animal rescuers - resources - support

[violaine]

two words: The Media.

we tried every avenue reasonable first:

1. talk with Chief ACO about issues.
2. meet with her superiors, the commissioners about complaints.
3. contact HSUS & the welfare organisation for our state - who suggested the media if all else failed.
4. repeat 1 & 2 [to no avail the first and second attempts]
5. letter to editor, news - tv, radio, local newspaper

#5 worked.

[Andrew, Jr.]

Belle,

You are a heroine for all of our animals. God bless you!

Love,
Andrew

[Soft*Silver]

over 150 dogs, chickens, horses and geese were removed from a farm that had been running as a "sanctuary". What had once started as good intentions, ended up in a hoarding situation. The woman's 97 year old mother was removed from the home that was saturated with ammonia and feces smells. She is in the hospital under guardianship.

While many of the dogs looked healthy, and had food, water and a dog house and pen, the mass of animals lent diseases to spread, such as mange, worms and fleas. The horses were skin and bones. Not all of the canines will survive, due to the degree of disease they had endured.

I cannot wait to get into my new home. I cannot have more than one dog at the trailer park. When i am in my own home, I will begin to foster. I wish i were there now so I could help out and lend a fostering hand to those who are working to save as many of the animals as possible...

[violaine]

HSUS Indiana Update

February 2010

Here’s what the Humane Society of the United States is up to in Indiana recently.

In this update:

1. Indiana Humane Lobby Day on February 23rd - RSVP Now!

2. Alleged Dogfighting Operations Raided in Indiana / Rescued Puppies Ask Legislators to Help Less Fortunate Dogs

3. House Bill 1258 Clears House, Moves to Senate

4. HSUS Pursues Petition to Outlaw Cruel Coyote Penning in Indiana

Indiana Humane Lobby Day – RSVP Now!



Think only professional lobbyists can lobby? Think again! Come to our free Indiana Humane Lobby Day in Indianapolis on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 to make a tremendous difference for animals.

This is an exciting opportunity to meet directly with your elected officials or their staff about legislation that will significantly impact animals. There will be a briefing with tips for lobbying and an overview of pending animal legislation that will prepare you to meet your elected officials and advocate for animals. Any way you can help spread the word about this event is much appreciated! Please note that you must RSVP in order to attend, we will not be accepting day-of registrations this year.
RSVP here if you plan on attending!

Alleged Dogfighting Operations Raided in Indiana

In August 2009, the Humane Society of the United States assisted law enforcement with the largest dogfighting raid in Indiana’s history. Over 100 dogs were seized from deplorable conditions.

Rescued Puppies Ask Legislators to Help Less Fortunate Dogs

As ambassadors for Indiana’s fighting dogs, three of the puppies rescued from the raid went to the Indiana Statehouse to meet with legislators about strengthening Indiana’s animal fighting laws.


House Bill 1258 Clears House, Moves to Senate


House Bill 1258, the animal fighting and pet store bill, cleared the House of Representatives the week of February 1st with a strong bipartisan vote of 71-26.

Introduced by Rep. Linda Lawson, the bill would make it a felony to be a spectator at an animal fight, would add animal fighting to the list of crimes in the state RICO statute, would require pet stores to provide consumers with information on the origin of their puppies prior to purchase, and would require people who own horses to provide them with shelter that is free of standing water.

If your legislator was one of the 26 who voted against this common-sense bill that would protect dogs in Indiana, please contact them and let them know that you were unhappy with their ‘no’ vote on HB 1258. The number for the Indiana House of Representatives is 317-232-9600.


HSUS Pursues Petition to Outlaw Cruel Coyote Penning in Indiana


In the summer, the HSUS submitted a petition to the Indiana Natural Resources Commission to prohibit cruel coyote penning in Indiana.

The Commission is expected to vote during their March meeting on whether or not to prohibit the pens that do exist in Indiana.

Please contact the Natural Resources Commission here and urge them to outlaw coyote pens in Indiana.


Indiana State Director

[violaine]

Basic Guidelines for a Shelter

http://www.animalsheltering.org/reso...delines_for_an imal_shelter_policies.html?log-event=sp2f-view-item&nid=120811371

Standards in Statistics and Transparency

http://www.asilomaraccords.org/

(I don’t know how animals are tracked, etc. If Chief ACO were to use petfinder.com, she would be able to use http://www.petpoint.com/ which is a free shelter management software system to track everything that needs to be known about the animals. The goal is to know what the issues are in your community, why the animals are coming in and creating programs that chip away at those issues.) With petpoint, you can easily print actual kennel cards that should stay with the animal on it’s cage while it is at the shelter. It tracks all the info about the animal, vaccinations, etc.

Adoptions/Dog Walkers

They should also be implementing a program called “Meet your Match” and have adoption counselors.
Meet your Match is a nationally renowned program and now a standard for good shelters to match the right animal with the right person and avoid return adoptions. Bloomington did this and we have very few return adoptions now.

http://www.aspca.org/adoption/meet-your-match/

We also have dog walker volunteers who volunteer and walk dogs everyday to get them out of their cages. We have a training, rules they have to follow, etc. It is a great program that makes for happier dogs and helps us determine their personalities, etc. We also have trained the volunteers now to do basic training with the dogs when they walk them. Any dogs that need some training to improve their adoptability get it from the select group of dog training volunteers or we have even had a certified trainer come in and work with problem dogs that just need a little schooling.


