How did Alachua County, Florida, convince its legislators that free and reduced-fee pet adoptions not only made sense for the animals, but saved taxpayer money? Find out!

Gainesville, Florida's Alachua County Animal Services (ACAS) had a strict policy: pet adoption fees couldn't be waived or reduced, because the pets were "assets" that couldn't just be given away.

Why was this bad? Jeannette Peters of Nonprofit Management Consulting LLC writes:

Well, for one thing, it did not allow ACAS to incentivize adoptions or market harder-to-place animals with lower fees. It was certainly not aligned with current research supporting fee flexibility. Over time it was costing, not saving, the county money as animals got sick in the shelter, requiring more and more veterinary services, more days of shelter care costs and ultimately the cost of euthanasia. Especially urgent for our community: without the option to offer free adoptions, ACAS wouldn't be able to participate in Maddie's^® Pet Adoption Days…

Fortunately, animal advocates in Alachua County had been building their outreach team and relationships with legislators for a decade. They were able to pull together experts and data that told a powerful story:

We met individually with each of the five commissioners, tailoring our presentation to what we knew about the interests and preferences of each. We were ready for questions and conversations about side issues that had the potential to distract the discussion and derail our request. For example, we knew one commissioner would bring up our high-profile TNR programs and their impact on wildlife, so Dr. Levy was ready with the latest research and statistics to answer those questions quickly and get us back on track. We knew that one commissioner would be focused on costs to taxpayers, and we brought her detailed cost/benefit analysis. We were able to demonstrate how saving lives at ACAS was also saving county taxpayer dollars through clear and realistic cost calculations.

We encountered concerns from commissioners who had heard the old-school beliefs that free or low-fee adoptions led to adopters who were not committed or did not value their new pets. Thanks to the November 2012 study published by  Maddie's^® Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida, we were able to cite research-based evidence that fee-waived adoptions yield positive, long-term outcomes for pets.

What happened? Find out here!