At the 2023 Best Friends National Conference, speakers Tori Fugate and Misty Valenta told the audience during their session that by reframing the perspective to “never let a good crisis go to waste,” they allowed themselves the opportunity to try new and creative marketing that they never thought possible - and they say you can do it too.

This week, we’re sharing a session from this year’s conference titled “Capacity Crisis Marketing.” You’ll hear how Tori at KC Pet Project and Misty at the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter publicized their shelter capacity to their communities while still promoting their pets, programs, and services. You’ll hear unique ways to use different mediums to effectively communicate the current capacity of your shelter and engage your community to get involved. Through effective messaging on social media, email, text programs, and more, you’ll continue to see support from your community, obtain media coverage, and ultimately save lives.

• To watch the video or to check out the slides for this presentation, visit the website for The Best Friends Podcast: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-149

To catch up on what’s been happening around the country since our last episode, we contacted the Chief Program Officer for Best Friends, Marc Peralta. We discussed what’s happening regarding intake and outcomes in animal shelters and dug into the details around some less-than-helpful news articles that came out over the last few weeks. 

Marc also shares how, when times are tough, he leans on his experiences from the past 17 years in animal welfare.

To access resources from this episode, check out the website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-148

This week we focus on a newly launched platform that aims to help you take the way you use data to the next level. The Best Friends data science team designed the features of Shelter Pet Data Alliance. It includes automatically populated dashboards that quickly show you what you need to know and help you understand what you need to do to improve and how to do it.

The Chief Mission Officer for Best Friends, Holly Sizemore, joins us this week to discuss this exciting new platform.

Links:

• Shelter Pet Data Alliance: shelterpetdata.org
• Best Friends Pet Lifesaving Dashboard: bestfriends.org/no-kill-2025/animal-shelter-statistics
• BF Podcast episode 147: network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-147

When you realize the impact words can have, this carries more importance. For example, if we describe adoption returns as failures and publicly call adopters out for doing so, how likely is it that other adopters will return to us if they have issues?

This week we sat down with two Best Friends staff members to get their take on words and terms we use in our work; the senior director of lifesaving programs for the east coast region, Makena Yarbrough, and the manager for the east coast region, John Graves.

For resources related to this episode, check out our website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-146

Geared towards individuals and organizations that focus on helping people and pets, such as animal shelters, rescues, boarding facilities, and veterinary clinics, the toolkit has everything you need to create a comprehensive emergency plan.

The effects of a changing climate are impacting larger parts of the country more often. The toolkit’s information, plan templates, assessments, task descriptions, and checklists will help you stay safe no matter what heads your way.

Resources:

• Best Friends Emergency Preparedness Toolkit: https://network.bestfriends.org/education/operations/additional-education/emergency-preparedness-toolkit
• Register now for the Best Friends national conference: https://bestfriends.org/conference. Use the discount code "PODCAST" to save $10 (Best Friends network partners receive a greater discount using the code delivered via email. Discount codes can not be stacked)

Ten years after its initial release, 19 shelter veterinarians formed a task force to update the guidelines. Their goal was to reflect the current reality in shelters and incorporate the latest science, expert consensus, and programmatic knowledge. The result is a comprehensive set of guidelines everyone can use to assess and improve their operations.

This week we speak with two shelter veterinarians about the updated guidelines and how they can help you in your work; Dr. Lena DeTar, who served on the task force as an editor, and the medical director for Best Friends, Dr. Erin Katribe.

For more resources related to this episode, check out the website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-144

Read the companion program spotlight on the Best Friends Network website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/program-spotlights/asv-releases-updated-guidelines-standards-care-animal-shelters

The inaugural Best Friends National Action Week for Animals is coming soon! Visit this link to learn more and sign up to take part: https://bestfriends.org/advocacy/national-action-week

Behavior is one of the top reasons that dogs are surrendered to shelters, and undesirable behavior can be challenging to overcome in a hectic shelter environment. And as communities increase their lifesaving efforts and save more pets coming into the shelter, resources can be applied to saving the animals with more challenges, including behavior. As a result, the need for skilled dog trainers is only growing.

Enter Goodpup, a virtual training solution that offers access to dog trainers anywhere they’re needed, including shelters and rescues, thanks to their partnership program. To learn more about the platform and its special offer for Best Friends network partners, we spoke with Goodpup’s manager of shelter partnerships, Allie Mayer.

Check out the website for resources related to this episode: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-143

Rachel Mairose, the founder of the Minneapolis-based rescue organization, listened to episode 67 of The Best Friends Podcast, "If "nobody's perfect," then why do we expect all pet adopters to be?" She says that the episode (with guest Lawrence Nicolas) helped her realize that their adoption process wasn't as inclusive as it could be and that set a new way of handling their adoption process in motion.

This week we chat with Rachel to learn more about the changes underway at her organization and how she's managing those changes in policy with their staff, volunteers, and donors.

To learn how you can remove roadblocks to adoption by implementing more inclusive adoption practices, check out the website for this episode: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-142

The warmer weather, longer days, and more widely available food sources all help intact female cats know it’s time to get busy - and that also means shelters and rescues are busy with requests for help.

The youngest orphaned kittens may only be a few days old when they land at shelters and are the most vulnerable. Their round-the-clock needs and fragility make saving them more resource-intensive, resources many communities still lack. Yet, there are people and organizations focused solely on them, like this week’s guest, Andee Bingham, the executive director of Esther Neonatal Kitten Alliance in Asheville, North Carolina.

For more resources related to saving neonatal kittens, check out our website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-140

Learn more about Esther Neonatal Kitten Alliance on their website: kittenalliance.org

There are many reasons why boards become ineffective, but the responsibility of a board is a vital one, and board members' contributions can make a lasting impact. This week we're talking more about boards and revisiting this conversation we had with Trish Tolbert in May. 

Check out Liz Finch's latest program spotlight, "building a better board of directors," to hear the perspectives of more industry leaders: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/program-spotlights/building-better-board-directors

The website for The Best Friends Podcast includes more resources and information on how you organization can become a Best Friends network partner: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-140

To get us started for 2023, we take a moment to think about the year ahead. What has happened over the last few weeks and months that can help us plan for what’s coming next?

Do we expect intake to continue rising at the pace it did through 2022? Will adoptions pick up and at least keep pace with intake? What about the impact of other factors within animal welfare and beyond, such as the economy?

The senior director of lifesaving programs for Best Friends, Brent Toellner, looked at the data and trends and shared what he thinks the year ahead may look like in this week’s episode.

For more resources related to this episode, check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: bestfriends.org/podcast

Across the country, shelters struggled to manage increases in intake, and while adoptions also increased, the boost in positive outcomes couldn’t keep pace. That resulted in many folks in our industry being more overwhelmed than usual (which is saying something). We want to thank you for everything you do to help pets and those who love them.

It’s important always to show gratitude and celebrate wins. However, it’s even more important when times are tough. So as we say farewell to 2022, we’re celebrating the success our Best Friends Network Partners achieved during the four Best Friends National Adoption Weekend events we held in 2022, during which more than 35,000 pets found homes.

We asked our partners to share their experiences with us, and we’re sharing them with you. 

See you in 2023!

Want to be a guest on The Best Friends Podcast? Send us an email: podcast@bestfriends.org

Check out the website for more information about the guests you heard this week: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-138

Topics ranged from staffing and pay inequity to marketing during a crisis. We talked about working with elected officials - with who better than actual elected officials! We welcomed 62 guests who represented various organizations and companies, in and out of animal welfare. And to top it all off, we passed the 100,000 download milestone in the fall!  

But as we’ve said before and will no doubt say again, this podcast is nothing without you. So on behalf of all of us at the Best Friends Network, thank you for everything you do each day to save the lives of pets, and we can’t wait to see what you do in 2023.

• The Best Friends Podcast Ep. 100 - Reducing pay inequality w/ Julie Castle: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-100
• The Best Friends Podcast Ep. 104 - Lifesaving success favors the bold: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-104
• The Best Friends Podcast Ep. 108 - Saving lives in rural America w/ Cole Wakefield: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-108
• The Best Friends Podcast Ep. 112 - Marketing during a crisis w/ KC Pet Project's Tori Fugate: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-112
• The Best Friends Podcast Ep. 124 - Scott Stratten: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-124
• The Best Friends Podcast Ep. 133 - A radical transformation at the York County SPCA: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-133

And while it may be easy to think, "I could never do that. I would just find another apartment," consider that there may not be another apartment. Experts say we are millions of housing units short of what we need to meet demand. The critically short supply creates greater demand, often making a landlord's policies more restrictive and monthly rents more expensive.

Federal, state, and local governments are considering solutions such as tax credits and rent control, but these measures often lack pet-inclusive language. Since two-thirds of Americans own pets, any reforms that don't consider equal access for pet owners will potentially put millions of people and pets in peril.

This week we catch up with the national manager of housing initiatives for Best Friends, Elizabeth Oreck, as she shares good news out of California about a new bill aiming to keep low-income renters - and their pets - safe and housed.

For the housing and advocacy related resources mentioned this week, check out the website for this episode : https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-135

Those lifesaving gains certainly seemed to disappear, but did they? Anecdotal stories from scores of individual organizations say some version of the same thing; that intake is up, and positive outcomes are down. Many say that adopters are simply not coming into their facilities as they have in the past, and there are more requests for help with pet relinquishment than ever. But what does the data show?

This week we hear from the Senior Director of Lifesaving Programs at Best Friends, Brent Toellner. He analyzed the numbers from hundreds of organizations to put our current reality in perspective.

For more resources related to this topic and others discussed this week, check out the website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-135

Check out Brent's editorial that has the numbers and more details talked about in today's episode: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/editorials/reality-todays-shelter-struggles

The next Best Friends National Adoption weekend is happening December 9th through the 11th, and the registration period is closing soon. Get your organization registered right now: https://network.bestfriends.org/join-us/events/best-friends-national-adoption-event

Share your experience with us! Is your intake up or down? What about your adoptions, are folks still coming in to find their next pet? Send us an email: podcast@bestfriends.org

Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and that was the case with the nonprofit organization Dogs on Deployment.

