Teeny tiny percentages

Oh those teeny tiny percentages.

What person hasn't heard those from Capital- they sleep better at nights because they've saved 5% more cats last year. Like, five- as in single digit five.

This brings their total adoption rate apparently to a nice, round 20%. A number which, by the way, we have a tough time believing since it is so nice and round. You mean to tell us that you have the number of cats that you took in to be a precise 10,342 and yet your adoption rates are published at twenty percent? Not 18 percent or 22 percent but 20? But whatever, who cares if you made it up. Start making up better numbers.

We also wonder 5 percent of what. Of total cat intakes? Of your definition of adoptable cats?

Five percent. When you look out onto the faces of your board members- doctors, lawyers, business people, and you tell them that on your watch you improved the adoption rate by five percent, do they clap? Don't they think that five percent would have happened if they had a tree stump in the executive office? How in the world is it that they don't wonder why they're paying you six figures for FIVE PERCENT?

The problem with the board is that they don't care- we can't believe that they actually think about these numbers. Basically, you're telling them that you did nothing in the past year and they're publishing it proudly in a full color report- what a laughingstock! All style and no substance- quintessential Capital.

From Nathan Winograd's No Kill Blog:

In Reno, Nevada, the Nevada Humane Society led an incredible renaissance in 2007 that saw adoptions increase as much as 80 percent and deaths decline by 51 percent, despite taking in a combined 16,000 dogs and cats a year with Washoe County Animal Services. Reno's success occurred immediately after the hiring of a new shelter director committed to No Kill and passionate about about saving lives. They did it overnight.

Five percent- Petfinder, HSUS, ASPCA, Best Friends Animal Society, and local groups like Columbus Dog Connection, Franklin County Dog Shelter and Animal Outreach are doing everything they can to get the word out and push people away from puppy mills and Petland and drive them into shelters, yet you take credit for the five percent bump in adoptions.

The most irritating thing about reporting your adoptions bump as 5% is that ADOPTIONS are the one challenge that you have complete control over as an organization. You really have no control over intake, and since you don't try to save anything, ultimately the amount of euthanasias you are doing. But adoptions? You have complete control over how many animals you adopt out! Do you ever consider that if you put more of your kittens on the floor instead of in the dumpter that your adoption percentage would increase dramatically?? Or how about filling up some of those sponsored puppy play pens that are always empty? We know you try to control disease by not housing puppies and kittens on the adoption floor- why don't you bring in some of your puppies and kittens in foster care to fill up the cages during adoption hours? Then after adoption hours they can just go back into their foster home!

Maybe you can mix it up a bit in the first few lines of your dog adoption page- one look at it and you'd think Capital Area was American Staffordhshire rescue! You scroll and scroll and scroll and get pits and pits and pits... how 'bout a homeless, down and out lab or shepherd or MUTT in the top five? We know that pits draw attention for fake compassion on your part, but there are dogs out there who deserve homes even if they don't have the razzle-dazzle media attention surrounding them all the time.

The teeny tiny 5% is a load of baloney. If you tried at all you would double it overnight. How have you been getting away with that crap for so long??

By the way also give us your euthanasia rates and some goals for 2008 in those reports, you cowards!

Yahoo!

Quick update- we're number 8 when you plug in "Capital Area Humane Society" on Yahoo search, and when you do the suggested search, we're number 5- showing up on the main page without even scrolling down.

Yahoo!

Working Together...

...something that has just been impossible for Capital Area Humane Society and Franklin County Dog Shelter. This "cold war" has been to the detriment of rescue efforts in Central Ohio for the past 5 years.

Now both are coming under public scrutiny, each at opposite ends of the spectrum. Strangely, Franklin County is in trouble for trying to do too much and Capital Area Humane Society- well, you know.

Lets address the Franklin County problem briefly- the rescue community, in general, loves FCAS. Lisa Wahoff is a great person and has transformed Franklin County Animal Control into a progressive, grant-seeking (and using!) pro-active humane organization. Her staff is out in the community helping catch dogs, reuniting dogs with their owners, distributing literature on the importance of spay/neuter and behavior training. On her watch, Friends of the Shelter was formed- an independent non-profit organization that exists for the purpose of raising money to provide medical care that the county couldn't pay for, start a spay/neuter program, and do humane education to help people keep their dogs in their homes. She works closely with dozens of rescue groups to get animals off death row at the county and into other organizations for a second chance at life- not to mention her offering of shelter facilities for Mingle with our Mutts- thereby helping dogs to which she has absolutely no obligation.

