Feature Article
On a Friday morning in late June, Jay Roberts pulls into the empty parking lot of the North Alabama Spay/Neuter Clinic in Huntsville and unlocks the front door. The building is dark and quiet, with none of the bustle Roberts once enjoyed. “We were jammin’,” he says of the days when the clinic averaged 27 to 30 sterilization surgeries a day. “We really were.”
Feature Article
Have room for one more? It’s a question cat rescuers and foster caregivers hear regularly. But territorial tensions in multiple-cat households can make a new rescue kitty or temporary foster a more onerous undertaking than she needs to be.
Scoop
Hard work—with a soft touch
ASPCA Safety Net managers provide resources and compassion to Los Angeles County pet owners
Here comes Santa paws
Holiday pet deliveries spread joy, boost shelter publicity
Just passing through
Closing temporary housing gaps for pets whose owners leave the country
Mutterings
A round-up of fun, inspiring news tidbits from the animal welfare world.
Need a boost?
T-shirt sales strengthen fundraising efforts
The laws that oughta be
Crafting ordinances to facilitate community cat programs
President's Note
As animal advocates, you’ve probably seen firsthand the distraught faces of people surrendering animals because a new landlord doesn’t allow pets. And as pet owners, you may have struggled with this problem on a more personal level, scanning Internet listings for hours for an affordable apartment that will welcome not only the human members of your family, but the ones with fur and paws.
101 Department
Too many animals, a tight budget and not enough time: These are facts of life at many shelters, but a data-based approach can help shelters make the most of limited resources by targeting them where they'll have the biggest impact. Learn how shelters use geographic information systems (GIS) mapping technology to objectively identify high-intake areas and plan effective interventions.
Life Preservers
Rehoming programs have a simple premise—help people find new homes for pets they can’t keep, without them ever stepping foot in a shelter. By trusting people and providing owners with some tools for the process, shelters can ease their own burden, give owners more control over their pets’ fates and help animals transition into happy new homes.
The Human Element
Many of us working in animal welfare are all too familiar with compassion fatigue—the feelings of depression, sadness, exhaustion, anxiety and irritation often experienced by people who devote their lives to helping animals and witness some awful stuff along the way.
Unforgettable
Long-lost cat siblings Ariel and Sebastian have a Disneyesque happy ending.
Mouthpieces
If people are going to give a pet as a gift, you want them to adopt! Download this Mouthpiece to let your community know you can help choose the right pet for the lucky recipient.
Extra
Tips for quelling the controversy over nonprofit veterinary care programs.
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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