President and co-founder Alisa Johnson joined the Marine Corps in 2011, serving ten years as a KC-130J pilot. Her husband Shawn, also a pilot (in the US Navy), found themselves struggling to find options for the care of their dog JD during months-long deployments. After ruling out expensive options like boarding and professional dog sitters, they found a family member who agreed to care for JD for the six months Alisa was training at Quantico. An ideal situation, but no doubt a lucky one.

They wondered how many other service members find themselves in that same predicament. What about those who don't have family able to help? What happens to those pets?

DoD's nationwide network of patriotic foster homes ensures the human-animal bond stays intact when a military pet owner answers the call of duty. Over the years, the organization's work has grown to support veterans and first responders, not only with temporary fostering.

If your work involves keeping pets and pet owners together, this is one resource you will want to have in your arsenal.

Check out more on The Best Friends Podcast website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-134

By overhauling the IT infrastructure, implementing a community cat program, revamping the adoption processes, and improving internal and external communications, the YCSPCA proved that going big isn’t just a bold strategy - it can be a winning one.

This week we hear from Steven about the last three years as he shares what he feels were the keys to their success and his advice about how your organization can go about its radical transformation.

Send us an email: podcast@bestfriends.org

LINKS:

• Read more about the transformation in this week's program spotlight on the Best Friends Network website: https://bit.ly/3eKwu1x
• Watch the video of Steven's presentation at the 2022 Best Friends National Conference on youtube: https://bit.ly/3VIXNKr
• Download a PDF version of the presentation slide deck: https://bit.ly/3MN5xa6
• The Best Friends National Conference is happening Aug 10-12 in Houston, Texas: https://bit.ly/3LhDUVT
• For more resources, check out this episode on The Best Friends Podcast website: https://bit.ly/3VH6KUy

This week’s guest wrote those and hundreds of other articles during her time as the animal welfare editor at The Huffington Post and as a freelance journalist. Arin Greenwood's work has told the stories of hundreds of people and their pets and the inspiring work of animal shelters and rescue organizations worldwide. However, her work isn’t all stories about dogs riding one-eyed ponies in the middle of the night (yes, that is real). One of her pieces in The Washington Post helped elevate the conversation around arbitrarily stringent adoption policies.

She’s moved on from her role at The Huffington Post, but she continues to write about animal welfare, and her most recent novel, Your Robot Dog Will Die, has received acclaim from critics (and, if all goes well, it may be coming soon to the small screen!).

This week we learn more about Arin and her career as a journalist and writer, both on and offline. She also shares many tips on writing compelling stories of your own and creating and maintaining relationships with journalists.

IMPORTANT LINKS:

• Read the wrap-up of the incredibly successful national adoption weekend event in September: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/program-spotlights/most-successful-adoption-weekend-yet

• Register your network partner organization to take part in the next adoption weekend event taking place in December: https://network.bestfriends.org/join-us/events/best-friends-national-adoption-event 

• For more resources related to this topic, check out our website: bestfriends.org/podcast

The data backs up our feelings about how hard this work is on our mental health. For example, a 2015 study showed the suicide rates for animal welfare workers to be the highest among all professions - including law enforcement.

Thankfully, there are effective strategies to help you manage the challenging emotions that inevitably come with doing this work.

Elizabeth Fagan is a psychotherapist who works with companies and nonprofits, including animal welfare agencies, to help their staff manage trauma experienced while on the job. She joins us this week to help us understand more about how the rigors of animal welfare work impact us and what we can do about it.

Check out The Best Friends Podcast website for resources mentioned in today's episode and more: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-131

Makena Yarbrough is not only the Senior Director of Lifesaving Programs at Best Friends, but she’s also a self-professed superfan of the reality TV franchise. Using the show as inspiration, she created a presentation for the 2022 Best Friends National Conference that points out that a lot of the struggles in the show are things we face every day.

If you are in an area affected by Hurricane Ian and need help, or if you are outside of the area and able to help, please email: seregion@bestfriends.org

For resources on today's topic, guest bios, and more, check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-130

The goal isn’t solely to save the lives of the animals that can fit on that transport vehicle. Reducing the sending shelter’s population helps to relieve the pressure and allows the sending organization to focus on implementing programs and strategies to reduce their reliance on transport over time. But the financial costs and the process of finding partner organizations can make implementing a transport program challenging. And the potential spread of infectious diseases requires using best-practice protocols to ensure the health and safety of the pets in the receiving community.

This week, we hear from two experts - one from the programs side and the other a veterinarian - to talk through what you need to do to ensure you’re transporting responsibly.

For resources related to lifesaving transport programs, check out the website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-129

During the 2022 Best Friends National Conference, 20 speakers had seven minutes each to share a story about how they stepped out of their comfort zone and took a risk. Some shared stories of risky programmatic decisions, while others were more personal, but they were all inspiring.

The audience voted on their favorites, and five speakers earned a $1,000 grant from Petco Love. The other 15 speakers received $500 each from Best Friends to put towards their work.

This week, we're sharing a selection of the presentations with you. We know their stories will move you - maybe to take risks of your own - when you hear your courageous peers' stories about the risks they took.

Time is running out to participate in the Best Friends National Big Dog Campaign. The deadline to register is September 16th: https://network.bestfriends.org/join-us/events/national-big-dog-campaign

Is your organization a Best Friends network partner? Check out this link to learn more about the partner program, to see the requirements, and register: https://network.bestfriends.org/join-us/become-network-partner

In Carrolton, Texas, the leadership of Operation Kindness knew their organization was already doing lots of great work. Still, they wondered if they were doing the right work to save the most lives. They knew they wanted to be more direct in supporting Dallas Animal Services and other regional municipal shelters, so they made several tough decisions, including launching a neonatal kitten nursery.

Managing change of any scale can be overwhelming and scary. Especially when those changes depart from what an organization has done successfully for some time. This week, we hear from Kelly Furnas, the COO of Operation Kindness, about their lifesaving transformation.

Check out the website for more information about this episode: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-127

Read the two-part program spotlight on this topic on the Best Friends Network website:

Part one: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/program-spotlights/reconsidering-your-mission-part-i

Part two: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/program-spotlights/reconsidering-your-mission-part-2

Gateway Pet Guardians in East St. Louis developed the Unicorn Foster Squad program to address a common problem - a lack of foster homes for behaviorally challenging dogs.

This week, we hear from Brittany Fleming more about how this program came to be and how successful it has been in saving lives.

Learn more about the Rachael Ray Save Them All grants and submit your proposal: https://network.bestfriends.org/join-us/partner-perks/best-friends-partner-exclusives/rachael-ray-grants-menu

That’s why it’s important to have plans for what to do during an emergency or disaster, both for yourself and your organization.

To learn more about creating effective plans, we spoke with the senior manager of emergency services for Best Friends, Sharon Hawa.

Registration for this year's Strut Your Mutt is now open. If you are with a Network Partner, click here. If you are an individual looking to take part, click here.

Check out the website for this episode: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-125

Scott is a prolific author and speaker. As the founder of UnMarketing, he’s helped millions understand how to create community and connection through their marketing efforts in the digital age. We talk about UnMarketing, building relationships with the public, and how a leader’s connection to their staff can impact the bottom line.

The next National Adoption Weekend event is happening from September 16th through the 18th, and registration is now open. Learn more: https://network.bestfriends.org/join-us/events/best-friends-national-adoption-event

For example, some communities have laws that consider feral cats to be abandoned. That means a TNVR program (trap-neuter-vaccinate-return) may mean you run afoul of that law anytime you take the last step of that process by returning the newly fixed, vaccinated cat to where they were found.

But these are tumultuous times, and elected officials are faced with massive issues such as policing, budgets, housing, and everything else we’re dealing with in this post-pandemic world. Ensuring you are working with your lawmakers in the best way possible may determine whether your issue passes or fails.

This week we chatted with current Nashville, Tennessee district councilmember Kathleen Murphy, and former Tennessee State Representative Eric Swafford, both of whom are Best Friends legislative and advocacy team members.

Resources:

Read about the results of the smashing success of July's National Adoption Weekend event: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/program-spotlights/second-national-adoption-weekend-results-nearly-10000-animals

Become a Best Friends network partner: https://network.bestfriends.org/join-us/become-network-partner

For more resources on this topic, and photos and bios for this week's guests, check out the website for this episode: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-123

The funded projects over the years have varied. Some focused on increasing lifesaving within one shelter. Others used the grant to fund programs to help other communities beyond their own. But they have all shared the same goal of impactful, innovative, and inclusive programming that is helping us get to No-Kill 2025.

The grant cycle opens on September 1st, 2022, so this week, we're taking a closer look at the Rachael Ray grants program. What grants are available, who is eligible to receive funding, and what types of programs have received funding in the past?

We spoke with Bethany Heins, the director of strategy and network operations for Best Friends, to learn more about the basics, and we also chatted with Ashley Flores from the Great Plains SPCA in Merriam, Kansas. Ashley tells us about their virtual behavior mentorship program - an idea that took flight after they received a Rachael Ray grant in 2022.

Interested in taking the Great Plains SPCA's three-week virtual course on building a sustainable behavior program? Follow this link for more information: https://www.greatplainsspca.org/programs/behavior-training/building-a-sustainable-behavior-program

For more resources related to this episode, check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-122

The strategies can save time, money, and of course, lives, and there's $300,000 in grant money available to participating organizations.

Seventeen national organizations are sponsoring this challenge, including Best Friends. Registration closes on August 1st, so time is of the essence for you to sign up: https://www.maddiesfund.org/return-to-home-challenge-best-friends.htm

To talk more about the challenge and the strategies that can help you get more pets back home more quickly, we spoke with Gina Knepp, the national shelter engagement director for the Michelson Found Animals Foundation. 

Check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: https://bestfriends.org/podcast

We talk about the state of animal welfare in Southwest Tennessee during this challenging time in the industry and what they're doing to meet the needs of people and pets in the community.