In short, Lisa Wahoff has been a solution oriented shelter director and it has resulted in good will from not only the rescue community in Franklin County, but the public in general. It has also helped Mary Jo Kilroy get re-elected to the Franklin County Board of Commissioners and elected to the United States House of Representatives. Why do you think she put a "Pets for Kilroy!" board on her Kilroy for Congress website? Because she wanted to tap into the good will Lisa created in the community by doing the right thing for the shelter dogs. If there's one thing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can all get behind, it's helping down-on-their-luck dogs get a second chance.
It is unfortunate that Lisa Wahoff has made some poor choices that has overshadowed so much of her good work. Most of what the Columbus Disgrace continues to report on is nothing more than Page 6 gossip- where we believe Wahoff really did herself in was alienating the Ohio State University School of Veterinary Medicine.

Gotta follow veterinary advice, rescuers- no ifs, ands, or buts. No matter how much you think you know about the medical issues with an animal, you have no right to disregard the medical opinion of a veterinarian.

Now that that is out of the way, let's talk about Capital and Franklin's cold war. Franklin County worked with lots of rescue groups which is great. The one that they should have first and foremost had a good- no, GREAT- relationship with is the Capital Area Humane Society. Of course, we understand why they didn't- in fact, even when Capital did take dogs from Franklin County in a show of good will, 90% of the dogs would end up back at FCAS within a few weeks because of this problem or that. After a while Lisa understandably stopped wasting her time with Jodi. Even so, Lisa still should have made a collaboration with Capital her top priority if she wanted to make changes in the dogs lives over at the county. If Jodi continued to find excuses for why not, Lisa should have continued to press the issue, publicly if necessary. Capital was taking dogs anyway from Perry County, Union County, Madison County, and everywhere around the state just to get attention. (Even though she told everybody she wanted to focus on Franklin County first- it was hilarious- a complete contradiction to her actual actions) But why on earth would you want to combine forces?

Let's look at San Francisco who did it. Yes, tons of money from Maddies Fund, community support from a rich city that also probably has spay/neuter ordinances that are actually enforced. But does anybody think that kind of situation fell from the sky?

In 1994 the city's largest humane society, the San Francisco SPCA, and the city's animal control facility, the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control signed an agreement stating that they would work together to GUARANTEEING that no adoptable dog or cat in San Francisco would be euthanized. It wasn't until 4 years later that San Francisco actually opened their amazing, cage-free adoption center funded by Maddies. Since a central "animal rescue center" developed, dollars and resources weren't wasted on both groups trying to work independently. The county, an -open admission shelter, had a commitment from the SPCA to be the primary source from which they would pull animals. 85% of animals at the massive, gorgeous SPCA adoption center in San Diego started out at animal control. When there is a problem with another geographical area or puppy mill or something, the SFSPCA will help in those circumstances, but it never comprimises the amount of animals that are pulled from animal control. It also lends it's facilities to smaller groups for meetings, functions, training, humane education, ect... but it has a requirement that 50% of the animals in the group are pulled from animal control. This requirement of course is relaxed with breed-specific rescues.

Back in Columbus, both Franklin County and Capital Area continue to get funding for a lot of the same programs that they implemented independently of each other. (Yes, Franklin County even has a coloring book, but I doubt they spent 30 grand developing theirs) And when it comes to something like, for example, a spay/neuter clinic, something that both shelters run, you have to get the supplies, recruit veterinarians, hire/schedule support staff, take appointments- the point is that it takes a LOT of resources to get it going and maintain. How about both shelters run one program, even if surgeries are still taking place at both shelters. ONE phone number for the public to call, ONE non-profit applying for the subsidy grant, ONE organization utilizing all the resources- you save money and streamline efforts for measurable results!

This sort of mentality could apply to MANY aspects of sheltering- how about adoptions? All the animals at both Capital and Franklin are loaded into the database for the Meet Your Match program. So if someone goes into CAHS and doesn't find a match in the 19 dogs that are for adoption right now. (Hey, we're just going off the Capital Area website!) maybe they can "Meet Their Match" with one of the HUNDREDS available at the county.

By the way, why are there only 19 dogs for adoption with Capital? And 5 of them are the same, hard-to-place breed?But I digress.

This blog post has gone on long enough, and we're sure you get the point. More solutions in blogs to come. Why should we look to other cities as models for what we should do here in Central Ohio? BECAUSE THEY'RE ACTUALLY FINDING ANSWERS AND SAVING LIVES. YES JODI-SAVING LIVES IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING.

