Feature Article
Is it harder for you to adopt out black cats than those of other colors? How about chubby felines? Ones who don’t tolerate other animals in the home? If your answer is “yes,” you’re not alone.
Feature Article
“It was kind of an easy day for me when it started,” recalls Blayne Doyle, now a retired police officer, “and then it turned into … one of the days I can’t seem to ever get rid of.”
Back in February 1992, Doyle—who normally worked for his department’s street crimes unit—was assigned to direct traffic at a traveling circus set up in a college parking lot in Palm Bay, Fla.
Between Saturday matinees, the circus offered rides on the backs of elephants. An Asian elephant named Janet was carrying a woman and five children when, according to Doyle, she decided to quit the circus.
Scoop
A home before home
A lifesaving program for high-risk kittens
Blow me away
Weather-related marketing campaigns whoosh kitties into new homes
Long flight to freedom
Cross-country rescue highlights the plight of factory farm hens
Mutterings
A round-up of fun, inspiring news tidbits from the animal welfare world.
Ovation for Omaha
For the first time, a humane society wins NACA's top animal control award
Success that's one of a kind
Ohio woman opens her wallet, home, and heart to animals
The great pet migration
Rescue groups partner up to do transport right
Timing is everything
Humane Alliance launches When To Spay effort to promote spay/neuter at 4 months
Shelter Medicine
Many pet owners and some veterinary professionals are increasingly concerned about the risk of overvaccination, and are choosing to vaccinate owned animals less frequently—or even not to vaccinate at all. Indeed, the American Veterinary Medical Association’s panleukopenia handout (2010) boldly announces, “In the past, feline panleukopenia was a leading cause of death in cats. Today, it is an uncommon disease, due in large part to the availability and use of very effective vaccines.”
Rescue Central
Running a foster program is not easy, but it’s worth it. Such programs help rescues and shelters save those last few animals who could not otherwise be placed, due to medical or behavioral issues or just a lack of time and space. Foster programs save lives, but they have to fit within the organization’s overall mission. If your foster system doesn’t run perfectly and could use some improvements, or if you’re considering starting or expanding your program, this article is for you!
President's Note
In September, a New York animal control officer attracted headlines after law enforcement discovered that he had 850 snakes, including Burmese pythons, in his garage. Richard Parrinello was allegedly selling pythons and boa constrictors over the Internet, even though state law forbids the possession of some of the species he traded.
Q&A
Kirt Manecke wants you to sweat the small stuff.
Manecke, a Michigan-based businessman, is the author of Smile: Sell More with Amazing Customer Service, which he describes as a 60-minute crash course to help businesses and nonprofits improve their bottom lines by satisfying their customers. Among other tips, it advises staffers to smile, look customers in the eye, say “please” and “thank you,” listen carefully, and be friendly on the phone.
101 Department
Customers come to the Blue Ridge Humane Society thrift stores to shop, but they may stay to dance.
“We’re known for our crazy sales,” says Terri Thompson, director of retail and community outreach for the shelter, located in Hendersonville, N.C. One of the most popular sales they’ve had was Dare Day. Customers who wanted a discount had to reach into a basket and draw a slip that might ask them to tap dance for a minute, sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” or recite a tongue twister.
Unforgettable
Several years ago I founded the SAD-SAC foundation, a rescue that serves pit bull-type dogs. In August, I rescued my sixth. Oreo is a 3-year-old, black-and-white spayed female who is quite skittish around new people, but she seemed to be progressing quite well at my house.
Mouthpieces
Puppies and kittens can safely and easily be fixed by 4 months to prevent accidental litters. Download this Mouthpiece to help encourage your community to spay and neuter early.
Magazine Article
At a time of life when most people are savoring a more leisurely pace, Harold Sims of Cullowhee, North Carolina, is busier than ever and has no intention of slowing down.
Magazine Article
I came to the Humane Society of the United States in 2014 after a decade (more if you count those years I spent as a kid sitting in cat rooms and walking dogs way too big for me) overseeing operations at animal shelters. I wouldn’t say I was particularly excited about or motivated to fit policy into my daily workload of caring for homeless pets—until I worked for an animal shelter that was located in a city with breed-specific legislation, flawed policies that ban certain types of dogs based on their physical appearance.
Magazine Article
To see Teddy and Millie now—playful and friendly, outgoing and affectionate— you’d never guess what they’ve endured in their short lives. As part of an unnecessary test commissioned by Dow AgroSciences (now Corteva Agriscience), the beagles were force-fed a pesticide every day for more than seven months at a laboratory in Michigan.
Magazine Article
Vinnie Van Gogh, a reticent feline, spent four months at Dakin Humane Society before his photo appeared on the shelter’s website with the headline “The Socially Awkward Cat for the Socially Awkward Adopter.”
“Seriously all this guy requires is a couch and someone to give him his daily necessities,” the write-up by the Springfield, Massachusetts, shelter read. “Take him home, and have a perfect buddy for all those times that going out is just not worth the effort. He understands.”
Magazine Article
Two leaders in the animal welfare field, Washington, D.C.-based Humane Rescue Alliance and New Jersey’s St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center, announced a merger in early July to create what’s believed to be the first organization of its kind in the country.
As a result of this unique combination—two community-based, but regional-focused, animal welfare groups working across state borders—the joint organization has more resources to make a bigger impact in the areas it serves and beyond.
Magazine Article
If you watched the Golden Globes back in 2016, you couldn’t miss her: Collecting a Golden Globe for best actress in a television series, musical or comedy, Rachel Bloom was visibly ecstatic, motor-mouthed and breathless, practically leaping from the screen.
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