Check out the consumer adoption survey editorial mentioned in the episode: network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/editorials/factors-impacting-pet-acquisition

The website for The Best Friends Podcast: bestfriends.org/podcast

We wanted to learn more about the public’s attitudes towards pet adoption during this turbulent time. Have we hit a national saturation point of pet ownership? Are external factors like the economy and housing issues to blame? For those who still want to add a new pet to their family, where are they acquiring them from?

To find out more, Best Friends Animal Society commissioned a survey and gathered insights from hundreds of members of the public who considered acquiring a pet or did acquire a pet in the past 12 months.

This week we sit down with the director of strategy and network operations for Best Friends, Bethany Heins. She shares the results, and we discuss how to use the insights to ensure you’re maximizing your adoptions.

Check out the survey results and access the full analysis: https://network.bestfriends.org/research-data/research/consumer-adoption-survey

Visit the website for episode 119 of The Best Friends Podcast: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-119

This year we're in Raleigh, North Carolina. Like the previous host communities, such as Atlanta, Dallas, Atlantic City, and North Carolina are important to the animal welfare movement.

We can't tell North Carolina's story in just one episode, but with the conference kicking off today, we thought we could offer a little context about the state and its lifesaving story. To learn more, we spoke with native North Carolinian John Graves, a strategist for the east region at Best Friends.

Check out this episode on the Best Friends Network website for resources related to this episode and more: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-118

Fraily started in animal welfare with the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando in 2006. Over the next 15 years, he did just about everything there is to do in this field, becoming the COO of the organization, where he dramatically reduced intakes into the organization’s two shelters by implementing programs to keep people and pets together. He’s passionate, intelligent, funny, eternally upbeat, and just an all-around great guy!

Learn more about this innovative animal welfare leader, hear what Fraily loves the most about the work, and what he would do if he could change anything with the snap of his fingers.

Check out more resources related to this episode: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-117

Got a story to tell? Email us: podcast@bestfriends.org

To get us all geared up for the adoption event, we're dipping into the archives to revisit one of our favorite adoption-themed episodes.

Every time someone chooses to adopt an animal, we have the opportunity to positively change that person's life and save an animal's life. So why do we still put up so many barriers that make adopting an animal so unreasonably difficult?

The reasons to deny a pet adoption are as vast as they are inane. Sometimes it's because of age (of the adopter and/or the pet). Others because they are a renter, while another potential adopter may own a home, a fenceless yard can lead to rejection. Some organizations go so far as asking if you plan to have children anytime in the next decade. Unfortunately, this often grueling and unnecessarily invasive adoption process does little to determine how much a pet will be cared for and drives good people away from our lifesaving work.

This week we speak with Lawrence Nicolas, the Chief Operating Officer for the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in West Palm Beach, Florida (currently, he is the COO of the Jacksonville Humane Society in Florida). Lawrence tells us about their open adoption process that sends roughly 6,000 animals to new homes each year while maintaining a return rate of under 4 percent.

Check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: bestfriends.org/podcast

In her role at Best Friends, Louiza consults with organizations across several states to help them save more lives. She’s a veterinarian, she’s from Australia, and she is a faculty member at the University of Florida’s veterinary shelter medicine online program.

Are you attending the conference and interested in being a guest on the podcast? Email us and let us know! podcast@bestfriends.org

Since we began collecting the data in 2016, the number of animals unnecessarily losing their lives in shelters has steadily decreased. But there were many questions about how the COVID-19 pandemic affected our lifesaving work. Would the number of pets entering shelters rise as the world tries to return to normal? How would the staffing crisis and the challenging economic period in 2021 impact our ability to save lives?

This week we welcome the senior director of lifesaving programs for Best Friends, Brent Toellner, back to talk through the headlines from the 2021 dataset.

Check out the full dataset at the pet lifesaving dashboard: https://bestfriends.org/no-kill-2025/animal-shelter-statistics

Successful communities know that they need the community to help them save lives, so they are transparent, sharing the good, the bad, and even the ugly because that sharing engages people in the mission. An engaged community is a lifesaving community.

To dive into transparency a bit deeper, this week, we’re sharing a Best Friends Network town hall. “Using transparency to empower and support your community” was moderated by Executive Director of Best Friends in Utah, Michelle Dosson.

You can watch the video version of this town hall and see resources related to the topic of transparency here: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-113

The Best Friends National Conference is happening July 7th-9th in Raleigh, North Carolina. Check out the agenda, the list of speakers, and information on how to register here: https://bestfriends.org/events/best-friends-national-conference

If you are experiencing this, you know that it can be hard to maintain lifesaving when the number of animals coming in doesn’t slow down. Creating compelling content for the public and the media is a vital piece of the puzzle to getting the animals in your care out into foster and adoptive homes.

One community that has found ways to maintain its impressive live release rate is Kansas City, Missouri. This week we spoke with Tori Fugate, the chief communications officer for KC Pet Project, about how they’ve managed to keep up the lifesaving pace.

We want to hear from you. How is your community doing right now? Share your story with us. You may be featured on a future episode! Email: podcast@bestfriends.org

Check out resources from this episode by visiting the website for The Best Friends Podcast: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-112

Last year the experts dubbed the shifting economy “the great resignation” as millions of workers left the workforce during the pandemic. Now, thanks to more data, the experts say this period has become “the great reshuffle.” Millions of workers are still leaving their jobs each month, but the data shows that the majority of people are not leaving the workforce for good. Instead, people are seeking new careers, often in new fields, working for companies that can offer great benefits, flexibility, and a positive internal culture that values them and their contributions.

That means there is more competition than ever when it comes to finding and retaining your staff at a time when no shelter or rescue organization can afford to lose anyone. So this week, our guests share some insight on how you can gain the hiring edge.

We want to hear from you about your staffing situation. Are you fully staffed? Are you struggling to find and retain workers? Share your story with us. You may be featured on a future episode! Email: podcast@bestfriends.org

Check out resources from this episode by visiting the website for The Best Friends Podcast: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-111

Boards can take on different forms, but all boards of directors provide a governance role. Sometimes (most often in the case of small organizations), the board can be a "working board," where members take on operational responsibilities on top of the governance duties.

No matter the approach, board members play an essential role in the oversight of organizations, such as fiduciary duties, leading the strategic planning, and supporting the organization's management. With the programmatic shifts in the industry and issues such as the economy affecting all of us, now more than ever, animal welfare organizations need board members who are ready and willing to step up to the challenge.

We chatted with the senior specialist with the Best Friends national embed team, Trish Tolbert, to learn more about boards.

We want to hear from you about your boards. What's working, and what's not? You may be featured on a future episode. Email: podcast@bestfriends.org

Check out resources from this episode by visiting the website for The Best Friends Podcast: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-110

So with in-person travel and meetings starting to come back, there's a good chance you will be attending a conference this year. As it's been a while, you may be feeling overwhelmed at the thought of it all. We know we are! 

We thought we'd ask some of the wisest professionals in animal welfare for their tips on how to get the most out of your conference experiences. 

Are you interested in attending the 2022 Best Friends National Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina? To see the schedule, speakers, travel information, and more, check out the website: bestfriends.org/conference

What are the best practices in rural shelters, and how do they differ from those in larger communities? And what can we all do to support the lifesaving organizations in those communities? Learning from those who have found ways to overcome the obstacles is a good place to start!

This week, we head to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to speak with the executive director for the Good Shepherd Humane Society, Cole Wakefield, to learn more about what it's like to save lives in the Ozarks.

For more lifesaving resources related to this episode, check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: bestfriends.org/podcast

Unfortunately, the number of lost pets in shelters which make it home is very low. The number of lost dogs getting home has improved in the last few years, but the odds of a lost owned cat in a shelter being reunited with its owner is just 2%.

This week we're focusing on lost cats and how we can improve our strategies to get more of them back home. We spoke with someone who has helped thousands of cats get home, Lost Cat Finder Kim Freeman

To learn more about Kim, check out her website: lostcatfinder.com

You can find resources related to this episode on The Best Friends Podcast website: network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-107

Best Friends is planning to grow the shelter collaborative program this year, but you don’t need to be officially part of this program to pair up and save lives.

This week we hear from Shelbi Waters, the executive director of Souris Valley Animal Shelter in Minot, North Dakota, and Kasey Renteria, the executive director of Ardmore Animal Shelter in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Hear how these two leaders forged a relationship that will save the lives of dogs and cats for years to come.

Check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: bestfriends.org/podcast

Another approach to working together is the Best Friends shelter collaborative program, where strategic matches are made between two organizations. One shelter that has a proven track record of achieving and sustaining the 90% benchmark is paired with a shelter that is still working its way toward the goal.

It’s all about judgment-free support, driven by the shared goal of saving every pet that can be saved. Next week we’ll hear from two different organizations currently in this program. This week we get the details from Carrie Ducote, the national senior strategist with the shelter collaborative team at Best Friends.

You can reach out to the shelter collaborative team by email: sheltercollaborative [AT] bestfriends [DOT] org

Check out the podcast website: bestfriends.org/podcast

Our field is constantly evolving, and to save as many lives as possible, we have to be willing to try new approaches, even when that means going beyond our comfort zone.

This week we’re joined by two risk-takers, Stacy Rogers and Makena Yarbrough from Best Friends. We talk about why it’s so important to take risks and how to do it smartly.

Share your stories with us of when taking risks resulted in success (and failure). You could be featured in an upcoming episode! Email: podcast@bestfriends.org

Check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: bestfriends.org/podcast

When the shelter, field services, government, rescue organizations, the public, social service organizations, and others come together to save lives, it’s not only a beautiful thing. It’s a recipe that can help you achieve and sustain your lifesaving.

This week we're sharing a recent Best Friends Network town hall that focused on community-supported sheltering, what it is all about, and how you can engage new partners and the public in your mission to save lives.

Register for the next Best Friends Network town hall, "Using transparency to empower and support your community" here: https://bit.ly/3643ZY6

This part of the interview seemed to be especially fitting this week, given the events in animal welfare and the world-at-large, as Julie talks about hope, Jane Goodall, and the power of belief.