Cleaning Protocols/Disease Control
I would ask for a copy of cleaning protocols document that they should have. There should be cleaning protocols for disease control/prevention, regular daily cleaning, etc. Do they have protocol for what to do if they have a parvo outbreak? Or another highly contagious disease? (As you know, you NEVER HOSE A KENNEL WITH A DOG IN IT!!! Good lord;(

They should be working to strategically minimize euthanasia to just animals that have major health issues that can’t be treated, major behavior problems (aggression, etc.) and get away from euthanasia for space. This should all be reported to the public on a regular basis with the detail of why they are euthanized, source of the animals, etc. If you don’t know any of these things, how can you fix the problems? In the end you save the tax dollars because you are fixing the problems.

This is a lot to take in, but these are just a couple of areas of things that should be brought up. This stuff is the basic, baseline expectations for a shelter. Bloomington was in a similar place as you several years ago. They changed management and followed all of the best practices and now the shelter is a welcoming, happy place that has seen it’s intake numbers go down, public awareness up and is a jewel in the community.

We have volunteers who take pictures of adoptable animals each week, load it to petfinder with descriptions, and produce our weekly adoptable posters that go out in hundreds of locations around town. Volunteers distribute these flyers each week and again are something that our community expects, loves and it produces tons of adoptions. The right group of volunteers and a well outlined program makes all of this really easy and very little effort on the shelter’s part.

I would also ask when is the last time Chief AC Officer went to any national trainings/conferences to stay up on trends in animal welfare. I bet it has been a long time, if ever.

Good luck and let me know if there are others areas/topics that you need further info about. I’m happy to provide it!

[at the top of this letter:

Good luck with your meeting coming up. I know that [your commissioner] talked to [a board member of our animal sheltering welfare group] (Ft. Wayne) last week. The impression is that [your commissioner] thinks [chief AC Officer for your county] knows what she is doing and that the issues brought up aren’t all that valid. [your commissioner] is however leaning toward a national evaluation of the shelter if they can afford it/want to spend the money. our board member talked to your commissioner about our indiana animal control welfare org., but also gave the commissioner the links to the national organizations that will do an evaluation.

That may be the only thing that gets him to see that things are not right at the shelter. He emailed me saying he would be interested in info from our welfare org. I asked by when and he never responded.
I will put together a basic outline of stuff that should be done and offer greater details, etc. as they need/want it. We feel if we give him too much details program information they will be overwhelmed. Very much a learning curve here].

[Kimbo]

So I've had this lil' feral named Sweet Pea, she came from a hoarding situation and was probably inbred. She's owned me now for around 5 years. Over the years I have gained her trust and she lets me touch and pet her. Over the last year she has actively been seeking me to give her love and she lets me know she wants lovin' by putting her fang in my skin or better yet she claws me. I've only picked her up once and it wasn't a good experience for either of us. I got brave and decided I would try to pick her up again.....this time I was able to put her on my knee for a brief second....she growled and was definitely not liking it BUT-no blood was drawn, she didn't thrash or claw. Progress? I think so. I might try to pick her up again soon.

A few minutes after I put her down she was over it and back over fanging me for attention. Ferals bring me the most joy....I really love all the steps..it's a lifetime of earning trust and baby steps.

[FeminineAllure]

I can so relate to Kimbos entire post.
I have 6 ferals I look after and 1 is a kitten. Then I have my once feral cat punkin who has been with me for years now.
It is amazing how far Punkin has come. When we first found eachother he was a feral that I fed but he would only eat and drink if I was like 10 feet away from him. This went on for weeks. He finally came inside one day through the open sliding door. He walked the entire perimeter of my home and then finally let me pet him. It just melts my heart when a feral finally trusts you enough to pet them. So Punkin slept next to me on the floor the first night. When I woke up I forgot I had a cat and he forgot he was inside and he bit me on the ankle. He had an appointment with a vet and I did hold my breath being bitten until his bloodwork cleared.
He is the most loving, loyal, big ball of mush today. He is my soulmate animal.

Back to the ferals... picture fixing 6 plates of food, water, cat milk and having your own cat at your feet because Punkin must come with me to feed them all lol. I open the door and there they all are at the bottom of the steps waiting for me! Then I have the one cat that may be inbred it is like she has ADD. She does not stop moving, rolling on the ground, doing flips in the air and I am trying to introduce my own cat to her because I want to adopt her when she is more socialized.
So...We all walk out back as I put out their food. 2 of the cats will let me pet them but are still a little scared.
I bought them toys and play with them when I can.
Animals are so precious, vulnerable and unconditional.

[violaine]

[QUOTE=Kimbo;50748]So I've had this lil' feral named Sweet Pea, she came from a hoarding situation and was probably inbred. She's owned me now for around 5 years. Over the years I have gained her trust and she lets me touch and pet her. Over the last year she has actively been seeking me to give her love and she lets me know she wants lovin' by putting her fang in my skin or better yet she claws me. I've only picked her up once and it wasn't a good experience for either of us. I got brave and decided I would try to pick her up again.....this time I was able to put her on my knee for a brief second....she growled and was definitely not liking it BUT-no blood was drawn, she didn't thrash or claw. Progress? I think so. I might try to pick her up again soon.

A few minutes after I put her down she was over it and back over fanging me for attention. Ferals bring me the most joy....I really love all the steps..it's a lifetime of earning trust and baby steps.

dear kimbo

i love your fanging story [and lisa's!]. thank you for leaving them here
catching little ones is not as easy as one might believe at first glance, but in my experience, once they are removed from the HAH or pet crate, and held for a little while, the hissing and spitting [maybe fanging?] calms down

awesome work!

bella
ox