When the Cleveland Animal Protective League got hit with nearly 150 cats from a hoarding situation last January, most with serious health problems, they knew it was a challenge they didn’t have to face alone. “All these cats had been living in a free-roaming environment, and we found we had some FIV and FeLV, some… Learn More

Cats who receive positive attention from human caretakers while in animal shelters exhibit fewer signs of stress and a lower incidence of upper respiratory disease than cats who don’t. These results, reported in the October 2015 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Preventive Veterinary Medicine, are consistent with the authors’ earlier study on petting shelter cats,… 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

The next time your animal organization sends out an email or publishes a blog post, take a long, hard look at the subject line. Writing headlines people will want to click on and subject lines that will get people to open your email is, or course, a skill much exploited by clickbait websites and people… 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

What would you do if you were a veterinarian, and a former client who had fallen on hard times emails you to beg for help for his dog? If you’re Dr. Kathryn Primm, you find a way to help the man, help the dog and help your local animal shelter, too. “This old client, who… Learn More

Is your shelter or rescue group missing out on one of the most powerful forms of support animal lovers can offer, the donation in memory of a lost loved one? This Sunday is National Pet Memorial Day, a day for those who have lost beloved companion animals to honor their memories. But it’s also a… Learn More

If your shelter or rescue group needs to improve its online fundraising and cause awareness — and who doesn’t? — then they can’t afford to turn their back on the science of social media. If your only exposure to social media is sharing pets who need help, family photos and rants about issues of the… Learn More

Is your shelter or rescue group’s “urgent pets” page on Facebook doing more harm than good? That’s what Don Jennings wondered when he took over as Executive Director of San Antonio Pets Alive! (SAPA!), and saw the chaotic, often disruptive nature of the comments on the organization’s “SAPA Urgents and Adoptables” page. “SAPA! was formed… Learn More

You probably consider your shelter or rescue group to be a nonprofit organization. But when you identify what category your Facebook page should be listed in, is that the designation you choose? The first reason you might want to list yourself as a nonprofit rather than a pet service, community or animal shelter is this:… Learn More