It was June of 2020, and the nation was gripped by racial tension and division exacerbated by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man in Minneapolis. Days of protests and demonstrations in all fifty states demanded an end to police brutality. It underscored the dire need to take action to break down institutionalized racism and the treatment of people of color in American society.

As the focus turned to animal welfare, our industry, arguably for the first time, began looking introspectively at the severe lack of diversity and inclusion, both in our staffing and how we relate to the communities we serve, and how that has impacted our communities, and our organizations.

As our guest James Evans, the CEO of CARE, said, the number of pet-loving people of color is in the tens of millions, and addressing this is crucial to ending the killing of pets in our nation's shelters. Moreover, it is a moral imperative for all of us.

**Check out resources and more related to the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion on the website: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-101

Our conversation for this episode focused on a new compensation program rolled out at Best Friends, which raises the pay ranges for hourly animal caregiving staff and veterinary technicians.

Julie talks about something she calls the "poverty headspace" and why the entire field must break away from the belief that animal care roles are "front-line" entry-level positions. Instead, she hopes we will all see that providing for sentient creatures' physical, emotional, and medical needs is truly the heart of what we do.

For resources, bios, transcripts, and more check out the website: bestfriends.org/podcast

This week, Best Friends launched a national kitten fostering campaign that urges the public to sign up to become foster parents. Anyone who raises their hand will be connected with Best Friends Network partners in their area. The goal is to get as many people signed up as soon as possible. That allows the organizations and new foster parents to prepare before the kittens show up.

This week we checked in with the Best Friends team in Los Angeles. They’ve saved 22,000 kittens since 2012, so what have they learned that can help you maximize your lifesaving?

• To learn more about the kitten foster campaign and how your shelter or rescue can take part, check out the Best Friends Network website: https://network.bestfriends.org/join-us/events/national-kitten-foster-campaign

• Register for the upcoming Best Friends Network town hall, "the kittens are coming! Preparing your foster program ahead of kitten season." https://bestfriends-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/5416433133354/WN_EGP-2YykS3Ofh7qzrOlJJQ

In many communities, unsterilized animals are not allowed to go home with an adopter before the spay/neuter surgery. Unequivocally, Best Friends Animal Society supports the spaying and neutering of pets. But we also believe every healthy or treatable pet in shelters deserves a loving home.

Adopting unaltered animals is not something anyone wants to do. In an increasingly common scenario, shelters are forced to choose. Send an unfixed pet home with an adopter through the front door, or see that healthy or treatable pet leave through the back.

We spoke with the senior director of lifesaving centers for Best Friends, Sue Cosby, to talk more about this practice.

Read the latest editorial on the Best Friends Network, "the paradox of adopting out unaltered animals." https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/editorials/adopting-out-unaltered-animals

We asked the experts and settled on a “top five” list of areas that are most likely to be affecting you in one way or another in the weeks and months ahead (if they’re not already!). By no means an exhaustive list, today’s episode focuses on community-supported sheltering, staffing, foster programs, cat lifesaving, and the veterinary resource crisis. So what is happening with these issues, what may lie ahead, and what can you do about them?

We sat down with Best Friends regional director Stacy Rogers to talk through the issues impacting shelters and rescue organizations across the country.

For resources related to this episode, check out the Best Friends Podcast website for episode 97: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-97

CARE (Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity) recently launched a new program, CARE Centers. A model through which they hope will provide those services and engage the "proximate leaders" from within those neighborhoods. It's a unique approach and, if successful, could lead to CARE Centers across the country. 

What is the model, how does it work, and what does the future hold? We spoke with Mike Bricker, the Chief Strategy Officer for CARE to learn more. 

For resources related to this episode, check out the Best Friends Podcast website for episode 96: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-96

There have been shifts in animal services (called animal control or field services, depending on where you are). Historically, animal services departments have primarily focused on code enforcement, often leading to punishment-based consequences. We know that disproportionately affects people of color and lower-income pet owners and may lead to pets being impounded, taken from their families when there are often solutions available to keep those pets where they belong - at home.

To learn more about how communities across the country are moving to more support-based animal services, we spoke with Ashley Anderson Mutch, the senior program manager of enforcement and policy reform with the Humane Society of the United States’s Pets for life program.

Resources from this episode:

• Punishment to Support: The Need to Align Animal Control Enforcement with the Human Social Justice Movement: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/10/1902
• Best Friends: Humane Animal Control Manual (PDF download): https://www.nacanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Best-Friends-Humane-Animal-Control-Manual.pdf
• Best Friends Town Hall: The Human Connection: save more lives by building stronger relationships in communities: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-town-halls/human-connection
• Best Friends Editorial: Field Services: Identifying Data Worth Collecting: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/editorials/field-services-identifying-data-worth-collecting
• Best Friends: Animal Care and Control Resources: https://network.bestfriends.org/lifesaving-library/animal-care-control

We had 66 different guests from 22 states, representing 40 organizations, rescues, foundations, and companies. They all had one thing in common; they shared their expertise and stories to help us all be more effective in our lifesaving work.

We covered a lot of topics this year. Everything from DEI initiatives to data, saving senior pets to staffing, strategic planning, saving cats and helping pet owners in rural America, and more. But this podcast is nothing without you, so from all of us at the Best Friends Network, thank you for listening, and we'll see you in 2022!

All the episodes featured in this best of:

• Episode 52 - Julie Castle Returns!: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-52
• Episode 51 - Serving the underserved in Rural America: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-51
• Episode 74 - Helping Indigenous people and their pets on the Navajo Nation: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-74
• Episode 49 - A new day for animal sheltering in the United States: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-49
• Episode 59 - Reimagining field services: Helping people and pets in Sacramento: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-33
• Episode 68 - Unicorn Foster Squad: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-68
• Episode 75 - It’s not rescue if they already have a home: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-75

As we talked about last week, the national level lifesaving data is starting to show some concerning trends, such as increased length of stay. One key lifesaving strategy is transport - moving animals from one community to another with fewer adoptable pets and greater demand.

This episode is another fantastic session from the 2021 Best Friends National Conference. The presenter, Clare Callison from American Pets Alive!, shares her experience building transport programs and what you need to do to find, and cultivate, the right partnerships to create your own sustainable, effective transport program.

Check out all of the episodes of The Best Friends Podcast: https://bestfriends.org/podcast

Selected resources for this episode:

• Best Friends Network Transport Connection Map: https://network.bestfriends.org/transport-connection-map
• Best Friends online course - Lifesaving through Transport Programs: https://rise.articulate.com/share/7Yyp-UkFTUc2HGH3tgmjy2BJVxJYBxNg#/
• Best Friends Network town hall - Transport during a pandemic: https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/covid-19-town-halls/transport-during-pandemic
• Best Friends Network - Removing rescue roadblocks: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/program-spotlights/removing-rescue-roadblocks

Check out the full list of resources for episode 93 here: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/best-friends-podcast/best-friends-podcast-ep-93

One particular data point trending in the wrong direction is length of stay (LOS). This measurement is the amount of time an animal is in the shelter and can be a valuable tool to evaluate the efficacy of the lifesaving programs. If there are programs in place, and they are working, LOS will be shorter. Conversely, LOS will increase if fewer animals leave the shelter to positive outcomes through avenues such as adoption.

This week we chat with senior director of national programs for Best Friends, Brent Toellner, about this concerning upward trend in LOS across the country and what shelters and rescue organizations can do to keep animals moving through to positive outcomes.

Resources for this episode:

• Best Friends network: Length of stay manual
• Best Friends network town hall: Reducing Length of Stay at Your Shelter
• Best Friends network editorial: Help! We Just Can’t Keep Up!
• Best Friends: Removing Rescue Roadblocks

Check out all of the episodes of The Best Friends Podcast here: bestfriends.org/podcast

As the COVID-19 pandemic set in, the unknowns about the next few weeks and months raised concerns about the impact on pets. Would owners need help if they are struggling with illness? What would happen to the economy, and how would evictions impact pet owners? Unfortunately, affordable, pet-friendly housing is already in critically short supply across the country.

In late 2020, Best Friends launched a pilot project in Spokane, Washington, bringing together Best Friends Network partner SpokAnimal and Catholic Charities Eastern Washington - a “human welfare” organization that provides food, shelter, clothing, and assistance to anyone in need across the area. As the pilot project nears one year since its inception, we look to see if this strategic partnership is achieving its goal of keeping people and pets together.

Links from this episode:

• Community Cats Podcast w/ Stacy LeBaron
• The Best Friends Podcast Episode 91 - Serving both ends of the leash in Spokane
• Become a Best Friends Network partner

This is the busiest time of the year for many in animal welfare, with the end-of-year fundraising efforts in full swing. December is when we often focus on giving to others, but we want to ensure you don’t forget about yourself! This week’s episode focuses on our personal well-being courtesy of Melissa Treuman, the Senior Director of Communications for Bideawee.

Melissa delivered this presentation during the 2021 Best Friends National Conference. She tells us how applying simple, proven 12-step principles (in and out of the office) can help us reduce stress, cultivate compassion, promote healthy communication, improve relationships, and fulfill personal goals. All of which will help us in our lifesaving work.

You can find the slides for Melissa's presentation on The Best Friends Podcast website.

https://bestfriends.org/podcast

<a href="https://network.bestfriends.org/tools-and-information/best-friends-podcast">Click here to check out all the episodes from the podcast.</a>

Season two of the Best Friends network vlog series Saving America's Pets wrapped up recently, and we're thrilled to share the finale on the podcast. The host of Saving America's Pets, Chief Mission Officer for Best Friends Holly Sizemore, talks with Best Friends CEO Julie Castle about a recent award recognizing her leadership and the strong workplace culture at Best Friends. 

You can check out all of the episodes of Saving America's Pets here: https://network.bestfriends.org/proven-strategies/saving-americas-pets-vlog 

Why is it so difficult to change minds?

David McRaney is a journalist, podcaster, and author who took his fascination with cognitive biases and irrational beliefs a step further for his upcoming book; How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion. 

