but it will be a nice, needed break in the heart of summer. 

The value of these events is tremendous. They not only provide homes for loving pets, but provide a huge sense of pride for the shelter workers and volunteers. They also highlight what is possible with adoption programs.

I think one barrier for many shelters is that they don't know when an adoption program is maximized. Their shelter does adoptions, but not enough people come. How does a shelter grow it?

When we started our work in Kansas City at KC Pet Project, within 2 years we had more than quadrupled the volume of animals adopted from the shelter from approximately 1,500 per year to more than 6,000 adoptions per year. How? By doing aggressive marketing of adoptable pets. Removing barriers to adoption. Providing great customer service. And repeating that daily. 

Clear the Shelter events, Super Adoptions, adoption promotions, etc are usually the place many shelters start in seeing the power of these types of promotions. And research has continually shown that mega-adoption events are effective and do not devalue the pets or the homes they go to. 

Brandywine SPCA - 8-17-19

Clear the Shelter Events just save lives...and show the power of marketing, providing good customer service and involving the community into your shelter's live-saving needs and goals. It also creates the opportunity to reshape shelters' thinking and focusing on adoption and live outcomes as a primary space management tool.

And that's worthy of celebration.