\u201cIt takes a village.\u201d It\u2019s a saying that\u2019s applied to inciting social change in cities, raising a child and fighting viruses. It\u2019s also the mindset that helped a municipal animal shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina, receive its first-ever No-Kill community designation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo shelter can do it without the help of the community,\u201d says Melissa Knicely, public information specialist for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control (AC&C).<\/p>\n
To achieve the designation, AC&C had to reach a 90% save rate for animals it took in during the year, which can include anything from a dog hoarding case, a pet who\u2019s lost from his home or a dangerous loose animal. If it sounds like a great feat \u2014 find ing a home for 90% of animals that come into the shelter \u2014 you\u2019re right. According to Best Friends Animal Society, only 37% of all communities with sheltering services have reached a No-Kill designation.<\/p>\n
AC&C, which is a branch of the police department, has been working toward this goal for years, says Melissa, ending 2020 with a \u201c900 countdown\u201d campaign that involved support from the local media, partnerships with local rescue groups and collaborating with an international social media influencer to get as many animals \u2014 as close to 900 as possible \u2014 adopted.<\/p>\n These citywide efforts can be seen across the country as nearly 40 shelters have implemented community-supported programs to keep pets out of shelters and reduce euthanasia rates.<\/p>\n The initiative is driven by Human Animal Support Services (HASS), a coalition created last year by Texasbased nonprofit American Pets Alive! in an effort to foster the bond between animals and people and transform the way communities interact with their sheltering systems.<\/p>\n Here, the AC&C team, which has now set a 92% save rate goal for 2021, walks us through the programs it put into place to help reach its save rate goal and how other communities can, too<\/p>\n The team started this temporary foster program two years ago to give dogs a break from the commotion at the shelter. Families care for a dog up to five days and report back on a postcard about any outings and activities the dog participated in and how she handled them.<\/p>\n Not only does the shelter get insight into how a dog behaves in various settings, which helps to make successful adoptions, but about 50% of the dogs ended up being adopted by the foster parents.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been really helpful with our success,\u201d Melissa says.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a 72-hour window after an animal is found before the shelter can spay or neuter or put the animal up for adoption. This can cause a bottleneck situation in the shelter, Melissa explains, and can also increase the chance of kennel diseases spreading among the animals.<\/p>\n To speed up the adoption process, AC&C gave people the option of paying the adoption fee before the 72 hours is up, so the dog can get spayed or neutered and adopted the same day he becomes legal.<\/p>\n AC&C is working with local pet stores to get microchip scanners installed, so lost animals can be scanned, as a first resort, without having to call the AC&C or a vet.<\/p>\n The team goes into the community and provides dogs with free vaccines, heartworm tests and preventives and a microchip.<\/p>\n Other discounted and free medical services the shelter plans to implement this year include an internal spay-and-neuter program, waived adoption fees for senior citizens, discount prescription cards and flea and tick medications.<\/p>\n Melissa says, \u201cWhen an owner surrenders an animal because they can\u2019t afford to go to the vet, we can offer alternatives.<\/p>\n For more information:<\/strong> Visit charlottenc.gov<\/a>, and click on the Adopt a Pet link.<\/p>\n The post A New Breed of Animal Control<\/a> by Lauren Katims<\/a> appeared first on Dogster<\/a>. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren’t considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n The post A New Breed of Animal Control<\/a> by Lauren Katims<\/a> appeared first on Dogster<\/a>. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren’t considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes a village.\u201d It\u2019s a saying that\u2019s applied to inciting social change in cities, raising a child and fighting viruses. It\u2019s also the mindset that helped a municipal animal shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina, receive its first-ever No-Kill community designation.<\/p>\n \u201cNo shelter can do it without the help of the community,\u201d says Melissa Knicely, public information specialist for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control (AC&C).<\/p>\n To achieve the designation, AC&C had to reach a 90% save rate for animals it took in during the year, which can include anything from a dog hoarding case, a pet who\u2019s lost from his home or a dangerous loose animal. If it sounds like a great feat \u2014 find ing a home for 90% of animals that come into the shelter \u2014 you\u2019re right. According to Best Friends Animal Society, only 37% of all communities with sheltering services have reached a No-Kill designation.<\/p>\n AC&C, which is a branch of the police department, has been working toward this goal for years, says Melissa, ending 2020 with a \u201c900 countdown\u201d campaign that involved support from the local media, partnerships with local rescue groups and collaborating with an international social media influencer to get as many animals \u2014 as close to 900 as possible \u2014 adopted.<\/p>\n These citywide efforts can be seen across the country as nearly 40 shelters have implemented community-supported programs to keep pets out of shelters and reduce euthanasia rates.<\/p>\n The initiative is driven by Human Animal Support Services (HASS), a coalition created last year by Texasbased nonprofit American Pets Alive! in an effort to foster the bond between animals and people and transform the way communities interact with their sheltering systems.<\/p>\n Here, the AC&C team, which has now set a 92% save rate goal for 2021, walks us through the programs it put into place to help reach its save rate goal and how other communities can, too<\/p>\n The team started this temporary foster program two years ago to give dogs a break from the commotion at the shelter. Families care for a dog up to five days and report back on a postcard about any outings and activities the dog participated in and how she handled them.<\/p>\n Not only does the shelter get insight into how a dog behaves in various settings, which helps to make successful adoptions, but about 50% of the dogs ended up being adopted by the foster parents.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been really helpful with our success,\u201d Melissa says.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a 72-hour window after an animal is found before the shelter can spay or neuter or put the animal up for adoption. This can cause a bottleneck situation in the shelter, Melissa explains, and can also increase the chance of kennel diseases spreading among the animals.<\/p>\n To speed up the adoption process, AC&C gave people the option of paying the adoption fee before the 72 hours is up, so the dog can get spayed or neutered and adopted the same day he becomes legal.<\/p>\n AC&C is working with local pet stores to get microchip scanners installed, so lost animals can be scanned, as a first resort, without having to call the AC&C or a vet.<\/p>\n The team goes into the community and provides dogs with free vaccines, heartworm tests and preventives and a microchip.<\/p>\n Other discounted and free medical services the shelter plans to implement this year include an internal spay-and-neuter program, waived adoption fees for senior citizens, discount prescription cards and flea and tick medications.<\/p>\n Melissa says, \u201cWhen an owner surrenders an animal because they can\u2019t afford to go to the vet, we can offer alternatives.<\/p>\n For more information:<\/strong> Visit charlottenc.gov<\/a>, and click on the Adopt a Pet link.<\/p>\n The post A New Breed of Animal Control<\/a> by Lauren Katims<\/a> appeared first on Dogster<\/a>. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren’t considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s36700.pcdn.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/new-breed-513x600.jpg.optimal.jpg\")
\u00a9Images Courtesy AC&C<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nStaycation<\/h3>\n
Pre-Adoption<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s36700.pcdn.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/animal-control-600x365.jpg.optimal.jpg\")
Microchip Checkpoints<\/h3>\n
Wellness Programs<\/h3>\n
#PawsForThisCause. What YOU Can Do<\/h3>\n
\n
\u00a9Images Courtesy AC&C<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nStaycation<\/h3>\n
Pre-Adoption<\/h3>\n
Microchip Checkpoints<\/h3>\n
Wellness Programs<\/h3>\n
#PawsForThisCause. What YOU Can Do<\/h3>\n
\n