From hot button issues such as climate change or accepting new strategies to save more dogs and cats, David talks with us about the cognitive biases that play a role in all of us being, as he calls it, "unaware of how unaware we are." We also hear why, when it comes to changing a mind, a little bit of empathy goes a long way.

Check out the website for The Best Friends Podcast: https://bestfriends.org/podcast

We all know the healing power of animals. Studies have shown that the benefits of sharing your life with a pet range from decreased stress levels to lower blood pressure - some studies have even shown that animals can reduce pain and ease depression and anxiety.

Marie Peck, the founder of The Fetch Foundation in Arizona, is this week’s guest. We learn how their “Homeless 2 Hero” program takes dogs facing euthanasia in shelters and trains them to become heroes in their own right, providing the kind of support and unconditional love to veterans that only a dog can provide.

Best Friends recently conducted a research project to understand better the public’s knowledge of and affinity for the myriad terms used around cats and cat issues. What did we learn?

This week we're joined by Best Friends marketing manager Amy Dávila Sánchez who breaks down the research results.

The period to submit session proposals to speak at the 2022 Best Friends National Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina is now open but closes on November 19th. Submit now: https://bestfriends.org/events/best-friends-national-conference/speaking-proposals

Lifesaving coalitions - partnerships between the shelter and those from the rescue community - can be incredibly effective. This week we are sharing a session from the 2021 Best Friends National Conference that offers tips on how to forge those relationships. You’ll also get some ideas about how to create targeted programs to save the most vulnerable pets in your community.

Interested in speaking at the 2022 Best Friends National Conference? The submission period for proposals is now open! Click here to learn more.

Roughly one-third of all donations to nonprofits come in the last 31 days of the year. For some organizations, December's donations amount to more than half of their overall fundraising for the entire year, so it's a critical time.

At the core of every good end-of-year campaign is a good story, and every single day the work we do presents us with countless stories as we impact the lives of people and pets. So which stories are the best ones to use for your end-of-year fundraising campaigns?

Who you're talking to, what you're asking for, how you're asking it, and where you're asking are all big questions, so we thought that we'd sit down with Trish Tolbert, the senior development strategist for the national embed team at Best Friends.

Check out this piece on the Best Friends Network about telling your story: Harnessing the Power of Story to Benefit your Bottom Line

Interested in speaking at the 2022 Best Friends National Conference? The submission period for proposals is now open! Click here to learn more.

But as you’ll hear from today’s guest, certified professional coach Meryl Schwarz, even the smallest of actions you do for yourself can make a world of difference in your day-to-day work.

The period to submit session proposals to speak at the 2022 Best Friends National Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina opens October 11th. To learn more, click here to visit the conference website.

The focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion across the industry has brought visibility to the untapped potential for more pet lovers in our communities, ready to help us achieve our goal of ending the killing of pets in shelters by 2025. But multilingual marketing is a specific skill and an area where you must act with intention if you are going to reach this untapped market effectively.

This week we talked with Mia Navedo-Williams, the manager of multicultural marketing at Best Friends. We learned more about the history of animal welfare’s involvement in the Hispanic community (or lack thereof). We also learn about setting ourselves up for success as we all do more to support all pet owners across the nation.

To learn more about Mia and the multilingual efforts of Best Friends, and to access the resources mentioned in the episode, check out the website: Episode 82 - Expanding our reach with multilingual marketing

For decades the conventional wisdom was that charging adoption fees was the right thing to do. It would dissuade anyone from a spur-of-the-moment decision that might end in a return, and not charging a fee would devalue the pet, and in turn, adopters wouldn’t love the pet the same. If you can get it for free, why care for it? After more than twenty years of this research, there is no evidence that reducing or eliminating adoption fees does either of those things. So why do we still see so much resistance to it?

This week we talk with Dr. Karen Sheppard, the director of Huntsville Animal Services in Alabama, who shares how adoption promotions played a role in taking Huntsville to where it is today - a no-kill model for the entire nation.

So why are we still fighting to have animal welfare recognized as a critical community service?

Today’s guest, Tawny Hammond from Best Friends, identified this disconnect and leaned into her background in training and development in municipal government to launch the Best Friends Executive Leadership Certification Program. The first in an ever-growing suite of educational opportunities designed to continue what she calls “professionalizing the profession.” 

Best Friends recently surveyed our Network partners and nearly nine out of every ten organizations that responded said their staffing is below where it should be. They cited numerous reasons, but an inability to recruit and budget freezes were at the top.

This week, we hear from two people dealing with this crisis. One is a shelter director in the panhandle of Florida, and the other is the founder of a national recruiting firm that helps municipal governments and nonprofits recruit and retain talent.

Senior animals often carry a stigma that they don’t make good pets. Some adopters may believe seniors are “broken” or have problems that can’t be fixed - why else would they be at the shelter in the first place?

This week we talk with Kristen Peralta, co-founder of Vintage Pet Rescue, a rescue organization driven by a mission of helping aging pets live their best lives — regardless of how much longer they may have left.

Older pets may have medical issues that landed them at the shelter in the first place - and animal shelters are often ill-equipped to handle costly medical problems. Add in other factors, like the average adopter not generally on the hunt for older pets, and you may begin to realize why there are so few organizations nationwide that focus solely on senior pets.

This week we spoke with Dr. Lisa Lunghofer from The Grey Muzzle Organization about the plight of senior pets in animal shelters. You will learn the myriad ways that The Grey Muzzle Organization supports animal shelters and rescue organizations to save more of these wonderful, deserving pets.

How are you communicating to the public at this time of great need, and what are you saying?

We spoke with Caitlin Quinn from HeARTs Speak to learn some quick and practical marketing tips and tricks that can help you break through the noise and get adoptable pets where they belong - in loving homes.

Heather is the executive director of One Tail at a Time Dog Rescue in Chicago. They recently announced the launch of a new Pet Mutual Aid project. This growing collection of programs ranges from intake diversion to pet food pantries, no-cost vet care, all the way to offering a place to stay for those transitioning out of homelessness.

There are no invasive questions, no judgments. Just community-centered support for people and their pets with what they need, when they need it. 

The Navajo Nation is a big area. It spans three different states, is larger than West Virginia, and is also the largest reservation population-wise. The issues facing people and pets are also vast. There are not enough veterinary services - and even when they are available, the distances required to connect people with those services often prove to be too much. The lack of spay/neuter resources has contributed to a free-roaming dog population that has become a public safety concern.

Achieving no-kill 2025 means every shelter in the United States hitting that 90% save rate benchmark. Every shelter, including the four that are part of the Navajo Nation. This week we take a look at the effort to overcome the immense challenges and help the people and pets of this nation within a nation. 

As the world returns to “normal,” many shelters and rescue organizations across the nation are at capacity or getting very close. When this episode was published (July 2021), the year-to-date data showed that intake was still lower than in 2019, but adoptions were also down. Something to cover in a future episode, but the data further underscores the point that community-supported sheltering is needed now more than ever.

At the welcome session of this year’s Best Friends National Conference, we heard from three industry leaders who shared how they not only navigated the COVID-19 pandemic but created significant advancements at their shelters to save more lives. Valerie Richardson, Cassandra Heffington, and Alexis Pugh shared their experiences, “aha” moments, and the pearls of wisdom that they acquired during the pandemic. 

You’ll also hear how the pandemic caused Best Friends to take a hard look at our programs and what Sue Cosby and her team have done to engage the public more than ever before. So get ready to be inspired to implement or grow these types of programs in your community.

In 2013, only one in five pets that entered the shelter made it out alive. A public outcry led elected officials to support a plan to reform the city's animal services department. The municipality brought new leadership on board, and the mandate was clear; get El Paso to a 90% save rate.

Changes were made, such as implementing new shelter policies and procedures, and a shift in the city's organizational chart was approved, putting the animal services department under the fire department.

But, wait, did you say fire department? Unconventional? Yes. But it will make complete sense when you hear why.

That dynamic problem-solving has been a massive key to El Paso's success. Thanks to visionary leadership and a pet-loving community that won't rest until every life is saved, El Paso is quickly becoming known as one of the country's most innovative animal shelters. 

We hear the term “new normal” an awful lot right now as the world is continuing to ease COVID-related restrictions and reopen. Yet, at the same time, we learn more about the constantly evolving situation with the delta variant of the virus. So while we are longing for normalcy, it seems we have a ways to go before we can settle into the “post-COVID era.” As we grapple with these changes, we thought it would be a good idea to share the words and wisdom of Jessica Dolce, our guest on episode number seven.

Jessica is a certified compassion fatigue educator, and she talked to us about what she calls the practice of “compassionate badassery.”

As the annual data collection effort to support no-kill 2025 moved forward, we wondered. What if we turned the gathered data into an easy-to-understand visual representation of the lifesaving progress, and what if it were made available to the public? Doing so would put the most current lifesaving statistics for every shelter in the country at the fingertips of individual advocates, policymakers, animal shelters, and rescue organizations for the first time.

With the release of this year’s Best Friends 2020 national data set, the dashboard saw some significant upgrades - building on a tool that already earned recognition from Fast Company magazine, which announced its annual list of the world’s most innovative companies for 2021. How we collect, analyze and use data, including the development of the dashboard, put Best Friends in the top 10 in the data science category.

So what is the pet lifesaving dashboard, and how can it help in your lifesaving work? This week’s guest is one of the architects of the tool - chief missions officer for Best Friends, Holly Sizemore.

Each year, Best Friends undertakes this massive data collection and compilation effort to measure lifesaving progress towards the no-kill 2025 goal. It is the most comprehensive, accurate dataset tracking sheltered dogs and cats in the United States. It shows us what’s happening at the national level and provides us data on individual communities. Other critical data points such as what is happening to cats and dogs are also collected and shared.

What does the data tell us about what happened in 2020? Have we been able to continue the downward trend in shelter deaths? How much did COVID-19 pandemic play a role, and what do we think will happen next year? We spoke with the director of business and intelligence for Best Friends, Vicki Kilmer, to find out.

