KC DOG BLOG

The Pyramid of Saving Lives -- what the 90% looks like

At the Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Conference that was held in Las Vegas back in October, I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Ellen Jefferson, of Austin Pets Alive, speak.

While I was familiar with Austin's story, it was great to hear from someone who's boots were on the ground, creating success in Austin.

As a part of her presentation, she presented the chart to the left (and it is with her permission I'm sharing it).  I love this chart because I think it is a really clear way to demonstrate what it looks like to achieve no kill in an open admission shelter. The data on the chart, while Dr. Jefferson acknowledges is "not scientific", I think does give a feel for what a shelter population looks like -- based on her experience in Austin. The numbers in Kansas City were very similar.

So, starting at the bottom of the pyramid you have the 50% that were already being saved. When Austin Pets Alive really started working toward No Kill, the shelter had a save rate of 50% -- so they didn't necessarily need help with those animals. They were highly adoptable, and were, in fact, being adopted. In Kansas City, the save rate was about 60% when we took over, so we were in pretty similar shape.

APA then recognized that there was another 10-15% of the population that was healthy, highly adoptable, and fairly easy to find homes for. The targeted that group first as a way to make the highest impact in lives saved with the fewest amount of resources (which were very scarce at the time).

They then identified another 10-15% of the population that were desireable dogs and cats, with minor needs. These may be animals with fairly fixable issues like ringworm, or needed slight behavior modification, etc.

They then identified approximately 5% of the population that were underage kittens and puppies that needed foster care, bottle feeding, etc in order to become old enough to be adopted.

There was then 5% of the population that were critically ill (mentally or physically) or injured. At the top were 10% of the population that were chronic, with behavioral or health problems that an animal would never fully recover from.

I really like this chart because I think it's an easy to think about No-Kill in terms of the 90% saved goal -- with the assumption that 90% are easily savable, and the other 10% are clearly not saveable.

However, it's a lot less clear than that.

While 80% or so fall under the desirabe/easily savable category, the remaining 20% (ish) falls under a graduating scale of health and behavioral issues that range from treatable with extra time/work/resources and not ever treatable. Many are highly adoptable after a significant amount of training, or medical work (like treating parvo, or recovery from amputations, gun shot wounds, etc). Others may never be fully healthy.

This graduating scale is often why you see many shelters that are working to get to No Kill hit 80% save rates fairly quickly, but struggle to get to the last 10% and you see a growing list of shelters with about 85% save rates -- including shelters like KC Pet Project and Manatee County, FL. While some smaller shelters are able to help these animals more quickly, because the 10% equals about 10-20 animals, for a shelter like Austin, the animals in this grey area equal about 1600 animals -- which is a lot of resources (veterinary, foster homes, financial and time) to come up with. It's also why you don't see "no kill overnight" happening (yet) in large shelters.

So while 90% (or higher) is achievable, it may take some time to develop the financial/personnel/capital resources to make it happen.

Thanks to Dr. Jefferson for letting me share this and I'm curious if this chart mirrors what you're seeing in your own communities in your open-admission shelters. It sure resembled what we see here in Kansas City, as well as in Austin.

 

Thoughts from the 2012 Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Conference

A week ago today was the start of the Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Conference and I feel like it's taken me a few days to sort of soak in the events of the conference so I can try to summarize my thoughts in a somewhat coherent fashion.

First off, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to speak at the conference on behalf of KC Pet Project and on the many changes that are taking place here in Kansas City -- and get to talk to a lot of folks about what we're doing not only in a large setting, but also to individuals and I got to hear the opportunities, and struggles, in their communities.

The group of speakers this year was once again outstanding. Experts in no kill sheltering, increasing adoptions, customer service, training and animal handling, marketing etc were all across the speaker panels. One of my big problems is that once again, with so many great speakers, I didn't get a chance to hear nearly everyone speak that I wanted to. But I did get to catch a couple of presenters that I was very much looking forward to seeing -- including hearing about the success April Harris is having in Salt Lake County, UT; hearing Susanne Kogut present (who I've seen at many conferences, and met, but have never actually heard her presentation) and Aimee Sadler -- who is very good at shelter traiing/handling for dogs to help them be more adoptable in a shelter setting.

