Animal Shelters

Making A Difference by Saving Lives!

By Nathan Winograd
Photo by Benjamin Hernandez, benjaminhernandez.net

"You can't adopt your way out of killing." It is one of the most enduring beliefs among animal shelter professionals, and it could not be more wrong. The numbers prove it. The studies prove it. But more importantly, shelters across the U.S. are proving it. And that is good news for dogs who find themselves in a shelter.

What are they doing to make it happen? In other words, what makes the shelter in Reno, Nevada or Shelbyville, Kentucky or Ithaca, New York, or Charlottesville, Virginia, or Berkeley, California, or any of the other communities that have ended the killing of savable animals so successful? Here are the top ten strategies they are employing to get every shelter dog into a loving, new home.

1. Public Access Hours

Traditionally, shelters tend to be open during normal "business" hours (9 am to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday) and some do not even have those hours. But that means working people and families with children in school don't get many opportunities to go to the shelter. "Most of our adoptions are after 5 p.m. during the week and on weekends," says the director of the Nevada Humane Society.

Last year, the director of a shelter in Indiana decided to stay open on the Fourth of July, when the shelter was normally closed and did a big promotion: 153 animals found loving, new homes; the single day record for any shelter in the state.

2. Offsite Adoptions

Most shelters are located in remote, out of the way parts of the community. In other words, they aren't located where people work, live, and play. In addition, many people think of shelters as sad and tragic places and may be reluctant to visit. So rather than wait for people to

come to the shelter, successful shelters are taking the animals to the people. Over 20 years ago, the San Francisco SPCA created the nation's first offsite adoption program, setting up adoption locations throughout the city. Today, roughly one out of four animals are adopted offsite, and over the years, that has meant over 10,000 animals have found a home while being showcased outside of the shelter.

3. Go Head to Head with the Competition

People have lots of choices on where to get their next dog and the Tompkins County SPCA wants to make sure it stays competitive. The shelter has done a good job of competing against local pet stores by offering animals from the shelter"”spayed and vaccinated"” for less than the cost of buying. In addition, new adopters also get free pet food, a free visit to a veterinarian of their choice, a pet care guide, and an engraved identification tag"”all donated by local businesses. Because the shelter also does offsite adoptions, people can adopt from the same mall as the pet store so they don't have to drive to an out of the way facility. "When we compete head to head, we win," says the former shelter manager of the Tompkins County SPCA.

4. Make the Shelter Inviting and Fun

Nothing makes a person feel welcome like a smile and hello, but getting you to stay and adopt can only be done by a puppy-dog look and a wagging tail. In other words, once you get them in the room, the animals do the rest. The Charlottesville SPCA invites people to interact with the animals and has even set up pools in which the dogs may play and splash in order to make the shelter a fun place to visit. One wet, slobbery kiss is all many people need to know that some goofy, playful pup is "the one."

5. Social Marketing

Today, having a website is an indispensable part of any organization. But in sheltering, it isn't enough to save all the lives at risk. Seven out of ten internet users worldwide are on social marketing websites like Facebook and Twitter. That amounts to over 600 million people. And if a shelter is not utilizing those social networks, it is missing out on an important market share for promoting their animals. According to Animal Ark Shelter in Minnesota, a pioneer in this field, "The sharing of adoptable animals via social networking sites is viral marketing in its truest, purest and best form. It costs virtually nothing to get started, and the payoffs are tremendous: more and quicker adoptions, donations, and other support."

6. Greater Visibility in the Community

Out of sight is out of mind when it comes to where people get their next companion. One shelter did a survey of adopters to find out why they chose to adopt rather than go somewhere else and 83% said they were influenced by hearing about the organization: reading about them in the newspaper, seeing them at a local community event, finding them online, hearing about them on the radio, or word of mouth. Only 17% said adopting from them was their first choice, something they always knew they would do. To get more adoptions, the shelter must be in the public eye.

7. Get by with a Little Help from Your Friends

Shelters are in the business of saving lives. And like any business, successful shelters are rewarding their best customers by offering them special deals in return for their loyalty. That means giving something back to rescue groups, who typically save many animals every year, and foster parents, who take in special needs animals on a volunteer basis until they are ready for adoption. In Shelbyville, Kentucky, rescue groups and volunteers get the pick of the litter. By giving rescue groups any animal, any time, and at no cost, Shelby has to find homes for the fewer animals who remain. The result? They've been No Kill for two years.

8. A Picture and a Thousand Words

Whoever coined the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words didn't consider 3,000,000 shelter animals looking for homes. According to shelter directors who have tops-inthe- nation rates of lifesaving, there is no doubt that a good photograph that shows off the animal's best qualities advertised in a newspaper, a pet of the week ad, a flyer, or online will get people to the shelter to meet him or her. But it is the story that will close the deal. Rather than focusing on the basics: name, breed, age, and gender, the most successful shelters tell something about each animal: what they like, their favorite activities and treats, and even a little about their ideal home.

9. Let's Make a Deal

A high adoption fee doesn't guarantee a good home. "If it did," says the Director of Operations for a very successful No Kill shelter, "you wouldn't see purebred animals in our shelter." The reality is that people have lots of choices on where they can get an animal and price will influence their decision. Why? In addition to the adoption fee, adopters have lots of other expenses such as collars, leashes, toys, and even a trip to the veterinarian.

Thankfully, a multi-state survey of shelters across the country has confirmed what successful shelters already knew: lowering the price of adoptions increased the number of adoptions but did not decrease the quality of the home. Quality and quantity can go hand in hand. Shelters have doubled and even tripled adoptions when they've tied adoption specials to fun events such as: no cost adoption weekends, pick your own price adoptions, two-for-one specials, holiday bargains, and free senior pets to senior citizens.

10. Skip the Third Degree

Successful shelter directors do not just want dogs to go home, they also want "good homes." But they caution: ensuring a good home doesn't require that potential adopters be grilled for an hour, to fill out a 10-page application, or be required to submit to fingerprinting and a polygraph examination.

Americans love their dogs. We spend billions on their care, we carry their pictures in our wallets, we miss work when they are sick, and we consider them cherished members of our families. Americans have lots of choices when it comes to getting a new best friend, and when we make the decision to adopt from a shelter rather than going to more convenient places, like the local pet store, shelters shouldn't start out with the presumption we can't be trusted.

Screening may be an important part of the adoption process, but a rigid, bureaucratic undertaking is hardly necessary. By talking to and educating potential adopters rather than interrogating them, shelters can place animals in loving homes, without alienating people or making them feel like criminals. Shelter directors with a "can do" attitude and a passion for saving lives are implementing exciting, innovative, fun campaigns to adopt out more animals than ever before. And they are saving thousands of dogs who previously would have been killed. And that is news all dog lovers should celebrate.

Nathan J. Winograd is the Director of the national No Kill Advocacy Center. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School, a former criminal prosecutor and attorney, held a variety of leadership positions including director of operations for the San Francisco SPCA and executive director of the Tompkins County SPCA. He has spoken nationally and internationally on animal sheltering issues, has written animal protection legislation at the state and national level, and has created successful No Kill programs in both urban and rural communities. Nathan is the author of two books, Redemption and Irreconcilable Differences. Redemption won five national book awards and redefined the animal protection movement in the United States. For more information please visit www.nathanwinograd.com or www.nokilladvocacycenter.org