Whether they came into the shelter with those behaviors or not, time in a shelter environment is stressful. Stress can lead to undesirable behaviors; undesirable behaviors mean longer stays in the shelter, and more time in the shelter can lead to more stress.

This week we look at one organization's unique and creative foster program designed to rally the community to help save these "behavior dogs." It's an idea so good that they were awarded a Rachael Ray Save Them All Grant through the Best Friends Network and are now teaching others around the country how to assemble their own "unicorn squad."

The reasons to deny a pet adoption are as vast as they are inane. Sometimes it's because of age (of the adopter and/or the pet). Others are rejected because they are a renter, while another potential adopter may own a home, but the yard doesn't have a fence. Some organizations go so far by asking if you plan to have children anytime in the next decade. This often grueling and unnecessarily invasive adoption process does little to determine how much a pet will be cared for and drives good people away from our lifesaving work.

This week we speak with Lawrence Nicolas, the Chief Operating Officer for the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League in West Palm Beach, Florida. Lawrence tells us about their open adoption process that sends roughly 6,000 animals to new homes each year while maintaining a return rate of under 4-percent.

A virtual Best Friends National Conference has benefits. For example, no travel means more people than ever before can attend. It's one of the largest ever, with 135 speakers and 91 different sessions. And at just $55, the registration fee is more affordable than ever (don't forget to use the discount code podcast (all lowercase) when you register to save $10!).

This week we hear from two people involved in the planning and execution of the conference and learn how they're working hard to ensure the virtual version will not just be a good but one of the greatest in Best Friends history

The objective of managed intake is to find the best possible outcomes for pets, which often doesn’t mean entering the shelter.

This week we are sharing a Best Friends Network town hall on this topic, and we hear from two leaders who have implemented this program in their community. Learn how changing your intake procedures saves lives, keeps families together, and fosters a positive relationship with your community.

These dedicated volunteers (who were already performing T-N-R across the city on their own) are empowered to make decisions based on what they feel is the best solution in each instance. This repeatable and straightforward program is another way to engage the pet-loving public in the work of saving lives.

Heather Wright and Denise Bell, the co-leads of the Front Street Animal Shelter's Kitten Action Team, joined us to talk about the ins and outs of the program and how it's been going in the first few weeks since they hit the streets.

Since that time, the organization has continued to increase its save rate - staying above 95% since 2010. In 2019 it was 98.3%! And they’ve done that with an intake of roughly 700 animals a year. That is significantly higher than similar communities, which on average take in half that many. They are a lifesaving model we can all learn from - whether you are in a rural area to not.

This week we hear from <a href="https://www.bchumane.org/">Brown County’s</a> shelter manager, Caity Friedersdorf, who shares the programs and approaches that have driven the success for more than a decade in this rural Indiana community.

In 2017, Ed Jamison left his position as Chief Animal Control Officer in Cleveland, Ohio, to take on the director position at Dallas Animal Services (DAS) in Texas. With an annual intake of more than 32,000 animals that year, he accepted what many would call a formidable challenge laid out by city officials to create a safer community for people and pets.

In 2018, they launched the Dallas90 campaign, a rallying cry to the community to step up and support the effort to save every healthy or treatable pet at the shelter. It was an ambitious goal, but DAS attained a 90% save rate for the 2020 fiscal year.

In this second part of our discussion Ed, we talk about the status of the DEI efforts, his new role with the nonprofit Operation Kindness, supporting, and the role he thinks rescue organizations can play to support municipal shelters, whether they be in the biggest cities, or the smallest towns in rural areas of the country. 

In 2018, they launched the Dallas90 campaign, a rallying cry to the community to step up and support the effort to save every healthy or treatable pet at the shelter. It was an ambitious goal, but DAS attained a 90% save rate for the 2020 fiscal year.

From his decision to join the Army the day after September 11th, 2001, to his first position as the only full-time shelter employee in Garfield Heights, Ohio, Ed shares what he sees as the keys to his success, and the lessons he’s learned that we can all use.

Due to the importance of the work, we are continually living in a state of urgency quite literally with lives hanging in the balance. It is easy to become lost in our work and not take time to recharge and care for ourselves.

This week, we talk with Meryl Schwarz, a certified professional coach specializing in working with those suffering from compassion fatigue.

This week we honor these front-line heroes by sharing a story of how officers in Sacramento, California, are doing their part to save lives - of both the two and four-legged kind. The chief of animal services for the Front Street Animal Shelter, Jace Huggins, tells us about a partnership with their local public health department. 

To all of you working in the area of field services, on behalf of everyone at Best Friends, we’d like to say thank you for the work you do every day!

Today we hear from the director of animal services in Long Beach, California, Staycee Dains. Their partnership with local rescue organization Helen Sanders CatPAWS is a perfect example of community-supported sheltering. If you’re willing to provide the resources and ask the public for help - they will step up!

Players representing four Network partner organizations put their knowledge to the test with questions such as:

• What is the only state where every individual shelter has reached the 90% save rate benchmark? 
• How many eyelids do dogs have? 
• According to a Best Friends study from 2020, what percentage of adults feel it is very important or essential to have no-kill shelters in their area? 

Do you know the answers, or would you need to Ask the Expert, Michelle Dosson from Norfolk Animal Care Center, for help? 

Learn how our players did on their way to securing a $1,000 unrestricted grant to help them save more lives as we play Who Wants to Be a Lifesaver?

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL VIDEO

Contestants:

Brittany Pasquale, City of Tracy Animal Services, Tracy California

Jennifer Sigmon, Alexander County Animal Services, Taylorsville North Carolina

Catherine Hoffman, Corridor Rescue, Houston Texas

Jen Clarkson, Dog Aide, Detroit Michigan

Societal change is challenging. It often requires agitation but in a movement driven by kindness, how do you find the right balance while lives hang in the balance every day?

This week we talk with Jamie Case from American Pets Alive! who shares lessons she learned in her career as both the agitator and the agitated.

With a 2020 save rate of 90.49%, it’s now official: Los Angeles is a no-kill community. L.A. is now the most populous, most racially and economically diverse, and largest community geographically to attain no-kill status.

This epic achievement results from ten years of blood, sweat, tears, and collaboration between LAAS, Best Friends, and more than 150 rescue organizations who together made up the coalition. In this episode, we celebrate this momentous occasion in the history of the no-kill movement and share some of the lessons learned in L.A., which can help every community in America still on their quest to achieve no-kill.

Change starts from within, so Best Friends, like many others, set out to understand how to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) efforts. DE&I are foundations of building a strong company culture, one that empowers everyone to do the work and allows us to reach every animal lover—especially those who have historically gone unrepresented in our movement. Best Friends is committed to continuing to work to acknowledge and dismantle the deep-rooted systems in animal welfare that prevent our movement from being truly and deeply diverse, equitable, or inclusive.

This week's episode shares conversations from two recent Best Friends Network Town Halls where we shared our approach to DE&I work and provided actionable next steps you can use for your organization. 

It was the first time in history that some parts of Texas were under a winter storm warning. Without the infrastructure and resources to handle ice, snow, and bitterly cold temperatures, millions of people lost electricity. Many also had to go without water or were under boil orders as frozen pipes burst faster than the utility companies could fix them. It's hard to believe, but there are still Texans who have not had their power restored.

Even the most well-resourced animal shelters and organizations have struggled through this time, so the resource-strapped shelters, such as those in small, rural communities, are in dire straits. From providing resources to local shelters and pet owners to transporting pets to other communities where they are guaranteed a positive outcome, the collaborative work is once again proving the resiliency of this movement. We always find a way to rise to the occasion - even during those times we never thought could happen.

Even though the last 11 months have been overwhelming, Julie says she's tried to see this moment as one of opportunity. And as we finally face the complex issues that have held our field back including racism, and classism, we hear Julie's perspective on the lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion and learn about the progress of the effort to right those wrongs within Best Friends.

She also explains why she believes No-Kill 2025 is every bit as relevant today as when the goal was announced in 2016 and how she handles criticism, even when it's from the harshest of critics. 

Rural America is as diverse as it is big. It's multicultural. The people and communities span the socioeconomic spectrum, and just as we see in urban communities, there is a lack of services for pet owners. Helping underserved rural communities can be a big challenge, whether it's due to a complete lack of services available or simply logistical issues. How can we create practical programs to connect pet owners with veterinary services if the closest veterinarian is 20, 50, or even 100 miles away?

On this episode of The Best Friends Podcast, we take our first look at this issue of underserved communities in rural America. What is the data telling us? And we learn how the Oklahoma Humane Society is ignoring city limits, listening, and using partnerships to increase lifesaving statewide.

To celebrate the milestone, we sat down with one of the co-founders of Best Friends, Francis Battista. His contributions to the organization are vast, from his discovery in the 1980s of the land for sale, which now is the sanctuary in Southern Utah, to helping develop much of the outreach work that's integral to reaching the Best Friends goal of No-Kill 2025. He is still involved in many areas of the organization, most notably as the board of directors' current chairman.

Along with his wife Silva, Francis built relationships and programs in Los Angeles that laid the foundation for the groundbreaking partnership with Los Angeles Animal Services. That foundation was also critical to the successful launch of No-Kill Los Angeles (NKLA), a coalition of more than 100 rescue groups and shelters working together to make the entire city of L.A. no-kill. He was integral to some of the most notable and transformative projects in Best Friends history, including the response to Hurricane Katrina and saving the dogs from the Michael Vick dogfighting case.

Our conversation ranged from what it took to make Best Friends what it is today, his thoughts on the no-kill movement, and why data, measurement, and partnerships are the keys to lifesaving success.

The community supported sheltering model invites community members to play a more prominent role in saving lives. That allows the shelter to focus on the animals who need the most help - those with urgent medical needs or behavioral challenges. For people who think they need to surrender their pet, this new model does away with the “no questions asked” surrender process. People can often keep their pets if we start a conversation and work with them to solve the problems that led to the shelter in the first place. American Pets Alive! is working with organizations across the country to pilot a community-supported sheltering model they call Human Animal Support Services. 

