Advice on handling surges in shelter pet populations - Ep50

Shelter Success Simplified

GUEST: Marc Peralta is chief program officer at Best Friends Animal Society. Prior to this position, he served in a number of other key roles at Best Friends, including senior director of National No-Kill-Advancement and senior director for Best Friends in Los Angeles. Marc also served as vice president and chief operating officer at the Pennsylvania SPCA and was a member of the board of directors for the Animal Care and Control Team of Philadelphia. And he was animal care manager at the Nevada Humane Society in Reno, Nevada, and the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

MAIN QUESTION: What advice do you have for shelters struggling with summer surges in pet populations?

TAKEAWAYS:

• If you're in the thick of a surge in admissions, here are some strategies to help:
  • Identify specific shelter populations who need help and find creative ways to lower adoption prices and market them for adoption.
  • Try pop-up adoption events, or adopting pets out at community events.
  • Branch out to NextDoor and other social media platforms beyond Facebook.
  • Create a specific call to action and pitch it to your local news media (TV, newspapers and radio) such as how the shelter has many cats and dogs in need of homes now – so if you can adopt, please reach out or come in to adopt now. If you have an overabundance of a certain shelter population (kittens, black dogs, adult cats), and need adopters now, share that with the media.
  • Have volunteers put up adoption promo fliers around town. It may sound old-fashioned, but getting volunteers involved in this way can work!
• Because peaks in animal populations entering shelters generally happen every summer – especially with cats – it’s helpful to prepare for them in late winter. Here are some ways to prepare:
  • Plan to do kitten showers in April to seek donations of kitten milk-replacer, heating pads, and kitten food so that you have what you need when the wave comes. It’s also a great time to line up and train potential foster homes.
  • Re-examine your adoption processes and try to make adoptions easy for adopters. Remove barriers to adoption and don’t rely on feelings, which can be tainted unconsciously by bias; instead talk with people and keep an open mind.
  • Make sure you have your ducks in a row with your foster program, so that there is ongoing follow-up to avoid extended lengths of stay with your organization. Create a path to adoption for all the animals in foster care.

LINKS:

• Best Friends Animal Society
• Best Friends network partners site
• Leadership recommendation for PR Daily e-newsletter