Looking to make improvements at your animal shelter? Here's how they did it!
Dr. Kate Hurley (UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program) Mike Keiley (MSPCA), Anthea Smith (Edmonton Humane Society), Cindi Delany (UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program and Yolo County Animal Services), Carly Sholten (Animal Foundation), Emily Khlem (South Suburban Humane Society) deliver a presentation at Animal Care Expo 2018 tracking the various movements at their shelters from 2012-2018.
Animal Care Expo 2018. Millino Cat Challenge Panelist
1. 2012
• Intake of 1,742 cats and a live
release rate of 46%
• Pervasive upper respiratory
infections (URI)
‒ Long length of stay
‒ Inadequate housing
• Staff burnout
2. 2012
Intake: 1742
LR: 46% Portals and Capacity for Care
PetSmart partnerships
Saving FIV+ Cats
Barn Cat Program
Kitten Nursery and More
Fosters
2017
Intake: 1745*
LR: 94%
*Intake numbers not
lower because we’re
now TRANSFERRING
IN cats/kittens!!
3. Managed Admissions and Intake Diversion
• The single greatest way we saved so many more cats’ lives!
• Work to keep them out of the shelter and to manage their process in
if they had to be sheltered
‒ Communication with the public when they find a stray
‒ Can you keep this litter of kittens?
‒ How can we help you keep this cat?
‒ Appointment scheduling
‒ From intake directly to foster
5. 2012
Disease:
428 cats/kittens in the shelter!
Many “orphaned” neonatal kittens
9 cats in each life room
Up to 16 in each “chalet”
Overflow cages and ferret cages crammed
onto adoption floor…
Intake of feral cats
(and automatically euthanized)
50 confirmed cases of
panleukopenia
All rooms in holding were multi-use
and always full
6. 2012
Intake:
12,517
LR: 73% Kitten co-op program (= wait till 8 / foster finder)
Stopped mandatory 1 week observation holds for all
cats before they can move up to adoption
Strays and surrenders by appointment
Portals
Fast tracking
2017
Intake:
6,380
LR: 93%
8. 2018
2 cats max in each life room
Maximum 6 cats in each “chalet”
Portals and all open!
Dedicated cat wards for emergency
isolation, hoarding cases,
intentionally left empty
Less disease:
>50% drop in
panleukopenia incidence
140 cats/kittens in shelter!
No intake of feral cats, only
TNR offered
No overflow or ferret cages in adoption!
15. 2012
Intake: 16,973
LR: 15%
Euth: 14,141 Drastically increased our foster and transfer placement opportunities
Implemented fast-track option & reduced adoption
age to six weeks for kittens
Decreased Adoption Fees
Animal Control no longer brings in
healthy stray cats!
Implemented Community Cat Program
2017
Intake: 7,490
LR: 73%
Euth: 1,918
16. 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Intake 12,944 12,116 8,683 7,490 7,000
Euthanasia 8,430 6,955 3,077 1,918 1,050
SNR & RTF 500 631 1,447 1,352 1,100
TNR 500 19 849 2,835 3,000
Live Release 34% 43% 65% 73% 85%
Community Cats Program "Cata"
*TNR numbers are not included in shelter intake or outcome data
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Intake Euthanasia SNR & RTF TNR Live Release
Where your shelter was in 2012? Whatever you want to say about that, whether show an image, show your numbers, describe how it felt, etc.
5 interventions that got you from there to here – could be a big thing like implementing RTF or discontinuing field pickups of stray cats, or a small thing like switching spay/neuter age to 6 weeks or changing the language on your website about neonates.
Put in data (Intake, live release and/or euthanasia) or not – totally up to you!
A little more detail on one of those interventions – we schemed so that each panelist can talk about something different:
Carly – RTF/not picking up healthy strays
Anthea – Portals!
Emily – Managed intake/Intake diversion
Bryn – Fee waived adoptions
Delany – TBD
Where you are today? Again, could be numbers, image, how it feels, etc.
Could talk about What one thing is next on your list to tackle? – but you don’t need to if you don’t have time
Where your shelter was in 2012? Whatever you want to say about that, whether show an image, show your numbers, describe how it felt, etc.
428 cats in care Aug 28th. Peak that year was well over 500 cats and kittens in care at one time!
5 interventions that got you from there to here – could be a big thing like implementing RTF or discontinuing field pickups of stray cats, or a small thing like switching spay/neuter age to 6 weeks or changing the language on your website about neonates.
Put in data (Intake, live release and/or euthanasia) or not – totally up to you!
A little more detail on one of those interventions – we schemed so that each panelist can talk about something different:
Carly – RTF/not picking up healthy strays
Anthea – Portals!
Emily – Managed intake/Intake diversion
Bryn – Fee waived adoptions
Delany – TBD
Where you are today? Again, could be numbers, image, how it feels, etc.
Could talk about What one thing is next on your list to tackle? – but you don’t need to if you don’t have time
Where your shelter was in 2012? Whatever you want to say about that, whether show an image, show your numbers, describe how it felt, etc.
5 interventions that got you from there to here – could be a big thing like implementing RTF or discontinuing field pickups of stray cats, or a small thing like switching spay/neuter age to 6 weeks or changing the language on your website about neonates.
Put in data (Intake, live release and/or euthanasia) or not – totally up to you!
A little more detail on one of those interventions – we schemed so that each panelist can talk about something different:
Carly – RTF/not picking up healthy strays
Anthea – Portals!
Emily – Managed intake/Intake diversion
Bryn – Fee waived adoptions
Delany – TBD
Where you are today? Again, could be numbers, image, how it feels, etc.
Could talk about What one thing is next on your list to tackle? – but you don’t need to if you don’t have time
Where your shelter was in 2012? Whatever you want to say about that, whether show an image, show your numbers, describe how it felt, etc.
This picture depicts pretty accurately how things looked and felt in 2012. We had no portals, no return to field program, and I think the cats were all sitting there wondering when we were going to figure out that they really were doing just fine
Almost 43,000 intakes
Almost 18,000 cats
Less than 2,800 positive outcomes for cats
Live Release Rate: about 15%
Notes:
Foster placements up 121% (from 502 to 1,110 cats/kittens)
Transfer Placements up 1,500% (from 44 to 697 cats/kittens)
Positive Placements in 2012: 2,774
Positive Placements in 2017: 5,425
96% increase
Euthanasia 2012: 14,141
Euthanasia 2017: 1,918
86% decrease
A little more detail on one of those interventions – we schemed so that each panelist can talk about something different:
Carly – RTF/not picking up healthy strays
Anthea – Portals!
Emily – Managed intake/Intake diversion
Bryn – Fee waived adoptions
Delany – TBD
Where you are today? Again, could be numbers, image, how it feels, etc.
Could talk about What one thing is next on your list to tackle? – but you don’t need to if you don’t have time