This week we spoke with Kristen Hassen, the Maddie’s® American Pets Alive! Director, who has been part of the team working hard to see this vision of a better future in animal sheltering become a reality.

But over the last year, from the ongoing pandemic to the political division and civil unrest, we’ve seen how critical it is for us to react and do what is necessary to continue saving lives. A strategic plan can help you do just that.

This week we look at how one organization has used strategic planning to set clear direction and align everyone in the organization behind the goals and what needs to happen to achieve them. 

Today, as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, she is responsible for the family foundation’s strategic direction.

We talked to Mary about her storied career and what she sees ahead for the no-kill movement.

When the pandemic took hold, all of us were trying to figure out the best way to navigate through it personally and professionally. At Best Friends, we believed - and we still do - that sharing our experiences and knowledge provides support and inspiration to help us save more lives. We hold that belief now more than ever. We do this through The Best Friends Network - a coalition of thousands of shelters and rescue organizations across the country.

We hoped a podcast would be a positive and useful addition to the already full slate of resources offered through the Network. And the tens of thousands of downloads since we launched 273 days ago has helped us realize that it is.

So here’s to a better 2021, and hopefully, many more episodes to come.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us.

We want to make sure we don’t ruin Amazon Prime’s new reality show The Pack for you, so if you are planning to watch the series wait to listen to this episode until you’ve seen them all!

Mark LeBlanc and his dog Ace were one of twelve teams competing to win the around the world race that challenged the contestants - both two and four-legged - through a series of different tasks designed to test their skills. The top prize was $500,000, but the contestants also chose a charity that would receive $250,000 if they won. We won’t say who wins, but Mark’s charity was Best Friends!

We talked to Mark about his experience on the show, about his life with Ace, and learned more about his photography and the new podcast he hopes will inspire people to live their best lives.

It’s also been a good reminder of how we must take advantage of every opportunity, and this year’s GivingTuesday is a perfect example. Since its inception in 2012, GivingTuesday has become a worldwide phenomenon inspiring billions of dollars of charitable giving each year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. With our communities in lockdown, effective online engagement and digital fundraising efforts are more important than ever before.

What was the outcome of GivingTuesday this year and amid the economic crisis, are donors stepping up when we need them now more than ever?

Guests:

Amy Starnes, Senior Director of Digital Fundraising, Best Friends Animal Society

Sarah Cano, Community Engagement Coordinator, Humane Society of Harlingen

Since TNR is the only humane method of effectively reducing community cat populations, the injunction only served to worsen the problem it sought to address. But this week, in a unanimous vote, the L.A. City Council approved a 716-page report that is a big step towards making TNR an official policy of Los Angeles Animal Services.

A lot of work lies ahead, but we should take a moment and celebrate the opportunity that now exists for both the cats - and wildlife - of the City of Los Angeles.

Continuing the discussion on moving from punishment to support, we look at changing the culture one officer at a time. Helping us all understand the systemic needs in our community and the full range of resources at our fingertips.

Jackson talks about his life as one of the most recognizable figures in the world of animals, what life has been like for him and his family during the pandemic, and what he says is the most effective way to help cats who are waiting for their forever home.

An animal services officer is often the largest touch-point to the community for a shelter and their work is so much more than impounding pets and writing citations. They know that an owned pet in need usually means there's also a person who needs help.

How can municipal agencies rethink their approach and implement new strategies that are support-based to improve the lives of animals and humans alike?

What if that isn't the case? Many cats will spend their entire lives outdoors. They often have people who care for them by providing food or outdoor shelter. Others prefer to fly solo, not looking to us for help. Regardless, healthy outdoor cats are just that, healthy and living outdoors. Bringing those cats into a shelter can be a solution to something that was never a problem, to begin with, and could lead to that cat losing its life.

This week we hear from leaders across the country who have reexamined their approach to managing community cats. You’ll hear how they’ve implemented new programs and they share how they worked with stakeholders both inside and outside of their organizations to ensure their efforts are successful.

Much more than a podcast, the mission is “to provide education, information, and dialogue that will create a supportive environment, empowering people to help cats in their community.” She hosts several virtual conferences, and the podcast helps fund a grant and mentoring program that has helped more than 50 organizations spay/neuter community cats.

This week we talked to Stacy to learn how she’s using the podcast as a way to cat lovers and arm them with the information they need to effectively manage the community cat population in their neighborhoods.

But it is the stories of those 47 dogs that have helped millions of people understand that all dogs are individuals. They have proven that breed discrimination laws are ineffective and costly. And these misguided bans may force people to have to give up their family members. Pets who have done nothing wrong; their only crime is their appearance.

How far have we come on these issues? What is the status of the legislative efforts to ensure no dog faces discrimination for the way they look? And how successful have we been at changing the public’s perception?

As a teacher in inner-city Boston, Kenny Lamberti realized the power that animals hold. His dog, a 90-pound pit bull named Hank, helped break down some of the barriers that prevented the kids he worked with from fully opening up. Hank's ability to get the kids more engaged, regardless of their race or socioeconomic status was what Kenny calls his watershed moment and sent him down the path towards where he is today as the Director of Grassroots Advocacy for Best Friends.

Kenny uses his background, starting with his upbringing, to drive a strategy that has mobilized more than 16,000 advocates across the country. This coalition of like-minded and diverse individuals is proving that when we work together, we can create positive and sustainable change for pets and the people who love them in every community in America.

In this episode, we hear the first-hand experiences of four seasoned field services professionals. Whether you are a field services officer or not, their insights can help all of us understand not just when animals need help, but what kind of help we should offer.

In May of this year, Abilene’s City Council passed a resolution that approved Best Friends to take on the role of Animal Services Director. The City of Abilene officially became the latest community to join the Shelter Embed Program. This unique approach to public-private partnerships has already proven successful in other communities, including Edinburg, Texas, where Palm Valley Animal Society’s save rate increased from 34% to almost 90% in two years.

This week we chatted with AAS Supervisor, Jacqueline Hernández, National Embed Program Specialist for Best Friends, Jen Adkins, who is helping AAS save cats through a community cats program, and Mike Bricker, the Director of Embed Operations for Best Friends who has taken on the role as the new director at AAS.

The lack of access to care is a major contributor to pet owners surrendering their animals to shelters. There is so much more we, as animal welfare professionals, can do for our communities. We don’t have to be their last resort. We must be a real resource for pet owners, and we should work with them to keep families together.

This week we talk to Shannon Glenn from My Pit Bull is Family. They recently launched the North Minneapolis Pet Resource Center to provide the resources, supplies, and referrals to the health and human services people need to keep pets where they belong: with their families. 

We must be prepared to respond to emergencies - meteorological or otherwise - so that we can help pets and the people who love them.

Louisiana has been battered by storms over the last few weeks. To learn more about the situation we check in with Acadiana Animal Aid, an organization playing its usual leadership role in the Gulf Coast region. And Sharon Hawa, the Senior Manager of Emergency Response for Best Friends, gives some perspective on the state of the world along with some tips on how you can be prepared for whatever comes your way.

This week we share the audio from a recent Town Hall hosted by Best Friends featuring James Evans, President of CARE (Companion Animals for Reform and Equity), the Senior Director of Culture and Talent for Best Friends, José Ocaño, and Julie Castle, the CEO of Best Friends.

The Best Friends Professional Development Symposium is happening next week. The two-day, online event features short, fast-paced presentations designed to keep attendees engaged and excited. But every single presenter has so much more to share. That left us with a dilemma. How do we capture more from these amazing people to share with Symposium attendees?

These videos, which we’re calling the “Innovator Series,” bring nine hours of informative, thought-provoking discussions between these leaders in our field. This week we’re bringing you a sneak peek of these conversations, and announcing a newly added bonus guest to the symposium. If you’re part of Oprah’s Book Club, then you will know who this powerhouse is!

The Best Friends Professional Development Symposium is not a replacement for the Best Friends National Conference, but this dynamic, two-day, online event features many of the leading lifesaving experts from across the country. This is part of a new initiative from Best Friends, presented in partnership with Southern Utah University.

This week we learn more about the symposium from Tawny Hammond, the National Director of Learning Advancement for Best Friends.

Rebecca Guinn founded Lifeline Animal Project in 2003. The organization has saved thousands of animals through its shelter and fixed more than 125,000 pets of owners at low or no cost.

In 2013, Lifeline Animal Project took on the Herculean task of running the sheltering operations in both Fulton and Dekalb Counties - the two counties that comprise the City of Atlanta. Taking on both of those contracts within 6-months presented many obstacles (and a lot of people thought she was crazy!). But Rebecca and the entire Lifeline Animal Project team's drive to take Atlanta to No-Kill has paid off, making Atlanta a model for the entire nation. 

The Idaho Shelter Coalition helped drive a 49.4% reduction in shelter killing in 2019, a result that has earned them the 2020 Best Friends Network Collective Impact Award! 

It's another perfect example of what can happen when we work together, communicate our needs, and provide peer-to-peer support - all using the power of data as the foundation.

This week's guests are Nadia Novik, COO of the Idaho Humane Society and President of the Idaho Shelter Coalition, and Brittany Sundell, the Development and Education Coordinator at the West Valley Humane Society.

For example, what does your pet adoption process look like? Is it welcoming, conversation-based, and solution-oriented? Or is it full of roadblocks such as home visits, income questions, or multipage applications?

Now more than ever, being a part of the sheltering and rescue community means actively looking for ways to keep pets in the places they call home and inviting more animal-loving folks to the lifesaving party.

Guests this week:

Rich Anderson, Executive Director/CEO, Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League

Kimberly Elman, Manager of National Outreach Volunteer Programs, Best Friends Animal Society

Well, that’s not true at all, but there are still too many people who think that is the case. Widely available low-cost spay and neuter services are a critical part of the lifesaving program mix, but it is just one part of the recipe. 

So how much of your available resources should go to spay and neuter services versus other critical lifesaving programs? Given the challenges that lie ahead with an uncertain economy, we need to make sure every dollar goes as far as it can. We talked with Brittany Pace from Spay Memphis, and Alexis Pugh from Memphis Animal Services to learn about how their partnership ensures they are able to balance the needs of both getting animals out of the shelter, and keep them from coming in.

