A new study suggests an increased focus on microchipping by shelters and veterinarians may make a lifesaving difference for stray pets. In a study published in the current issue of the Journal of Veterinary Behavior, researchers found that in Israel, animal shelters have a return-to-owner (RTO) rate for dogs of 67%, while the U.S. shelters… Learn More
What if you could support your pet adopters and help prevent returns without having to put in a lot of extra effort or spend any money? Maddie’s Pet Assistant (MPA), a tool that helps you provide support to adopters and foster caregivers, might be exactly what you need. What’s more, it comes at no cost… Learn More
Will we see you at the 2017 Annual Society of Animal Welfare Administrators (SAWA) Conference in Miami, FL, this weekend? The conference will run from November 12-15, with a Research Symposium Day on the 15th, sponsored by yours truly. Online registration is still open if you’re thinking about it, and they also accept walk-up registrations once… Learn More
Director Alexis Pugh of Memphis Animal Services made plenty of changes when she took over the shelter last year. One of the biggest was implementing a safety net program designed to keep pets with their families, and get lost pets back home. Maddie’s Fund® spoke with Pugh to find out more about the shelter’s innovative… Learn More
“Ramp up your medical programs for seniors, folks – soon enough you’ll be seeing far more of those than adoption age kittens.” Those words were posted by Karina King, Director of Operations for the Dakin Humane Society, on a Million Cat Challenge discussion forum. For communities at the height of their kitten season, the thought… Learn More
Mary Kennedy Withrow, a staffer at the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, arrived at the shelter recently and found a woman standing outside with a gorgeous German Shepherd. She said she had found the dog running down her street, and wanted to have her scanned. “I would have kept her, but my other dog didn’t seem… Learn More
A stranger stops you in the street and tells you his dog is missing. Would you know what to tell him? Thanks to her time volunteering for Lost Dogs Minnesota, Linda Conrad did. Conrad was packing up her van for a trip one morning when a car stopped in her driveway. He’d noticed the dog… Learn More
Is there something dog owners can do to keep other people’s dogs from ending up in shelters due to behavior problems? Yes, says board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Nicholas Dodman, Director of the Animal Behavior Department of Clinical Sciences at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. He’s spearheading a two-year, crowdsourced study of dog behavior… Learn More
Lori Weise of Downtown Dog Rescue pretty much wrote the book on helping people and their pets stay together, and keeping animals out of shelters. And with the publication of First Home, Forever Home: How to Start and Run a Shelter Intervention Program, that’s not a metaphor anymore. Weise has been written about, awarded, and… Learn More
There are two ways to save the lives of more pets: Find loving homes for them when they enter an animal shelter, and keep them in loving homes they already have so they stay out of the shelter in the first place. “We’re already doing pretty well with our adoptions,” said Gina Knepp, animal care… Learn More