Check out the San Francisco SPCA at http://www.sfspca.org/

Capital Area a Victim?

SO we've been getting lately some whining on the comment boards about how we don't understand how many animals come through their doors and how AGAIN they're blaming the public for the problem.

Those people should go back and study up on the main website. WHERE is the missing grant money? If you have so many animals coming through your doors, don't you think you should put the money that you recieved to good use... and fast? You got a huge grant for Meet Your Match... but where is it?? Why did you take 30,000 dollars from the Columbus Foundation and put it into... COLORING BOOKS??

WHY do you continue to alienate volunteers? If you have so many animals coming through your doors, don't you think that you would want all the helping hands that you could get? You now have to use a PRISON PROGAM to care for the animals... how much care do you think they are actually giving? Many other shelters use inmate programs in their facility, but only for doing things like yard cleanup, painting, deep cleaning... not day-to-day care of the animals! If you needed/wanted free labor to clean cages you should have kept your volunteers! THAT IS ONE OF THE BASIC RULES OF SHELTER MANAGEMENT. What exactly were your qualifications before you took this job Jodi??

JODI- Nobody disputes that the public is at fault when they let their pet have a litter, turn them in to the shelter when they move or develop a behavior problem. WHAT WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH is that you REFUSE to fix what is wrong with YOUR SHELTER and HIDE behind that EXCUSE to take ZERO action on behalf of the animals.

WHY DOES THE VENTILATION REMAIN BROKEN?
WHY WAS ADVOCAT MONEY RESTRICTED TO ONE CAT PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR? (Especially if there is such a HUGE problem with the public!)
WHY AREN'T VOLUNTEERS AND RESCUERS ALLOWED TO PULL ANIMALS FROM DEATH ROW?
WHY DOES THE HEATING SYSTEM IN INTAKE REMAIN OFF/BROKEN?
WHERE IS ALL THE MISSING GRANT MONEY?
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY EMPTY CAGES ON THE ADOPTION FLOOR?

Jodi- you can whine and whine but we are SICK OF IT- If you CAN'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE with the grant money and resources you are given then DON'T TAKE THEM! IF YOU CAN'T DO WHAT CAPITAL HIRED YOU TO DO THEN YOU SHOULD RESIGN!

$30,000 TO MAKE COLORING BOOKS? HOW MANY CATS AND DOGS DO YOU THINK COULD BE SPAYED/NEUTERED WITH $30,000?

Next blog: what's happening around the country? We've been doing some traveling and guess what? So many shelters have found the key. One shelter we visited pulled 40 cats from it's Animal Control Facility because it had so many adoptions the past weekend. I guess they decided to find solutions instead of just WHINING.

Volunteers- who needs 'em, right Capital?

We have been hearing from former and current volunteers at Capital all over this blog. If expanding your donor base is your first priority as a non-profit, then keeping educated, and trained volunteers is a close second. What can be more valuable to your organization than people who work for free? And we're not talking just answering phones and envelope stuffing- in the shelter world we're talking about cleaning dog poop, washing dishes, scrubbing floors, dealing with smell... in short, not exactly the kind of work that people really want to do for free.

The trade off is that if you clean poop you will help save lives. That's why people do it for free. If they do it without taking pay, that's more money that will help the shelter save more lives, feed more bellies, get more veterinary care. Most volunteers who help out at the shelter also take home foster animals. Most volunteers also donate money, and network with people at their real jobs to get them to donate money. They also network at their real jobs to get animals at the shelter homes. Guess what else volunteers do? They train other volunteers so your network of FREEBIES has a ripple effect.

This is what is so fundamentally wrong with the top-heavy Capital Area Humane Society. How many volunteers have been lied to, shoved out of the shelter, told not to come back or denied saving a life? How much of that network is severed every single time Jodi or Rachel send a caring pair of hands packing? If there's one this this past Presidential election taught us, it's that thousands of hands make for an unprecedented effort- 5.00 and 10.00 donations, door knocking, and envelope stuffing helped Barack Obama win the Presidency. What if there was an organization that fostered such good will? A humane society that was listening to the community?

Jodi Lytle Buckman and her executive staff need to learn about grassroots movements and change. We hope to hold a welcome back party for all the alienated supporters the day after Jodi and her cronies clean out their desks- in her office!

Let's hear some commentary from former volunteers who were told to leave and why and what they provided for Capital. Submit them with your name or anonymously- we'll compile it into a letter and send it to the board... and the news!