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!
4 comments:
I walked through the place a few weeks ago. I walked into one cat room. There were 9 cages on 4 sides...that makes 36 cages that could have cats in them so they have a chance to find a home.
Here's what I found...FIVE cats...that's it. If I added in the FOUR cages with surgery tags saying they were in surgery that day, that would account for a total of NINE cages "occupied". That only fills up ONE side...leaving 3/4 of the cages empty during public visiting hours. You can bet that the cats that should have been in those other cages were in the back room in black trash bags.
My brain is continuing to have difficulty wrapping itself around the concept of a "humane" society with this many empty cages, such a horrific way of slaughtering everything in the back room (stomach sticks - 1/2 hour of a slow agonizing death)...and 3 million...THREE MILLION DOLLARS in donations a year. At this point, with that kind of support in donations, you could take someone who knows NOTHING about rescue and adoptions...put them in control...and I'd put MY money on the fact that even with a roll of the dice, blind-folded...better adoptions could be performed.
Bottom line...as I point out in my anonymous post to the Dispatch posting...management has to be replaced, volunteers have to be welcomed back (and without the Hitler tactics currently in place with forcing signed agreements that they aren't allowed to challenge the death of the animals)...and "no kill" has GOT to be the tag line...then, and ONLY then will Columbus have a private shelter we can be proud of. If we change this to "No Kill" and welcome the FREE help of volunteers who love these animals...I guarantee you...there will be a waiting line for people to help....
Take the PR machine of CAHS, switch out the people...and change the tune...we can make national news for the right reasons and like the people out west...set the example of how it should be done...you know what? I have minimal experience with rescue, but I know I could do better. The signs telling people to keep animals off of the grass...GONE. The forced agreements for volunteers with the Hitler tactics...GONE. NEEDLE STICKS IN THE STOMACHS OF THESE POOR ANIMAL....GONE, GONE, GONE!!! Pristine, sanitized, animal-free front offices...GONE. I want to see a cat on every desk...a dog nearby in every area with volunteers there to hug and kiss them...again...setting the example. The animals come first. And if I were the head of this place...I would be in the back EVERY DAY SCOOPING and spending time with the animals...and that 85% kill rate...well, that would immediately be a thing of the past. This is not rocket science, but the players have got to change. You put $120K in MY pocket and I'll show you how it's done...Jodi, get into another line of work. This is not your calling.
-Dayna
I would be embarassed with such a small percentage of adoptions! I can't believe that the public, volunteers and staff think this is ok. I can't imagine how these people sleep at night ...especially the Board of Directors that allows this to continue. Shame on you Jodi Buckman for using donations given to help the animals live when you are using it for euthanisia!
What do empty cat kennels have to do with dogs???? Showing empty cat kennels and suggesting they be filled with dogs is a little creepy. Gee, it would never figure that people who adopt actually pick up their animals leaving an empty kennel behind, which I know to be true of at least two of the dog enclosures. How many more cats have you saved???? You don't think a 5% increase in cat adoptions is important? Do the math.... we're talking several hundred more cats adopted.
How many cats do you kill that can be put in those adoption cages? Sorry if we weren't clear enough that Capital kills cats while cages sit empty on the adoption floor. We'll try to make it more clear to everyone.
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