Friend, how can we reimagine animal welfare?

Director's Corner

Greetings,

As we prepare to close out the 2020-2021 grant year, I want to thank each of you for all you have done to support senior dogs and their people during this historic time. I have been impressed by your resilience and openness to new ways of doing business. I hope this is just the beginning of a new day in animal welfare that embraces a community-centric focus and reflects the diversity and dignity of the people we serve and the animals we love.

Clearly, there is work to be done in order to achieve that vision. In this edition of Director's Corner, we talk about ways we can reimagine our work and share strategies to support those efforts. As always, we'd love to hear from you about what's working and what's not. Please share your experiences on our Facebook page.

Thanks for all you do to make life better for senior dogs. The more we can learn from one another, the more senior dogs we will help.

Sincerely,

Lisa Lunghofer, PhD

Executive Director

The Evolving Role of Animal Shelters

What if the whole community was an animal shelter? Kristine Hassen is director of American Pets Alive and that's her vision. She explains, “We see the role of animal services evolving. The shelter becomes a last line of defense, but really, the shelter becomes one solution and not the solution.”

JAVMA News spoke with several animal services and shelter leaders about new ways of doing business. A central focus is examining the assumptions that underlie traditional animal welfare practice--from choosing adopters to training animal control officers to helping people facing financial hardship. “Marginalized communities and people with lower incomes deserve animals as much as wealthy people, and yet, that has not been the way that shelters have worked,” said Dr. Jyothi V. Robertson, a board-certified shelter medicine veterinarian. “What does it look like to rethink how we support communities and have happy families with pets?”

Read the article

What Does Bias in Animal Welfare Look Like?

Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity Inc. (CARE) and Harvard University’s Project Implicit surveyed about 1,700 people working in companion animal welfare to assess racial and socioeconomic attitudes. The sample was 84% white, 84% female, and 86% non-Hispanic.

Using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), they measured the strength of associations between concepts (e.g., Black people, rich people) and evaluations (e.g., good, bad). They found a moderate to strong implicit preference for adoptions by white people over Black and Hispanic people, as well as a preference for wealthy individuals versus poor individuals. These results were in contrast to self-reports, which showed the opposite preferences and pointed to the work needed to uncover our unconscious biases.

Download the results

KC Pet Project: Reclaim Fee Forgiveness

KC Pet Project has launched a new Reclaim Fee Forgiveness Program that they hope will reunite found animals with their people more quickly. Pet owners can reclaim lost pets from the shelter at no cost as long as the animals are reclaimed within two days of arriving at the shelter.

The program is part of a new approach to animal services in Kansas City that is focused less on punitive measures and more on building trust and partnerships with the community.

Can Technology Get Pets Home More Quickly?

Technology is changing animal welfare and how we do business. This article highlights three technologies that are improving return-to-home (RTH) rates in animal shelters. They include Finding Rover, Lost2Found, and Pawboost. Read about what each does, why they're unique, the impact on RTH efforts, and how to get started using them.

Read the article

Grantee Webinar

June 16 at 2 ET

Join us for the last grantee webinar of the 2020-2021 grant cycle. We're hosting a panel discussion with three current grantees who will discuss how their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion are manifesting in different aspects of their work on behalf of senior dogs.

Best Friends National Conference

Attend the virtual Best Friends National Conference June 23 and 24. It's a great opportunity to connect with animal welfare leaders from across the country and gain knowledge to save lives. Content will be available on demand until July 30. Register by June 21!

Learn more

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