After thinking about the conference, here are more my thoughts on the No Kill movement at this point that any highlights from speakers:

1) First off, it was great to see so many people at the conference. Numbers I've seen are about 1500 folks in attendence. When I first got into animal welfare 7 years (or so) ago, there were minimal ways for people to get access to information on best practices around the country. It's one of the reasons I started this blog. Now, there seem to be a lot of ways for people to meet others that are having success, and sharing ideas -- at conferences like this one and growing No Kill Conference, and on blogs and Facebook. Learning ideas and best practices from others is huge.

2) I'm so glad people are starting to warm up to the idea of open adoption policies. Several years ago there was a LOT of pushback about open adoption policies -- and now, more and more people are abandoning harsh requirements for adoption. There is still a ways to go here.

3) One observation I had was that the No Kill track (there were 5 "tracks" at the conference) was one of the tracks. More people seemed to be interested in more specific workshops like animal training, increasing owner retention, increasing adoptions, fundraising, marketning, etc. While the No Kill track seems to take a very global view at fixing the problems, the narrow tracks are able to go more in-depth in each of the topics. Both are very valuable. My general feeling is that it seems like a lot of the folks at the conference (and in animal welfare in general) are very focused on their individual pieces of the pie -- whether there are a rescue focusing on adoptions, or a spay/neuter clinic focusing on spay/neuter/outreach.

None of this is bad, and all of it is important, but I do get a sense from this (and from talking to people) that many of the people that are most supportive of No Kill are not necessarily in senior positions, or with organizations that allow them to focus on the more global view.

4) I  think there are a lot of people who WANT the power to make their communities no kill, but right now lack the resources to do so. In some places, the city runs the animal shelter and the animals there are dying because there is a lack of caring at the city shelter. In some, the city animal intake is handled by a 3rd party not-for-profit that runs their own shelter (and is doing so poorly) -- and that shelter may be the only shelter facility in the entire city. I really think the next 3 years or so is going to be spent marrying the people who have a passion for saving lives with the power (whether it be money, the shelter, or city contracts) to impact the changes necessary to become No Kill.

5) Here's the good news -- regardless of the situation in your community, there is a path to No Kill that has been applied that works.  

a) In Charlottesville, VA the city partners with a not-for-profit 501c3, the Charlottesville SPCA, to handle their animal control intake. They're path to success was changing the management at that not-for-profit organization

b) In Reno, NV, the Nevada Humane Society, (a 501c3 not-for-profit) partners with the city shelter (which is next door) in order to maximize life-saving.

c) In Austin, TX; the city shelter was for many years poorly managed, but Austin Pets Alive set up the rescue/foster/spay/neuter resources to effectively pull animals from the city shelter and save their lives until new management could be put in place.

d) In Kansas City, MO; our community was able to convince politicians to privatize the shelter operations and now we have a compassionate organization managing the city shelter facility.

I think any of these paths will work -- and depending on the circumstances in your community, each one offers a potential path to success -- depending on where the power structures are and depending on how hard or easy it is to change the power structure in the city so that we can get compassionate people who know how to make no kill work in positions where they have the money, shelter, access to make the changes happen.

What are the barriers to getting to no kill in your community?  And which path gives you the best opportunity for success?  Now that you know the path you need to take, let's get started.

KC Pet Project to Present at 2012 Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Conference

Earlier today, I posted an update on the statistics from KC Pet Project and the Kansas City, MO Animal Shelter through September.

As recently as 2008, the KCMO animal shelter had a live release rate of about 38% -- and tragically resembled the mess that many munipal shelters still are today. Many advocates came forward, and the city decided to privatize the shelter operations in 2009. In 2010, and 2011, new shelter management was able to improve the live release rate to 65% in each of those two years. You can get more details on the history here.

Last year, the city put the contract up for bid again, and a small group of advocates formed the KC Pet Project to bid on the shelter contract. And we won.

Over the past 9 months, KC Pet Project has been able to increase the live release rate to 84% -- including 3 consecutive months now above 90%.