Every community in every state will be affected, and by our rough estimate, more than 40-million pets are facing eviction - and that’s on the low end. As eviction moratoriums across the country are beginning to expire, there are very legitimate fears about what this will mean for the number of pets and pet parents who will need help.

Programs such as temporary foster care ensure the human-animal bond is respected and keep pets with their families, but there simply aren’t enough diversion programs to meet the expected flood of requests. What can we do to prepare for what may be the biggest challenge we've faced in the modern era of animal sheltering?

Launched in 2014, the Million Cat Challenge smashed its goal of saving one million cats in five years. The campaign encouraged shelters to save more cats by implementing five key initiatives; alternatives to intake, managed admission, capacity for care, removing barriers to adoption, and return to field. These approaches are intended to create a structure around which shelters can make the best lifesaving decision for each individual cat.

We spoke with a cofounder of the Million Cat Challenge, Dr. Kate Hurley, to learn more about her, the challenge, and talk about what we need to do going forward to save every cat that can be saved.

Making end of life decisions for our own dogs and cats is difficult and emotional, and it’s no different in the shelter environment. And while it may feel inappropriate to second-guess these owner requests, it becomes a necessity as the data shows that OREs can be a significant portion of a shelters deaths. Healthy or treatable animals that are killed may be accounted for in the “ORE column" even though they are saveable. If OREs are excluded from the data, then the “save rate” (a calculation for the percentage of pets who leave the shelter alive) will be higher than it should be if the ORE’s were accounted for differently.

The latest lifesaving data shows that more than 50,000 dogs and cats may be in this category. The number of animals killed nationally is 625,000 so this is not a trivial issue. It’s delicate and may be uncomfortable, but this conversation has to happen if our goal is to treat each animal as an individual with a chance at life.

We have made great strides when it comes to treating every animal as an individual, but we are still lagging when it comes to applying that same objectivity to people. Our inherent biases can sometimes play out in ways we may not even realize - from racism to classism, ageism, sexism, and ableism. These subconscious isms restrict our effectiveness in saving animals.

So it begs the question. If we treat all animals as individuals, shouldn’t we do the same for people?

Writing effective adoption bios leads to higher adoption rates. Cutting through the increasing noise on social media requires captivating stories. Donors and volunteers need to feel invested in your mission before they will devote their time and money which will help you continue your work. 

This week we look at ways you can inspire action and build awareness through the art of storytelling.

It wasn’t that long ago that our field worked in the dark, not knowing where and how animals were being killed. It’s impossible to develop effective, targeted programs to save lives without this information. This changed when a collaborative group of stakeholders launched Shelter Animals Count, and shelters and rescues across the country embraced a new framework for tracking and reporting. Today more than 3,600 shelters submit their data which represents 92% of intake nationwide.

The dataset tracks the national number of dogs and cats that enter and leave shelters, and drills down geographically to the individual shelter level. This week we give you the scoop on the 2019 progress and explore the ways that this dataset informs the work of Best Friends.

Some programs have proven to be effective, but widespread increases in the lifesaving of cats continue to be elusive. Why?

From the ancient mythology around cats to the cutting edge programs that are saving lives more effectively than ever before, this week we explore the question, "what's the deal with cats?"

Emotions impact every facet of the human experience. Decades of research shows that as we improve our emotional intelligence (EI), we can boost our decision-making, attention, memory, creativity, and relationships.

One of the producers of the Best Friends podcast, Aimee Charlton, chatted with Dr. Marc Brackett, the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and explored his work in emotion skills and his new book, Permission to Feel.

Just like the Best Friends goal of ending the killing of dogs and cats in our nation’s animal shelters by the year 2025, Dr. Brackett has the audacious goal of starting an emotional revolution. He is leading an initiative to shift the mindset of the nation around the value and importance of emotions.

Animal welfare and animal services lack diversity and inclusion, both in our staffing and how we relate to the communities we serve. The number of pet-loving people of color is into the tens of millions and addressing this is not only crucial to ending the killing of pets in our nation's shelters it is a moral imperative for all of us.

This episode we take the time to listen and try to understand how we can do better and be better moving forward in our lifesaving work.

Our skill at managing emotions - of all kinds - can be measured by something called emotional intelligence. It’s not about removing the emotions, quite the opposite. How do you manage them so you can continue working toward your goals?

In this episode, we look at a real-life example of managing emotions during an emotionally charged campaign for change at the local level. And we introduce you to Marc Brackett, the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

Effectively using the data drives the lifesaving efforts of Best Friends. For communities that have a lot of lives to save, the embed program, as it's known, brings Best Friends staff to the community. Be it short term to help with a particular area, or, as is the case with Santa Rosa County, Florida, a full-time staff member standing shoulder to shoulder helping transform the lifesaving efforts. 

Santa Rosa County Animal Services has been progressing toward the no-kill benchmark but needed some guidance to help push through that 90% barrier. They opened their doors to the Best Friends embed programs team and their success will be the anchor to lead the entire panhandle to no-kill.

Historically our focus has been on helping pets but people have not been given the same priority. Times have changed and while we’re better at the people part, this new model of sheltering seeks to turn everything on its head and serve the community in new ways.

American Pets Alive! is leading the charge with a pilot project in 13 cities* where they hope to determine if an “Animal Social Services Model” is the wave of the future.

*since the publication of this episode, New York City has moved down to a tier two community

Saying we need to end the killing of pets is great, but it takes a strategy to help the 5,000 shelters across the country get there. And a strategy is great, but it’s even better when you get specific with your goal and add the urgency that the animals deserve. 

That’s No-Kill 2025. Working collaboratively, aligned around this common goal, together, we are ending the killing of pets in our nation’s shelters.

While there’s little debate that animal control is necessary as a component of public safety, other elements of what we do were being judged on their merits. Spay and neuter surgeries were handled differently across the country both by government officials and people in our field. How essential are they?

We talked with leaders in three states about how they managed their clinic work during this time. And we talked with Aimee St. Arnaud, Director of National Veterinary Outreach for Best Friends Animal Society, about the larger picture of veterinary services during the pandemic, and what challenges lie ahead.

Our guest, Hannah Shaw, has helped in a big way. She has amassed a huge audience which she uses to educate the world on the plight of orphaned kittens. Her beautifully produced educational content is teaching countless people how to save them.

Better known to many as the “Kitten Lady,” Hannah is a New York Times best-selling author. Millions of online followers follow the progress of her rescued kittens and on top of it all, she runs a growing nonprofit that is funding projects to save kittens across the country.

By building our personal resilience, we increase our ability to cope, and that allows us to face adversity head-on and stay in the driver's seat. An important goal when the animals are depending on us. 

Another in a series of episodes that focus on wellness, we spoke with Lyn Christian of Soul Salt, an expert who is helping people develop resiliency during difficult times. We also dropped in on Minneapolis, where the shelter director talked with us about her resiliency skills from 25 years in the field.

It will take community-wide collaboration, innovation, and a commitment to the animals and each other like never before.

We spoke with Ed Jamison of Dallas Animal Services as he leads his team, and community through this time of economic uncertainty.

Guests this week:

• Ed Jamison, Dallas Animal Services

This is the first in a series of episodes that will focus on wellness.

The conversations and discussions can be triggering or difficult, but we must care for ourselves and each other in the most authentic and compassionate way.

This week we hear from Amanda Paris, a shelter manager who is realizing the impact ten years in the field has left on her, and Jessica Dolce shares her expertise on how you can practice "compassionate badassery."

A recent change in leadership converged with the need for community collaboration as the pandemic set in, and the results were nothing short of magnificent. If it was ever Norfolk's time, it's right now.

Visit the website for The Best Friends Podcast

And it’s National Volunteer Week! We visited with a volunteer in Philly who hasn’t let a pandemic slow down her support for her local shelter. And a conversation with Gina Knepp, former director of the City of Sacramento Animal Shelter and now the Director of Shelter Outreach with Michelson Found Animals, who says trust is what matters the most when working with volunteers.

Guests this week:

• Michele Whaley & the Pitt County Animal Shelter Dance Crew
• Rachel Lawbaugh, Volunteer for ACCT Philly
• Gina Knepp, Michelson Found Animals Foundation

Visit the website for The Best Friends Podcast

We'll be looking at some of those communities on The Best Friends Podcast and we're starting with Chicago. It's the 3rd largest city in the country and Chicago's municipal shelter, CACC, has not had the best reputation in the past for transparency and collaboration. There have been big improvements in collaborative lifesaving solutions over the last several years between the municipal shelter and rescue community and it couldn't have come at a better time.

A united front has helped rally the entire animal-loving public to step up in ways once thought unimaginable.

This episode features:

Jenny Schlueter, Chicago Animal Care and Control

Nicole Quattrocki, Fix Chicago

Heather Owen, One Tail at a Time Dog Rescue

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Visit the website for The Best Friends Podcast

Animal control is always an essential service, especially during a pandemic, which means field services teams are shifting what they do and how they do it to ensure they're still providing services to the community in the face of social distancing while keeping both animals and people safe.

You'll hear three different perspectives on how COVID-19 is impacting the work of animal control officers, the front line ambassadors of animal services. 

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Saving lives takes money, so fundraising is always an integral part of what makes us successful. With a recession looming (and a potential depression), shifting your tactics to pivot on a dime is the only way you'll make the bucks you need to not only survive, but thrive.

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Julie is not alone in her leadership at this pivotal moment, and she’s the first to both celebrate and be humbled by that fact. On this episode of the Best Friends Podcast, Julie talks about what she believes is the future of animal care and sheltering, the critical yet forgotten power of neighbors, and why she thinks that “the best of us is showing right now.

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This is the launch of the Best Friends Podcast. We'll bring you stories from the front lines of lifesaving. You’ll hear from leading experts on topics that impact all of us. These are stories that matter to shelters, rescue groups, and the animal welfare organizations that enable their service to a community and its animals. These are stories for all of us.

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