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News April 2010
April 2010 - 50 Shelters Take the ASPCA $100K Challenge
Your response to the ASPCA $100K Challenge has been incredible. After just one week, we have a full roster of 50 organizations public and private, large and small, from every part of the country who are determined to engage their communities and save more lives! This is inspiring, and so is the leadership that many have demonstrated already, such as shelters opting not to compete against their neighbors but rather offering their support to help them succeed. 50 Challenge contestants! Their success is important to all of our organizations and the animals we serve. Together, their collective efforts will bring the plight of homeless animals to the attention of the public like never before and will provide clear opportunity for millions of caring Americans to take an active part in saving lives. Please join me in congratulating these organizations, and let’s look for every opportunity to support their efforts so that together we will all save more lives this year and in years to come. SPCA, Inc., Lakeland, FL I look forward to an exciting and inspiring Challenge.
Could You Use $100,000? Winning Strategies for Animal Lives Naked Data Shows Trends Can be Defied Can You Tell if a Cat is Socialized or Unsocialized? Take the Quiz! Could You Use $100,000?
To qualify, you'll have to save a minimum of 300 more cats, dogs, kittens, and puppies August through October of 2010 than you saved in 2009. Beyond that, the $100K winner will be the contestant that saves the most additional cats, dogs, kittens, and puppies August through October of 2010 over the same period in 2009. We've seen large, medium, and small shelters do amazing things for their animals and with their communities - the competitive advantage in this Challenge will come from strategy, determination, and engaging a ton of community support. Learn more about the ASPCA $100K Challenge, including details, rules, and how to register your shelter. Winning Strategies for Animal Lives
Don't miss these unique learning opportunities! Space is very limited, so see the full schedule and register today. Naked Data Shows Trends Can be Defied
On a monthly basis, shelters and spay/neuter clinics in the ASPCA Partnership program submit their data to the ASPCA. The Partnership currently has 9 active communities, plus we have access to similar data for NYC (vetted by the Mayor's Alliance) - giving us 10 communities around the country for which we have accurate, vetted, NAKED data. The 2009 data shows:
This is powerful and exciting news - if the national reports we have been hearing are accurate, ASPCA Partnership communities are bucking a national trend. Partners are successfully decreasing intake and increasing adoptions. The energy in these communities is focused on live release rate (total live releases/intake) which increases quickest when intake decreases while live releases increase. In these communities, animal control, humane societies, and S/N clinics are partnering with the ASPCA to work together to effect this LRR change, and - as the data shows - this focus is making a huge difference. Is intake up at your shelter? Adoptions down? Don't despair - we have programs and processes to help you turn the tides! Can You Tell if a Cat is Socialized or Unsocialized? Take the Quiz!
Shelters grapple with this question all the time but there is a lack of research to guide their decisions. The ASPCA's "Behaviors that Distinguish Unsocialized from Socialized Cats" research study hopes to help cat caregivers more accurately discern truly unsocialized cats (who would benefit from Trap-Neuter-Return services) from frightened but socialized pet cats (who are likely to relax and show their house-pet qualities if given time to settle in). A recent three-day pilot study at the Humane Alliance Clinic in Asheville, NC, observed 29 cats whose histories and behavior in familiar surroundings were well-known. Next the study will expand to a large sample of cats over six months. Findings will be announced on aspcapro.org. Do you think you can tell the difference between unsocialized and socialized cats? Take this quiz. April 2010 — A Special Invitation from ASPCA’s PresidentDear Colleagues,
We will award more than $125,000 in prizes, including a grand prize grant of $100,000 for the shelter that increases lives saved the most from August 1st to October 31st in 2010 over the same time frame last year. Unique from our other grants that fund specific programs, the ASPCA $100K Challenge is a competition to inspire creative solutions for increasing pet adoptions and improving return-to-owner rates. The Challenge will spark innovation and draw more community support to help shelters help animals. To learn more about the Challenge, visit our website at www.aspcapro.org/challenge. When many of us started in this field, ending animal homelessness seemed like an impossible challenge, but last year — in spite of the worst economy in decades — our shelter, seven of our partner communities and many of you still increased adoptions and saved more lives than the year before. This year we can get more community members involved. We can increase adoptions and return-to-owner rates. We can save more lives than last year. That is our current — and surmountable — challenge. Please visit our website for Challenge details, and learn how you can win for the animals at www.aspcapro.org/challenge.
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