Apparently, what we're accomplishing has caught the eye of the fine folks out at Best Friends Animal Society -- and they've invited me to come out and speak at their No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas on October 25-28. They are expecting more that 1300 people to attend their conference and I feel pretty honored to be invited to speak as a part of their "Journey to No Kill Communities" track that features some of the top leaders in the No Kill Movement (and many of the people I respect most int he movement) -- such as Susanne Kogut,  Ellen Jefferson and Bonney Brown.

I'm really excited about the opportunity to talk about our situation here in KC where the city is working with the animal welfare community in a partnership that can increase life-saving in the community through contracting out the operation of the city animal shelter to a private organization -- and in the process, turning what was until only a few years ago a high kill shelter into a very low kill (and hopefully soon No Kill) shelter. I hope others can learn from the experience. I also am pleased to represent a fantastic army of people in Kansas City that have really helped make this happen -- a great, compassionate staff, a huge (and growing) volunteer base, and an active rescue community that have all helped make this possible.

So join me and some others from our team out in Las Vegas at the end of this month.

You can read a little more about our Bio for the conference here.

A look at Best Friends' Animal Sanctuary in Utah

Fred, over at One Bark at a Time, took a little vacation to the U.S. and spent a few days at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Konab, Utah.

 He took a lot of great photos (I shamelessly stole the one at the left from him so you can get a feel for his photo essay)  and has a lot of great stories to tell -- that are well worth the time.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5 -- Bryce Canyon National Park - Not at all dog related, but Fred got some great shots of one of the places in the US I most hope to visit.

And finally, some lessons learned from his trip to Best Friends.   Fred's vacation got turned into a bit of a business trip as chaos hit the Toronto Humane Society before he left.  He's done a GREAT job of covering the goings on -- including mismanagement and animal Cruelty - at the Toronto Humane Society so go check it out. He's got posts here, here, here and here on that.

Speaking of THS, Social Mange has also been covering the awful situation there. There are several posts there that are well worth scrolling back for.

Some thoughts on Best Friends

So last weekend I was at the No More Homeless Pets Conference that was put on by Best Friends Animal Society. And I have to confess, that I was a little nervous going into the conference.

I know there are several people who read here that don't like Best Friends...and group them in the same group with HSUS and PETA as animal rights groups.  I have always had good experiences with folks from Best Friends, but have always stayed at arms length from the group.

I'll also confess, that as a relative newby on the Animal Welfare scene, I don't have the benefit, or the baggage, that comes with being here a long time. I don't know what Best Friends was, or used to be.  I can only look at what they are now.

I've known for awhile that Best Friends is a friend to us when it comes to Bully breeds. The work they've done with theVick-tory dogs as well as the work they did in helping Forest get freed from Denver are evidence of that. 

However, I went to the conference completely expecting to be one of the few there that did not favor mandatory spay/neuter programs.  But I was pleasantly impressed here too.

In multiple forums, from spay/neuter forums to "model program" forums, the topic of mandatory spay/neuter laws came up several times. I never heard one single speaker at the conference say they favored mandatory sterilization laws.  (I promise to write a lot more about this in the coming weeks).  Best Friends, as a group, has even softened their stance on MSN -- as their official stance now is that they will support MSN, but only if free and low-cost programs are in place for those who cannot afford the cost of sterilization.

But even with that said, one of Best Friends' most successful programs -- getting dogs spayed and neutered with a mobile unit throughout Utah -- is based solely on low (or no) cost voluntary spay neuter programs.  Not mandating the activity.

I left the conference with a much better impression of Best Friends than I went in. While I went in liking many of the things they did, I was skeptical. However, as I left the conference, I felt like they were a solid Animal Welfare organization that was a group of caring people, doing their best to benefit the lives of companion animals. That's a cause I can really get behind. 

If we are to really move forward in the animal welfare movement, we're really going to need the various animal welfare groups, breed groups, rescues, the AVMA, AKC and other breeder groups and others to really get on the same page.  All of us are stronger than any one of us...and with different Animal Welfare groups bickering over the "right" solution (and there may be more than one "right" solution), cities are left confused on what to do.  We must get on the same page, clear up the confusion, and move them toward good programs that improve public safety, improve the lives of animals, and don't put unnecessary restrictions on pet owners.

I think Best Friends is a friend in this fight.

More soon.